Etosha Safari Camping2go

“Brilliant pitstop for Etosha”

Absolutely brilliant place! It’s close enough to one of the gates in Etosha National Park. There’s a water hole right next to the restaurant and we walk in to see 4-5 white rhinos, springboks galore. The food is amazing and the staff are super nice. Brilliant decor

“A Magical Place, with added Rhinos!”

We had two nights booked in Etosha Oberland Lodge through out UK agents, Audley's. We had hoped to stay within Etosha itself, but our late commitment to go to Namibia meant there was no availability. In retrospect, felt that we missed nothing but enjoyed a stay in a wonderfully luxurious lodge. … lisää

We had two nights booked in Etosha Oberland Lodge through out UK agents, Audley's. We had hoped to stay within Etosha itself, but our late commitment to go to Namibia meant there was no availability. In retrospect, felt that we missed nothing but enjoyed a stay in a wonderfully luxurious lodge. The lodge is conveniently located for Anderson Gate, well signposted off the C19 road, and about 40 minuted drive in total from Okaukuejo. Before I write about the lodge, here's a few tips about Etosha: 1. We arrived in the area mid-afternoon, and decided to go straight to Etosha (we would be self-driving rather than taking an organised tour). This turned out to be a good move, as we had our passports with us, required for the park entry admin. If we had gone the next morning to sign in, I don't think we would have had our passports with us as none of our literature articulated the requirement. 2. Completing the park admin takes a bit of time, and there can be a queue. So if you want to be in the park first thing, maybe get it done the day prior. 3. Payment must be done at Okaukuejo. Again, think about when you want to do this, especially if you want to avoid the queues. 4. Get authoritative advice on when the park opens. By that, when you can drive through Anderson gate. For us, it was 06:30, and we factored our departure from the lodge to be there a bit earlier and be ahead of the queues, and with all our admin and permits done, we were able to be in the park proper 30 minutes after sunrise. 5. Keep your eyes skinned driving to the park entrance and on to Okaukuejo. We saw: yellow billed hornbill; springbok; giraffe; oryx, and an absolute highlight, a pair of honey badgers! 6. You can of course take an organised tour, but we were so happy we self-drove. The maps are great, and navigation is really easy. And it means you can stay as long as you want to at a particular location or waterhole. OK, having noted those down, a bit about the lodge. It comprises 15 chalets and three family chalets, widely spaced for privacy. The central lodge has a very large lounge with attached bar, an indoor dining room, an outdoor dining terrace, an infinity pool overlooking one waterhole and a boardwalk overlooking a feeding area. It also has a shop with high quality merchandise. I would rate it as a premium location. Having passed our way at the inner gate, we were welcomed at the guest short-stay car park by the central lodge with a welcome glass of bubbles and a chilled flannel. We were then accompanied inside to do our arrival admin, and be shown around the central lodge, although this took longer than planned as it was rhino feeding time, and the opportunity to see rhino and wildebeest kicking up the dust against the low setting sun was just to much to miss. I'm not sure the staff member understood this, but displayed enough patience to accept our priorities! We were then escorted to our chalet, (one walking with the staff member and one driving the car to park in our private space outside the chalet). The chalet was less than 5 minutes walk from the central lodge. Our chalet was magnificent. And huge! A large and beautifully furnished lounge, with open plan adjoining bedroom. The indoor shower and sink was again larger than we are used to, with an outside shower and large sun terrace. Every fixture and fitment we could have wished for was there. We would have loved to have spent more time enjoying the chalet, but time in the park kind of took over. But this was some of the smartest accommodation we have stayed in, comparable to, at a guess, a five star hotel top floor suite. Having unpacked, we changed into smart casual. Although I could not really see a dress code for dinner, it was obvious that the vast majority of guests were smartly dressed for dinner. After a pre-drink with more rhino and wildebeest for company, we took our table on the outside terrace. With a meat or vegetarian course, here is a typical example: Amuse Bouiche - Patty Pan filled with Creamy Veggie; Starter - Butternut and Spinach Cannelloni; Granita - Guava Frozen Granita; Main Course - Pork Medallion served with Gravy Mustard Sauce (on the side, coconut infused brown rice, green asparagus and carrots); Dessert - Date and Stricky Toffee pudding served with Toffee Sauce. On both evenings, dinner was superb, with excellent wines (including dessert wines) to accompany. Breakfast was also very good, and more extensive than previous lodges on our trip. Breakfast nominally starts at 0700. However, it is possible to get an earlier (no hot options) breakfast if intending to hit the park early. We did on out first morning, and it seems quite a few others were doing so too! On the second morning, as we were departing (departure time is 1000), we were able to have a longer, more relaxed meal and take advantage of more on offer. The staff were really very good, extremely professional. However, it seemed to us that professionalism came at an expense of some of the warmth and smiles we had enjoyed at all our previous lodges. Maybe that comes with their ethos or clientele expectation, I don't know. But is sum, this is a beautiful lodge, very well located, superbly appointed and with very professional staff. And have I mentioned they have their in-reserve local rhino to admire while enjoying all the central lodge has to offer? Very highly recommended.

