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Traveller reviews

Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs W from Berkshire

Review Distribution

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Total number of trips

2

Countries visited

2

Lodges stayed in

7

Excursions taken

0

Our May 2013 Namibia holiday

Namibia between 9 May 2013 and 27 May 2013

Trip rating: Excellent
"Outstanding."

Olive Exclusive

Olive Exclusive

"Olive Exclusive review"

2 nights Arrived 9 May 2013
"A good place to start"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Fish River Lodge

Fish River Lodge

"Fish River Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 11 May 2013
"Very pleasant and helpful staff in a location that was spectacular"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Average
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Sossusvlei Desert Lodge

Sossusvlei Desert Lodge

"Sossusvlei Desert Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 13 May 2013
"A truly luxurious lodge in a setting which seemed quite out of this world. Two nights was not enough.

Siegfried, our guide was first class."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Camp Kipwe

Camp Kipwe

"Camp Kipwe review"

2 nights Arrived 15 May 2013
"A very imaginative lodge in a quirky location. Our guide, Taffy, was excellent. However, there was no apparent effective management and it showed. We arrive mid afternoon and were offered no lunch. We were then asked to pay for the lunch we had prior to departure. We declined. (This was tried first, on Mr Kelly and then on me!) Management improvement is definitely needed here.

Food was OK, save for our last evening meal, which was specially laid on in the boma and was delicious. The kudu steak was the best meat we had in the whole of our trip, including in Cape Town."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Average
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Good
Food
Average
Facilities
Average
Ongava Lodge

Ongava Lodge

"Ongava Lodge review"

3 nights Arrived 17 May 2013
"Outstanding setting with lots of animals. Good rooms but in need of updating. The same applies to the main building. It is 20 years old and feels it, something we discussed with our excellent hosts, Jonathan and Sylvia.

Food was average and not to the standard a lodge of this class should provide. It was also variable in quality.

The staff were very good, particularly Abram who was our guide and went out of his way to look after us."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Excellent
Food
Average
Rooms
Good
Activities
Excellent

Our SA trip

Zambia between 30 Apr 2009 and 11 May 2009

Trip rating: Excellent
"Our Expert Africa leg was part of a longer trip and the above comment related to the whole hoiday."

Arranged By Lucy Copson


Royal Livingstone Hotel

Royal Livingstone Hotel

"Royal Livingstone - our views"

3 nights Arrived 30 Apr 2009
"The hotel is in an amazing position and looks wonderful and rooms are good. Sadly, the standard of service does not match its appearance and is definitely not 5 star. The staff are either poorly trained or just indifferent. bags took THREE hours to get to our rooms and had to be chased three times.

Meals were painfully slow - 45 minutes between starter and maincourse on one occasion. Wines are outrageously overpriced. When have you ever had cocktails in the bar and been told there are no nibbles to go with them; nuts or crisps?

The sundowner cruise organised by the hotel was lovely to see but the hospitality on the boat was poor - a few nuts on paper plates and no wine included. We felt it was something of a rip-off. On the other hand, the helicopter trip was magical.

We found on our trip to the airport that we were not alone in these views."
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average

Location
Excellent
Service
Poor
Activities
Average
Rooms
Good
Food
Average
Facilities
Good
Image alt

Marlin Lodge, Mozambique (this camp has since closed)

"Marlin Lodge stay"

6 nights Arrived 5 May 2009
"Difficult to answer this. The experience was very good but, viewed objectively, the Lodge does not really live up to its promotional image. You describe the chalets as luxury; they are not, in comparison with what we have experienced in, for example, Bali. It is quite rustic; rooms are nicely appointed but do not really feel luxurious. We had to ask for our bedlinen to be changed after several nights!

The food is unimaginative and we were disappointed that the fish, which we were looking forward to, tended to be game, i.e. tuna type fish, rather heavy. It was also oversauced to our taste. On the other hand, wine was good and fairly priced (in comparison with the Royal Livingston earlier in our trip.) The staff, however, were very nice - willing , agreeable and competant.

Activities are good but lean heavily to active water sports. A gentle cruise along the coast in a low-powered boat, not a high powered cat, would have been welcome. If you can't snorkel, you don't see fishes. A glass-bottom boat would enable that. Also, several of the cats had no sun protection and some of the guests appeared after a trip on one to have been affected by too much heat.

We were, however, very impressed with the Marlin Lodge lounge at the airport when we left - a very well appointed facility and a nice touch.

All in all, when you look at the cost of the stay, it was perhaps expensive for what we experienced. Perhpas we are just a bit too old and well-travelled for this sort of holiday."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Activities
Average
Rooms
Average
Food
Average
Facilities
Good

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