I’m writing the review that I wish I had read prior to making my decision on what lodge to book. I have been to Botswana twice, both times in the green season and stayed at several different lodges. This was my least favorite. We had a three night stay.
There are so many choices with so many great reviews that it can be hard to differentiate between them. I think many people are swayed by the large guest rooms and seductive camp name. You can do much better at the Sandibe camp, still with your own private pool and lounge area, better trained hotel staff, a guide AND a tracker and superior dining. Every detail at the And Beyond Sandibe lodge was better. Even my bird sightings were better.
When I book a luxury five star accommodation, and a price to match, I anticipate and evaluate the product based on that standard. I have also stayed at five different lodges over the Green season for a total of two weeks over two visits, so I have a realistic basis for comparison, during this sometimes challenging game viewing period. I might have been able to overlook the weak hotel side of the operation at Vumbura Plains had the game viewing not been so sparse, even in terms of general game (forgetting about big sightings).
I can be easily amused by sitting and watching birds or elephants interacting with each other. Having just come from the Sandibe Lodge run by &beyond, everything here was “less than” by way of comparison, including the rooms. When it’s over hundred degrees for a week at a time in the green season, no air in the bedroom area=bad sleep quality.
Game drives-At Sandibe, we regularly saw a broad range of general game, more birds and also had super hard working guides and trackers that located a pack of wild dogs, a lioness and cubs, etc. There are no game trackers at Vumbura Plains, which greatly decreases the opportunity to find game, and follow it. The guide made no secret that this lodge is more about the general ambiance and the views. I had expected to see more birds and a greater variety and that was also a disappointment. If I was just spending a week in Botswana, I would put myself in a more dense game environment (especially in the green season). In terms of general comfort the tracker at Sandibe always made sure that our seats were covered with blankets so that the plastic of the seats didn’t create a pool of sweat in the heat of the day. There was always plenty of cold water, in reusable glasses and they carried non alcohol beverages for me.
There was also no comparison in the mid morning coffee service and evening sundowners either. The food was much more varied at Sandibe with fresh muffins on our morning game drive. By comparison, the food was nothing special at Vumbura. same stuff every morning and afternoon drive. Afternoon tea was weird. On one of our hundred degree afternoons it was a chocolate cake and a hot potato appetizer. By comparison, there was a fantastic spread very afternoon at Sandibe, and over our four days, lots of variety.
On the positive side Vumbura Plains is a in lovely setting attended to by well intentioned staff. The warmth and kindness of the local people working at the hotel is genuine.
There are two main complaints and one piece of bad luck.
The single largest negative is the lack of oversight by highly trained and competent management.
People are given responsibilities literally above their pay grade.
We had the maintenance fellow give us our camp orientation, which was the beginning of the lack of effective communication. Basic things like not being showed how to properly operate the radio (which lead us to being stranded in our room after dark) or not being understood when we asked for a plug adapter should not happen. Stuff like there never being towels in the lodge bathroom happened again and again. I got tired of reminding them. Our cabin was the furthest from the lodge, about 7 minutes on a hot uncovered boardwalk, so I often used the facilities which were convenient before and after drives and meals. One morning we were not met at our cabin by our guide at 5:30 so we had to walk alone in the dark to the lodge since our radio didn’t work. They don’t bring coffee at the morning wake up at 5am. Instead, you can either make it yourself, or hope that you get collected in time to have coffee at the lodge. Why can’t they bring coffee at wake up like other places at this price point?
The most rude and insulting part of the experience, our last night in Botswana, was a misunderstanding over our scheduled afternoon activity. We showed up at afternoon tea and were ready to go at 4:30. Well, the time had been changed at the request of other guests to 5pm and we were never told. By 4:45 we found someone who explained that we should have been notified in the change of time. At 5pm, no other guests. I asked that we go out, but we were told we had to wait. At 5:30 the other guests finally awoke from their nap and started to uncover the afternoon teas service to have their snack. It should not have been left to me to tell them that it was time to go. No one on staff was comfortable directing them to the Jeep. As sundown is at 6:30 we had a very truncated afternoon, met up with a group for sundowners when they were already finished.
To top it off, when we were waiting to leave the next day, a member of the staff told us about the fantastic new cameras they have for guests which are especially well suited to capturing birds in flight. What? Maybe should have been informed of this prior to our departure.
