Reviews of Camp Hwange
(96%) From 70 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Wonderful Camp with great atmosphere
We really enjoyed Camp Hwange.
It was excellent in all aspects, particularly. the game drives.
Fantastic Safari at Camp Hwange
This was our second stay at Camp Hwange. This time we stayed 8 nights. Well where to start. The transfers where seamless as usual, drinks where offered on the way to the camp. It is a 31/2 to 4 hour transfer fro Vic falls, yes you go thought an open mine, but they have put in a road that takes you round the outside not through anymore. Once at the gate into the park you are met by one the the learner guides from the camp. Once you go through the gate your safari starts.
The welcome at camp was lovely as always, staff to meet you and a drink. Once shown to your room where your bags are all ready you are shown everything in the room. We then went back to the main bit of camp for lunch. The great thing about this camp is that you all eat together round a big table with the guides and other guests.
In the morning you are woken at 5.30 with hot water in a flask for a cup of tea or coffee you then make your way to the main area of camp when it light enough to leave your room which is about 6.00, you have breakfast and then go out on your morning game drive. You get back from the morning game drive in time for lunch. After lunch you have a couple of hours to yourself before afternoon tea and afternoon game drive. Your evening game drive involves sun downers of course, then a night drive back to the camp for dinner. You can go on walking safari's but we chose not to.
The food was brilliant as always and nothing is to much trouble. The staff are all very friendly and look after you. Our guide Washington was fantastic and his knowledge of the bush is second to none. Adam was great as well. Kim looked after any of our needs very well. Zimbabwean guides are the best I known.
This camp is one of the best we have stayed at, the think that we liked about it is that you are away from most of the main camps in Hwange so don't see many other vehicles do must of the time you have the animals to yourselves. This was our second time here and we will go back again.
Superb staff
Pros: This is an excellent camp in the north of Hwange with absolutely amazing staff. We were most fortunate to have Spike as our guide, although he usually works at the sister bush camp. We have been on many safaris and Spike has been the most knowledgeable guide we have ever had. Kim the manager of the camp is extremely efficient and professional, as well as enjoyable to talk to and kind.
Cons: June is very cold and even with the hot water bottles and blankets provided, it is still cold at night and very cold getting dressed in the morning. Although the camp tries hard e.g. warm ponchos and blankets in the jeep, our very early drive out of the park in order to be picked up for transportation to Victoria Falls, was long and freezing. Ensure that you have a warm hat, many layers including a down jacket, and a face mask.
Tented camp
tented rooms were clean and had a nice outlook onto a water hole. Main lodge had a campfire around which we gathered each evening prior to dinner and which was lit in the morning if you wished to warm up. The mornings were quite chilly so definitely needed my down vest for game drives. Loved the hot water bottles which were put in our beds each night.
Try to go when the French investors are not in camp--they tend to take over while there and it flavours the whole experience. Two of them smoked while we were there and I saw one of them simply drop his cigarette and grind it out in the sand in front of the lodge.
We had a very bad experience with a trainee guide which Julian dealt with and which I won't go into details here. Julian is a superb Zimbabwean trained guide with a wealth of knowledge. His story telling is magical as he talks about the lions Lots of good walking here, but is always preceded by a drive to get to a walking location.
Camp Hwange review
We were quite early in the season(May) so wildlife wasn't as plentiful as we hoped, but the camp did a nice job overall.
Our guide Nigel was exceptional and contributed to us having one game drive that was just great, we saw everything from Cape Buffalo running to being surrounded by six lions.
Beautiful camp with great view
Camp Hwange is a beautiful camp. I like the view of wide plain and waterhole with an elephant from my room.
Food was excellent, I think one of the best food experience I have ever had at the camps in Africa.
Julian, who has wealth of knowledge, was my guide throughout my stay and I really enjoyed walking. It was an exciting moment facing an elephant. We happened to find Bat-eared fox while walking. And walking up to buffaloes was another exciting moent as well.
