Melissa C
Google
Stayed here for 4 nights after a 7 night stay in Zimbabwe. The tent is comfortable, staff are friendly and always eager to help (Eg. arranging our private dinners), food is extremely delicious (thanks to the 2 talented chef who can cook a wide variety of international dishes). We especially like is the beef fillet and the stir fried noodles at the end of our stay! :)).
What didn’t work for us is the guiding experience/ game drives. It was as good as a “drive-through” the park, the guide didn’t seem to want to talk or engage with the group, no conversation on what we’re looking to experience for the drives , didn’t carry essential tools like binoculars, no shining of torch light or laser to point out animals - many times the animals were spotted by people in our vehicle), we had to ask to stop for photos (we’re reasonable and not asking to take photo of every bird) , we had only 2 sundowns on a 4 night stay, no bush walk/ night safari/ last drive in the morning, no tracking - as a group we relied on calls from other vehicles otherwise we won’t see lions or wild dogs (we were very lucky). We did have QnA and the answers were fine but nothing more than that. It was a disappointment as we didn’t feel like we gain much from the game drives and wanted to cut our stay short to 3 nights.
We totally understand that we have to be at the right place and right time to view the animals and wilderness is unpredictable, but we believe our experience fell short due to lack of effort and sub-par credibility. We asked to visit the gift shop but our guide drove away at the time of our appointment without letting us know (waited for an hour and was cancelled). There was also an issue with our pick up to the airstrip - change of drivers last minute and it was a race to catch our flight. There seem to be miscommunication/ time mismanagement.
Also note the tent can be very warm (direct west facing) during the day and very cold at night/ early morning. You can’t stay in the rooms during the day as it is oven baking warm. Wifi is only available at the lounge which is another challenging part of the stay - obviously you can’t walk around at night so you’ve to check your messages before heading back to tent or go early before the drives to access the wifi.
Hence, despite the hospitable general staff and amazing food, this is 3 star at its best.