Khwai River Lodge, Botswana

Spent 6 nights in Botswana, staying in 3 locations - 2 nights each. Definitely the best, most amazing vacation experience ever. Khwai River Lodge is rustic, in an amazing location, with fantastic game drives, excellent tour guides (Kenny was fantastic), delicious food and absolutely wonderful service/people. Saw amazing wildlife, at times close-up...I believe visiting in April/during the dry season allowed for those close-up experiences. Was awakened one night with an elephant bumping into our tent/rubbing against the front porch for a few minutes. Overall experience 5 stars but had to ding the room as noted below. Purchased some beautiful straw pieces from local villagers at the Lodge. Pool was refreshing. Evening entertainment one night - singing, dancing, from the staff was delightful!

I was on a group safari with a friend and we visited 3 Belmond lodges. The staff at Khwai River was absolutely AMAZING!! Unfortunately, I was sick during the trip and unable to go drives for a few days - such a huge disappointment!! I was able to watch majestic elephants in the distance and the birds on my balcony. The staff took incredible care of me - calling my room to check on me and bringing food to make sure I ate. Our travel agency Ocean Enterprises in San Diego - was awesome! I will absolutely use them when I book a safari here with my family.

We came here on a photographers workshop. This is my third time at this lodge. Even though the place is immaculately maintained, it's desperately needing renovation, which is overdue, thanks to Covid. The staff is very eager to help and are very attentive. The Safari drivers/guides are excellent, understanding light for photography. The food was delicious, and for the most part healthy. I missed a juicy steak. The pool is lovely and so are the massages.

Love the location, the amazing staff, and the incredible safari guides. We come here every year and experience life changing moments, breathtaking animal viewing and a silence you can feel all over your body. Words are not sufficient for sharing the experience. It changes your life forever! Thank you dear family at Kwai River Lodge!

Fantastic staff and accommodations!! Service: Ms Oriole’s staff felt like family after our two nights there. Miss Gee, Mr Kenny, Ms DK, Mr Watch, Ms Gladys, Mr Fortune, Mr Gee: thanks for taking such good care of us. In particular, Mr Kenny and Ms DK: Thank you so much for all your insider info about what life is like living in Botswana. Thanks for the tour of the local village, and thanks for the most EPIC sundowner ever. Also thank you both for teaching us about the indigenous flora and fauna of the Kwai River area. And Mr Fortune, I very much enjoyed connecting with you about your people, your culture, and the song about your beloved kgosi Linchwe II. I can’t stop listening to that beautiful song. And also HOW DO I FIND YOUR MUSIC SINGLE? I want to hear it!!! Accommodations: The rooms were incredibly fancy tents! Adequate wifi, AC, there was a lovely pool right on the river, a TV room, and an elevated “hunting-blind” to watch the elephants grazing at the water’s edge. This was our fourth lodge this vacation. Everywhere we’ve been so far has had such exquisite food (including this one), we were aching for some boring chicken and rice which the staff was more than happy to accommodate for us. It also wasn’t boring at all! Delicious but mild enough for what we needed. We also had a medical emergency in the middle of the night which many members of the staff handled for us professionally and with care. They even had a nurse on call and medical supplies on site to provide for us. Crisis averted thanks to the staff. Location: The lodge is on private property that the company shares with the local communities. Every single unit is facing the Kwai River, and it was common to sit on our front porch facing the river and see twenty elephants, hippos, and red lichwe without having to turn my head even a little. If you visit the pool, be prepared to play guard over your bag from the adorable velvet monkeys everywhere. And the property is not fenced, so you may have to wait on a path for a moment while an elephant walks by. On our game drives we saw Bush Buck Impala Water Buck Giraffe Elephant Velvet Monkey Chacma Baboon Warthogs Hippopotamus Kudu Mongoose Lion And even a cheetah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ASK FOR FOUR HANDS MASSAGE!!! It’s transformative! Incredible experience. Thank you all. I miss you already. And Mr Fortune deserves a raise!

An incredible safari experience! The location cannot be beat – you look out on the river and can see hippos and other animals throughout the day and night. The lodge is well equipped, with friendly staff and well maintained (albeit sometime tired) amenities. We went to Khwai after three nights at Belmond Savute, and Savute was by far the nicer of the two camps (food, service, cleanliness and facilities), but the combination of both lodges was great if you have the time to do both. The game viewing was great – we saw a leopard make two kills, wild dogs, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and lots of antelope and bird varieties. We went in the rainy season (February), which meant it was wet and took a while to find the animals, but the park was very quiet, and the animals were very active.

By far the best holiday to date. Khwai is so peaceful by the river and the animal sightings even from the rooms are impeccable. The food is amazing and we were so spoilt. We had Jimmy as a guide and he was amazing. He shared so much knowledge with us and his respect for all the animals big or small is really admirable. I learnt so much from him and I would go again in a heartbeat.

It was our first Safari and it couldn't have been better. The service was great, such lovely staff, good food. Our rancher Kenny was amazing. So highly recommended