All of camp staff are very friendly and helpful.
Camp Hwange
Our experience at Camp Hwange was phenomenal! The guest rooms are simple yet elegant, and completely met our needs. The setting is peaceful and a perfect escape from the bustle of everyday life, where we were serenaded to sleep by the grunts of hippos.
The staff were thoughtful, professional and approachable, and anticipated all our needs. The guides, in particular, were second to none. The information they provided and the efforts they made were truly the highlight of our trip.
The food was also fantastic, and without our even mentioning it, they noticed our preferences and made an effort to meet those.
Overall, I cannot praise Camp Hwange highly enough, and it will be our first choice should we make another trip to Zimbabwe.
rough & tumble, guiding not up to expectation
Unfortunately this lodge did not live up to expectation. I was guided by Julienne the former manager twice, then a trainee twice, before Spike.
Julienne I truly didn't feel was very committed to or interested in guiding. He picked me up at the gate, and only pointed out a small number of animals we happened to come across along the road. I discovered later that there was a lake and hide half way to the camp that we could have gone to to see a good variety of birds and animals. Upon arrival I was given the closest room to the public area which could result in me hearing all the laughters and conversations in the dining room late at night when I want to go to bed early with my jetlag. I requested a move further away, and was told by him that I had requested the room closest to the dining area for mobility reasons. I never made such a request, and why would anyone come to a camp renowed for walking safaris if they can't walk from their room to the public area?
Expert Africa passed all the room requests to me to check, and the requests we ever made were for the quietest room possible, or the room with the best view for photography. He argued and argued about this non-existent request, and that all future guests coming were families and they want to keep them next to each other. I ended giving up and walked away. As it turned out the next guest was elderly and had mobility problems, and would have made such as request. So good the way they read their emails! As for keeping families together - all incoming guests were adults, and the cottages were spaced several meters apart. Do they expect guests to yell across that distance to have a family conversation? They did end up changing me to a different room but it wasn't a pleasant exchange. As for guiding, Julienne and the trainee Blyde (who is a nice bloke) drove up to the animals too fast, resulting in them running away. Their style of guiding was to drive up, tell you the name of the animal, give you a few moments to take photos, and then drive off to look for the next animal. As there had been alot of rain, game was very thin, and we spent alot more time driving around on bumpy roads than doing anything else. Blyde who was in training, was not in a position to give much information, but Julienne often truly seemed uninterested even when asked. I guesd it's no worse than guides I experienced in many other parts of Africa. But I was told the guides here were very knowledgeable and I was looking forward to much more.
I have read a review that some of their vehicles have seats (which are just old fashion benches) so high that nobody's feet could reach the floor. We made a request for the more comfortable type of vehicle as I have back problems. That didn't seem to be taken into account and I was given the back breaking vehicle. Even after using a tyre or a stool to raise the feet, after one and a half days my back flarred up very badly ( the worst in 20 years). I still wasn't offerred a different vehicle (they did have several vehicles), and given the disappointing safaris experience, I felt so depressed that I decided to give up the next 2 days of safaris, stay in my room to rest my back, and just go home to watch David Attenborough for a better experience. The next morning I went to breakfast when others are leaving for their safaris, and found Spike had a vehicle with proper seats same as the ones at the last lodge I stayed in.
I joined them at the last minute and found in Spike the most considerate person towards guests and animals. He is one of a small number of guides who truly knows how to approach animals, and particularly birds which require alot of care. With him I had good sightings and was able to get many good bird photos. He had a true love of nature and was ready to impart his extensive knowledge to guests at all times. Even with the late turnaround, I cannot recommend this camp as there is no guarantee that one would get Spike for their stay. I actually preferred guides from Namibia to most of the ones here. They were more communicative and approachable. I cannot comment on the quality of walking safaris here as there wasn't really much game around to attempt that.
