Travel reviews by SteveL from Hinckley
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
1
Lodges stayed in
5
Excursions taken
0
Our June 2025 trip to Zambia.
Zambia between 3 Jun 2025 and 17 Jun 2025
"This was a return to South Luangwa after ten years, but our first time in the Robin Pope camps. We can 100% recommend them and their staff. There may be more luxurious camps, but I doubt that you could get better service and guiding anywhere.
Safari drives are often a combination of quite long periods of "nothing special" (you can only get really excited at seeing an impala for the first hundred or so times) with occasional moments of wildlife magic ... and we were lucky enough to experience some of those moments - and not just on the game drives.
To mention a few (in no particular order): the elephant who visited us at lunch at Nkwali camp: he chomped his way through the swamp by the swimming pool for about an hour and then wandered back and forth past our tents (4 or 5 metres away?).
- A leopard unsuccessfully stalking her prey ... guinea fowl!
- The two lionesses who wandered into and back out of camp at Nsefu just across from where we were having dinner - we'd seen them with two cubs earlier.
- The leopard cub we (just our car) spent an hour with as dusk fell at Nkwali.
- Wild Dogs at River Camp, even if this wasn't a great sighting - they were very idle and it was just before sunset.
- The (very full) hippo pool we visited for sundowners - glorious scenery as well as that most African of sounds."
Safari drives are often a combination of quite long periods of "nothing special" (you can only get really excited at seeing an impala for the first hundred or so times) with occasional moments of wildlife magic ... and we were lucky enough to experience some of those moments - and not just on the game drives.
To mention a few (in no particular order): the elephant who visited us at lunch at Nkwali camp: he chomped his way through the swamp by the swimming pool for about an hour and then wandered back and forth past our tents (4 or 5 metres away?).
- A leopard unsuccessfully stalking her prey ... guinea fowl!
- The two lionesses who wandered into and back out of camp at Nsefu just across from where we were having dinner - we'd seen them with two cubs earlier.
- The leopard cub we (just our car) spent an hour with as dusk fell at Nkwali.
- Wild Dogs at River Camp, even if this wasn't a great sighting - they were very idle and it was just before sunset.
- The (very full) hippo pool we visited for sundowners - glorious scenery as well as that most African of sounds."
Arranged By Amanda Bond
Latitude 15
"Latitude 15 review"
1 night
Arrived
4 Jun 2025
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good
Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Luangwa River Camp
"Luangwa River Camp review"
2 nights
Arrived
5 Jun 2025
"Overall ... very much enjoyed being there. We liked the intimacy of a small camp whereat you can get to know your fellow guests and the staff more easily than in a large lodge.
Staff were excellent - host Sorel and our guide Daniel especially, but in truth all the staff looked after us really well. (This applies throughout the 3 Robin Pope camps we stayed at). One minor point for us (and we appreciate others may not think the same) ... we returned from the evening drives after 7.30 both days, making it a rush to shower before dinner.
We know that drives in the dark can be exciting, but more often than not you don't see much, so an hour and a half at the end of a long day is too much for us. (Having said that, we did see at least 3 Genets, a large herd of giraffes and hyena on the first night)"
Staff were excellent - host Sorel and our guide Daniel especially, but in truth all the staff looked after us really well. (This applies throughout the 3 Robin Pope camps we stayed at). One minor point for us (and we appreciate others may not think the same) ... we returned from the evening drives after 7.30 both days, making it a rush to shower before dinner.
We know that drives in the dark can be exciting, but more often than not you don't see much, so an hour and a half at the end of a long day is too much for us. (Having said that, we did see at least 3 Genets, a large herd of giraffes and hyena on the first night)"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Good
Sightings report
Buffalo
2 sightings
Elephant
3 sightings
Giraffe
2 sightings
Hippo
10+ sightings
Leopard
3 sightings
Lion
1 sighting
Spotted Hyena
3 sightings
Wild dog
1 sighting
Zebra
10+ sightings
Nkwali
"Nkwali review"
2 nights
Arrived
7 Jun 2025
"As a camp, probably our favourite of the three, although not for any specific, identifiable reason. Host Kiki and guide Chizi excellent - Chizi had wonderful enthusiasm as well as the requisite knowledge and driving skills. He also appreciated that "just driving around" isn't necessarily the best option: when we found a leopard cub on his own, rather than take a few photos and then leave, we stayed with him for about an hour until the light went. We were the only ones there - magical.
