Reviews of Nyamatusi Camp

"Travel intention: 9th trip to africa, looking for unique safari experience throughout Africa in a comfortable to luxurious Setting

Facilities: Completely new and extremely luxurious. The rooms are superb with every convenience available, some of these conveniences are very welcome (small personal plunge pool at every tent, very spacious, fridge with cold water or other beverages). Some others might lead to a hot debate among safari goes whether this is overdone and really necessary for a bush camp (wine cellar, small air condition not for the whole room but only over bed at night time). Great and thoughtful decoration, very stylish. As tents are placed in a vast area with quite distance from each other, you are supposed to not walk around but call the guide by radio to pick you up by car when going to another tent or the main area. This is a bit complicated but understable as the chance of actually meeting both lions and leopards within the vast camp area is quite high (we saw lions just outside the camp and a leopard within the camp at night).

Service: Due to our personal experiences, I am sorry to delibaretely rate this category with „poor“. First of all, the service of the general staff was friendly, but fell short of the attention of detail shown in comparable camps. Just to name examples, waiters forgot orders, did not know what was served during dinner when asked or the desert served was different from the one on the menu card. These are just examples demonstrating that the workflows behind the scenes were not handled as smoothly as we had experienced in two other camps of African Bush camps immediately before. As the camp was opened 6 months earlier, we are optimistic that with a bit of time and experience of the staff, things will go more smoothly and this was overall no severe problem.
A serious drawback, however, was the camp manager (Russell). Specifically, our journey fell in the time of a South African Airways (SAA) strike with a number of cancelled SA flights and we and other guests were uncertain about the flight status of our flights back (Harare to Johannesburg with SAA, from there on connection flight with other companies). Due to a lack of cell phone connection or WIFI at the camp, guests were unable to access information themselves. Despite our repeated request, Russell did not contact SAA to check for our flight status and we were put off with vague or untrue statements (“everything will be fine” or “just go to the airport and find out”). Our explicit request to contact Expert Africa to seek for help/information was also bluntly ignored. In the end, we ended up in the main office with an unstable internet connection ourselves booking additional new Harare to Johannesburg flights with another flight company just in case. In the end, when arriving in Harare, this was the right decision, as our SA flight was indeed cancelled and we could take our alternative connection, therefore reaching our connection flight in Johannesburg. Another couple travelling in parallel, trusting Russells statements, did not book alternative flights and got stranded in Harare missing their connection flight in Joburg. Overall, I would like to share the feeling that the whole situation was managed poorly and not in a professional manner.

Experience: We combined Zambezi Expeditions and Nyamatusi during our trip in Mana Pools, which proofed an excellent decision. Nyamatusi is the very eastern last camp having been built in the camp and both landscape and animals did not feel redundant but very different, so that our game drive experiences in Zambezi Expeditions and Nyamatusi were quite distinct. Nyamatusi is translated as „lions land“ which is completely due as this is an area oft he park with a high big cat concentration (which we experienced as well). Furthermore, the landscape changes from the very open plain views observed in the more western camps to lots of reed bets with high grasses and shrubs. Specific sightings: Hyaneas at a fresh dead elephant, repeated leopard sightings, python, as well as excellent birding (including rare gems on my bucket list such as crested guineafowl and double-banded sandgrouse). Most noteably, one morning after breakfast, instead of starting our usual game drive, we started walking and approached a lion pack with a fresh buffalo kill still eating just a few hundred meters from our camp.

Overall: A very luxurious (for some looking for classical bush feeling: too luxurious) camp, located in a great corner of Mana Pools with high chances for big cat experiences. Service did not live up to its full potential, but will hopefully improve over time (possibly under a different camp management)" See all these reviews: 9n in Zimbabwe

"This large camp is strung along a long section of the Zambezi. We were l.ucky to fin it early and missed the large number of guests possible in the 12 huts and 2 large luxury communal lodges. Probably more luxurious that we would prefer (wine cellar, piozza oven adn several bars and lounge areas." See all these reviews: 6n in Zambia; 4n in Zimbabwe; 1n in South Africa