Conde Nast Awards
 

Hi All,
The November 2005 issue of “Conde Nast Traveler” magazine has their yearly “readers’ choice awards”. These listings of the best in travel in the world are results from the response of 28,000 subscribers. The awards for “Africa Resorts and Camps” I’ve listed here. (Will it stay as a column?)
1. Chief’s Camp Botswana
2. Singita So Africa
3. Phinda Private Game Reserve So Africa
4. Mombo Camp Botswana
5. MalaMala So Africa
6. SabiSabi So Africa
7. Four Seasons Egypt
8. Londolozi So Africa
9. Tortilis Camp Kenya
10. Masa Mara Sopa Lodge Kenya
11. Kirawira Camp Western Serengeti Kenya
12. Savute Elephant Camp Botswana
13. Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp Kenya
14. Little Govenors’ Camp Kenya
15. Samburu Serena Safari Lodge Kenya
16. Royal Livingston, Zambia
17. Mount Kenya Safari Club Kenya
18. Mara Serena Safari Lodge Kenya
19. Palace of the Lost City So Africa
20. Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge Kenya

Well, I’m not sure how useful this is to us. Three of them are obviously hotels. Interesting that Singita was bumped out of top spot. It was first place for at least two previous years. The magazine has a first person article about the Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania. Fun read. The magazine is 98 percent advertising. That article about Selous was scattered in four different places across 80 pages. With pages that were not numbered and full page advertisements everywhere. You can’t even find the index to the magazine without wading through many pages of ads. There is a card that offers a years subscription for $12. Good value, but, if every issue is as messed up as this one, I would never read it.
Anyway, just wanted to post their survey results.
regards tom

I would struggle mightily to place Chiefs above Mombo or Mala Mala. As with all reader polls, it depends on who actually responds and what other experience they have to compare it to.

I also think the awards rotate year after year.........and unfortunately, only the most publicized/well marketed camps return to this list year after year......eg., most big names of the SSGR or Mombo etc.,

How could the sopa be put ahead of Kirawira? Lot of great camps of Wilderness or Kwando are missing from the list........

IMO, Sun city has no place on the list...although, i hv never visited it....Phinda at 3? i will know later this year, during my visit......

Hi
I will tell you something, as a subscriber, we were once "chosen" to respond to one of these surveys. I would not take them too seriously. The choices (at the time) were pre-printed on the page. And there were hundreds, and after a while you're filling in blanks just for the heck of it, or for places you stayed in 6 years ago just to not leave so many blanks!
And we've been a few places. All I'm saying is: exhaustion takes over, as does boredom and they are not exactly scientific measures as someone pointed out above.
Cheers,
Peterman

I think the list is great. Plenty of people (travel agents in particular) will now choose the Masai Mara Sopa for example when going to the Mara.

This will put them far away from the Mara Triangle which translates to more room at Governor's Camps, Rekero, Mara Explorer, Serena, Bateleur! Yeah! Yeah!

By that same logic........hopefully, Mombo will be taken out of that list during the next couple of years....HAHAHA

Thank God Kwando and other pristine african destinations......stay away.....

Since I have stayed at only one of these places SO FAR, I was not going to post but I would say that, like Eben, I am always very happy NOT to see my favorite places on these lists :$

Having said that, they are fun to read.

My thoughts exactly, Eben...maybe people will flock to Chief's and free up some space at Mombo!

Cheers,
Julian

Speaking of Conde Naste, in the current issue there is a nice article on Lake Eyasi and the Hamadzi. It was especially interesting to me as I will be visiting the area in a couple of weeks. I also sense/hope that this is one area of Tanzania that should remain a secret.

Daniel