Jean-Pic B
Google
A well-named lodge. I'm French. Deception, in French, means disappointment.||||The accommodations are good, a little showy, but nice. The wood, leather and copper decoration make you feel a century back (Doctor Livingstone, I presume?). The rooms are outstanding. The personnel is fine. If you just want to stay in the hotel, you'll be fine.||||Problem is tours.||||Their main guide is - well, not good.||||Too bossy, and, well, downright rude : yep, diner with all the guests, and the guide and his aide spent the whole diner talking to each other, in their own language nobody could understand. Both nights we were there. What am I, furniture ? Rude, no other term.||||Tours : well, for that price, I don't expect to be 8 tourists in one land rover (max possible capacity). Which means you get to see the wildlife, framed by the heads of the two tourists sitting in front of you. And if the lion is on the other side of the car, well, you'll have to rely on hearsay. Damn, for the price we're paying, they could take out two cars. Three abreast looks like coach class in a very busy airplane, when you're seated in the middle of the middle row. After the first tour, I made a request for a second car. Well, I'm just a paying customer, that obviously gives me no say in the matter.||||What most turned me off : he did the two things all our other guides told us they would NEVER do. Reminder, this is not DisneyWorld, the animals live there, you don't. We want to keep disruption at a minimal. So there is two things a decent guide would NEVER do :||- if the animals (whomever they would be) look uncomfortable with your presence and move away, YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THEM. EVER.||- you do not make animal sounds to attract their attention, for a better photo shoot. If they want to look at you, you're lucky, if they don't, well, you'll just have to do with a bum shot. You get the pictures they will give you. We're intruders. Try to make your presence as little perturbation as possible.||||Yep, you get my drift. Those rules don't apply in Deception Lodge.||||In short, the most expensive stay of our two week trek. And, by far, the most disappointing one. There are much better ways to spend much less money.