And for the accomodation, this place was set up and run on a shoe string. Lighting is the dimmest in all lodges I've stayed in for this trip. They could have mounted the lights lower and it would have been brighter. There's no light in the bathroom whatsoever. Basically one has to use a torch throughout the cottage, and in the dining room to see what food is being displayed, and to eat. Expect Africa made a couple of food requests on my behalf. Some weren't brought in until I was half way thru my stay. Even then they were of such low quality (rotten) that some had to be thrown out and recooked.
This place, unlike most lodges, made no attempt to cover their food. Virtually everything was consumed by insects of all kinds, before by humans. They could see I was bothered by flies, and made attempts to use a fly net to cover my food. But what about other guests? Even with their attempts, I still found a dead fly in my food and dead ants in my honey. Since such issues seemed insignificant compared to other things I had to deal with, I just scooped them out and continued the eat the rest of the meal. If insects in your room and food bothers you, definitely don't consider this place.
Kim who looked after guests' daily needs made a genuine attempt to accomodate my dietery needs. But as was the case across Africa in general, only half the instructions were followed as they got passed down the chain.
The best thing about this lodge was their meat was the tastiest I 've ever had anywhere (even with no favoring).
In summary, I experienced the lowest standard in accommodation and vehicle comfort at this lodge. Another lodge with the same uncomfortable vehicle had built metal footrests across to fix the problem. Here you are expected to rough everything. For me, it just wasn't worth it.
Expert Africa comments
We’re sorry that this traveller didn’t enjoy Camp Hwange. We recommended it because of our experience of the high-quality guiding there, and their knowledge of birds, which she hoped to see and photograph.
We were very sorry and somewhat surprised that she didn’t gel with Julian, who we’ve known for many years. Julian was one of Camp Hwange’s first guides, and has guided our guests since around 2012 when the camp opened. He’s an experienced professional guide, having passed Africa’s toughest guiding exam some years ago.
We’d advised the camp this traveller had some back and ankle issuses, and so she was initially given the closest tent to the camp’s public area; the camp thought that a shorter walk between her room and the main area would be best. However, she was unhappy as she felt she might hear voices from the main area and once she explained this, the camp swiftly arranged a room further away.
Good camps like Camp Hwange can usually cater very well to most dietary requests, even requests that they haven’t come across before, if they are instructed in enough detail and the ingredients are available in-country. Amongst this traveller’s requests was a list of cooked vegetables which she could eat; a stipulation for wholwheat/wholegrain items – which excluded brown rice and brown bread; and a request for no salad.
We passed these on to all the places that she was visiting, including Camp Hwange, and later we asked her for more detail on the diet and its origins – so that we could give this to the camps to help them to understand her needs better. We received a relaxed response from the traveller, with little more detail, including: “Don't worry about the bread, I will just have whatever they can get for me.”
In hindsight, we should have followed this up and insisted upon a more comprehensive understaing of these requirements. We regret not pushing harder for more detailed, definitive dietary instructions as these could have helped the camps to better prepare for her.
Camp Hwange confirmed that they did speak with her in detail about the menu and meals prepared for her. However, it seemed to them that even when they thought that they had followed her instructions, she wasn’t happy with the resulting food. Whatever the root cause, we remain very sorry that her time at the camp, and her meals, didn’t live up to her expectations.
Overall this stay was part of a trip which this traveller commented ‘she wanted to forget’. To put it in it’s proper context, it’s important that readers also see this traveller's whole trip review.
Clearly Expert Africa must take some blame. One of our key tasks is to ensure that travellers' expectations are as close to reality as possible. On her return, this traveller noted that her expectations of her destinations were inappropriate – so clearly in this case we failed.
She commented that she "wasn't prepared for how backward Africans were” and that she’d found this trip to be "very taxing”. We’re very sorry that this was the outcome. As a company we would rather not organise a trip for someone to Africa than send them with the wrong expectations – but that seems to have been what happened here.
Camp Hwange review
This was an unbelievable experience for us.
It was OVER THE TOP.
