The title says it all. Chongwe River House was the perfect ending to our trip. I can only describe it as "rustic luxury". The house is everything that it is famous for, and more! Crazy design (in a good way), beautiful location and setting, and just a wonderful staff that is friendly, accommodating and makes you feel right at home. Clem and Beej were tremendous hosts (and Bruce will be one day too), while Francis, Kennedy and Mario provided exceptional service. Kudos also to the chefs. The food was outstanding; probably the best we have had amongst many safari camps we have visited.

Highlights of our trip: 4 individual bedrooms open to the Chongwe River with beautiful views; the waterfall showers (which I preferred over the rainfall showers); elephants grazing right next to the house; warthogs in the backyard -- as if they were house pets; witnessing a lion kill and lions mating; bush breakfast; outdoor Mongolian dinner our last night, along with staff singing and dancing; fishing on the Zambezi; watching elephants and later a lion crossing the Chongwe River, which was unusually high for the time of year... Just an idyllic 4 days! Can't say enough good things about this property.

This is one of the most amazing places in the world. The service from very professional staff cannot be faulted, (there were 10 staff members looking after 4 of us!) The open-fronted house, described by one of our party as a mix of the Flintstones and the Dorchester, is located amongst Winterthorn trees a few yards from the Chongwe River. A truly magical setting. You will not have to move from the house to see lions drinking from the river, hippos grazing the lawn and elephants picking up Winterthorn seed pods from the patio just a few feet from the comfort of the lounge. The Zambezi is an immense, beautiful, magnificent river, just a few minutes away in one of several guided, powered boats for the exclusive use of guests. We enjoyed game drives, canoeing, relaxing and swimming in our private pool, picnics in the bush, good food by any standard (but excellent considering the house is the wilderness) and great fishing for Tigerfish.

We had Lions roaring what seemed to be on the front lawn, Elephants came visiting us - we didn't have to go looking for them, Tiger fishing on the Zambezi pretty good considering the time of the year, we were well looked after by all the staff - this was our second visit and we will certainly be going back again.

We were lucky enough to have the entire house to our group of four so we had a pick from the rooms, its a tough decision as there are many quirky features in the rooms, a rain shower or a waterfall shower was a tricky one, so I alternated showers in the evening and tried them all.

On the first afternoon we decided to take it easy and chill by the pool, its pretty special when you can tip your toes in the pool whilst watching the hippos across the bank dip their toes too.

We spent the next few days either fishing, walking, canoeing or driving, it is great that you can do that all in one place and then head back to such a fantastic house. The food was brilliant, and on the last day the freshly made croc shaped bread was a real hit.

Some could say that Chongwe is not your regular looking safari house, but, my response is, why would you want regular when the whole reason to go to Zambia is to get as far away from regular as possible?

We loved Chongwe River House, we also spent two nights at another location in the Lower Zambezi, if we ever go back to the Lower Zambezi, it will be to stay at Chongwe River house and no where else!

I would recommend Chongwe River house in a heartbeat, well in actual fact I have, several times!!!