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“5 star luxury with 3 star service.”

The accomodation is simply fantastic, enormous at about 76m2, consisting of tented and rigid components, very tastefully done, with a large bedroom, lounge, modern bathroom (single basin) with enormous open plan shower and a free mini bar and snacks. The entire unit has floor to ceiling glass doors… lisää

The accomodation is simply fantastic, enormous at about 76m2, consisting of tented and rigid components, very tastefully done, with a large bedroom, lounge, modern bathroom (single basin) with enormous open plan shower and a free mini bar and snacks. The entire unit has floor to ceiling glass doors and windows so you can observe some of the game while lying on the bed or having a shower. There is ample space to lay out your clothing and photographic equipment. One particular annoyance was that the AC is operated by a key, so if you lock the door to leave the AC is off until you get back later in the day by which time the tent is extremely hot and even though it’s a large AC, the tent is enormous and it can’t cope with the hot summer months and ideally you should be able to leave it on all day so it’s cool on your return. Our package was full board and all the meals were excellent especially the 5 course dinner. Tents 1-5 I believe are “family” units and 6-20 are 1 bedroom units. Be aware that the tents are spread out a bit of a walk from the main lodge with approx 75m between tents so it’s quite a walk if you are further than tent 8 which was ours. All the tents face the same direction so privacy is assured but I think they are too far apart especially since there are no club carts to transport you or bicycles available. The main lodge area is just fantastic, beautifully designed and decorated and consists of indoor and outdoor dining areas, an indoor and outdoor lounge, curio shop and loungers which are set well to the side of a gorgeous pool. There was an exhilarating moment when we were in the pool and a rhino came to the water hole just a few metres away. There are many options to view the game from the lodge area that are on their private concession-springbok, wildebeest, rhino, waterbuck, there aren’t any predators here and one doesn’t come here to see the game-this is an added bonus. It is perfectly situated as a gateway to the nearby Etosha National Park through the Anderson gate in the south of the park. Now to the downside, the lodge is let down by very poor service and lack of wi-fi to the tents. There was only one other tent occupied in addition to our 2 tents in the 3 nights we spent there so I think that they may have been working on a skeleton staff. Examples of the poor service were: - [ ] No pool towels were evident on 1 day - [ ] Dinner can only be at 7.30pm, not before - [ ] Lunch & dinners took well over an hour for the first course to be delivered to the table - [ ] Had to constantly ask staff for service, they were not not attentive at all but often seen chatting to themselves just a short distance away. - [ ] We had requested a king sized bed but we found that the bed was two singles pushed together each with its own duvet which was rather odd.The linen was fine but all our group complained about the synthetically filled pillows being too big and firm, there was no pillow menu. - [ ] Although our travel agent advised all the lodges that we did not eat pork we were shocked to find pork as the main dinner dish, however our guide spoke to the staff and they substituted beef steaks. - [ ] One of our tents had a sizeable leak in the lounge during a heavy rain on the last night and the other tent a more minor leak - [ ] The poor service created the impression that there is no manager in charge. I should mention that tent 8 had intermittent wi-fi and tent 9 had no wi-fi at all. While the wi-fi is perfectly good at the main lodge they need to place enough repeaters/access points to provide wi-fi to the tents, this is just not acceptable in this day and age. If the service and wi-fi could be substantially improved this beautifully designed lodge would be the an outstanding destination, easily worth 5 or even 6 stars.

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“Very nice, but improvement needed in a few areas.”

My stay at the Etosha Oberland was "fine". I was expecting better. Why 3 stars and not more? Here goes: 1st Star: The staff, they are excellent, extremely helpful, and went to any length to ensure my needs were met. 2nd Star: The food. It was excellent. 3rd Star: Overall appearance of the proper… lisää

My stay at the Etosha Oberland was "fine". I was expecting better. Why 3 stars and not more? Here goes: 1st Star: The staff, they are excellent, extremely helpful, and went to any length to ensure my needs were met. 2nd Star: The food. It was excellent. 3rd Star: Overall appearance of the property. The hotel was very well decorated without being over the top. The rooms are very inviting and visually appealing. Missing Stars: You have to get an additional key just to keep the a/c running when you are not in the room. The a/c is activated by the room key and if you leave the room it shuts off. So, ask for an extra key at check-in. The king bed is actually two twins which I guess is not uncommon, but when you combine this with the lack of support and a poorly padded support beam across the center of the mattress it made for an uncomfortable night. The shower is nicely tiled and perfectly fine footing in the specific shower area. If you step on the remaining tile in the bathroom with wet feet you might as well be wearing roller skates so be careful. Lighting, there are many lights in the room, none of them sufficiently illuminate the main area behind the bed where the shelving is located for luggage and personal belongings. There are no major problems with the Oberland and there are many good points, but it could have been far better with some reasonable improvements. Finally, the person leading my game drive was excellent. At the same time the game viewing was very limited because a great amount of Etosha Park was closed to the public. According to my driver his is a semi-permanent situation due to the extent of the project and the prolonged timeline. Obviously this is out of the hands of the hotel, but it is a point to consider if you are visiting the Oberland while you try to access Etosha

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