Some people may be disconcerted by the openness of the tents, but we were given strict instructions about (not) leaving food, etc. around and the screen at the front seemed to do its job at night.
Re animal sightings below: one of the buffalo sightings involved a herd probably 200+ in number!"
Some people may be disconcerted by the openness of the tents, but we were given strict instructions about (not) leaving food, etc. around and the screen at the front seemed to do its job at night.
Re animal sightings below: one of the buffalo sightings involved a herd probably 200+ in number!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Sightings report
Buffalo
2 sightings
Elephant
10+ sightings
Giraffe
3 sightings
Hippo
10+ sightings
Leopard
3 sightings
Lion
3 sightings
Spotted Hyena
1 sighting
Nsefu
"Nsefu review"
4 nights
Arrived
9 Jun 2025
"The camp had the best situation of the three overlooking the river, highlighted at lunch when we were treated to an ele family crossing the river very nearby. At breakfast each morning the hippo would be grazing not many metres away as they slowly mooched back to the water - a unique experience for us. The hide is also a useful addition.
We were hosted and guided by Daudi, a very experienced man who clearly loved his work. He was just as excited as us when he saw a very young leopard cub with its mum for the first time. Again, we were the only car to hang around and see what happened, eventually being rewarded with mum encouraging the cub out into the open.
It is true that the rooms are small by the standards that camps of this quality usually offer, but we understand the historical significance of the camp (and therefore why they are as they are) and at least the bathroom areas are very good.
Sitting on the veranda watching the Vervets playing on the dining table after lunch was much better than being in the room, anyway!"
We were hosted and guided by Daudi, a very experienced man who clearly loved his work. He was just as excited as us when he saw a very young leopard cub with its mum for the first time. Again, we were the only car to hang around and see what happened, eventually being rewarded with mum encouraging the cub out into the open.
It is true that the rooms are small by the standards that camps of this quality usually offer, but we understand the historical significance of the camp (and therefore why they are as they are) and at least the bathroom areas are very good.
Sitting on the veranda watching the Vervets playing on the dining table after lunch was much better than being in the room, anyway!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Good
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Sightings report
Buffalo
3 sightings
Elephant
10+ sightings
Giraffe
10+ sightings
Hippo
10+ sightings
Leopard
3 sightings
Lion
2 sightings
Spotted Hyena
2 sightings
Zebra
2 sightings
Avani Victoria Falls
"Avani Victoria Falls review"
3 nights
Arrived
13 Jun 2025
"We chose the Avani for its convenience regarding access to the falls - and in that regard it couldn't be bettered. It was, of course, a very different experience to being in a safari camp with just a few other guests, but as a "corporate" hotel it offered an efficient, friendly service.
Rooms were reasonably spacious giving all that was required. One downside: the only restaurant open for lunch or dinner was the poolside one - the "main" one only being used at breakfast and the speciality BBQ one closed until the day we left. One Zambian resident I met described the food as "not great": it isn't, but breakfast is fine, the pizzas are good and there is a reasonable choice.
Having a variety of wildlife freely wandering about was enjoyable (although the giraffes were hiding).
One very useful service was the free shuttle to and from the Royal Livingstone hotel - we used this one evening for dinner. The service didn't seemed to be advertised, however and we only discovered it by (fortuitous) accident. Overall, a very pleasant way to spend a few days recovering from the rigours of safari with the amazing sight of Vic Falls as a bonus."
Rooms were reasonably spacious giving all that was required. One downside: the only restaurant open for lunch or dinner was the poolside one - the "main" one only being used at breakfast and the speciality BBQ one closed until the day we left. One Zambian resident I met described the food as "not great": it isn't, but breakfast is fine, the pizzas are good and there is a reasonable choice.
Having a variety of wildlife freely wandering about was enjoyable (although the giraffes were hiding).
One very useful service was the free shuttle to and from the Royal Livingstone hotel - we used this one evening for dinner. The service didn't seemed to be advertised, however and we only discovered it by (fortuitous) accident. Overall, a very pleasant way to spend a few days recovering from the rigours of safari with the amazing sight of Vic Falls as a bonus."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good
Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Average
Sightings report
Zebra
10+ sightings
The following morning they were at the hotel 30 mins early! Anyway, Latitude 15 gave us just what was needed after a 24 (ish) hr journey.
The room was spacious (and available for us on arrival), the bed comfy and the shower worked. Food was good.
One downside ... the air con unit was very noisy, but we didn't need it, so turned it off."