Guest User
October 25, 2023
The pros: The lodge is very beautiful and the location is stellar. We loved hearing hippos grunting while drinking our morning coffee. The guides were so kind and knowledgeable, and they were able to adapt the activities to our particular interests and requests. We saw some amazing animals. I'll never forget hanging out with a pride of lions at sunset, just 15 feet from our jeep. We appreciated the pool, with the separate kids area, even if our rowdy kids likely acted as birth control for the honeymooning couples who were also enjoying the pool area. The cons: The villas were small, with limited space to relax and hang out. There was a small verandah with chairs so we could sit outside, but our septic tank was actively overflowing just a few feet way and the smell was incredible. It would have been nice to sit out there with a cup of coffee in the mornings, but there's no room service (or even a phone in the rooms to request service). The rooms themselves were SWELTERING. We slept terribly while we were there and woke up drenched in sweat every day. It made the 5am wake up calls and late nights (because of slow dinner service) even harder. We almost left a day early because of this -- we were almost too exhausted to enjoy the activities. The most frustrating part of the stay was the meals. While the food quality was fine (not spectacular, but perfectly fine), the service was SLOW and there were only 1-2 choices per meal. After waking up at 5am, doing two long activities outside each day (which requires kids to sit quietly and not talk so we don't scare the animals), all we wanted was a quick and easy meal so we could get to bed. It would take 45 minutes or longer to even get the first course for dinner, which was an absolute disaster for our large party. It was also weird that we had to choose one kids meal for the entire party (of 6 kids) and it would then take an hour for the kids meal to arrive -- a bowl of plain pasta, no side, no fruit, no vegetable, nothing. By then, the kids were in full meltdown mode and had already filled up on bread rolls that we threw at them in desperation. The vegetarians in our group were repeatedly served meat dishes even after we requested/reminded of dietary needs. The staff often seemed annoyed or confused by requests for vegetarian meals or our desperate pleas to get meals to go (often requested at lunch time for the dinner service, in an attempt to give the staff plenty of time to adapt).