kerikeri

turns out my first choices for botswana are not available for the firm dates of my safari trip.

therefore, of the three, could someone who has stayed there kindly rank the above camps best to worst for variety of game viewing and then comfort?

thank you kindly,
kerikeri

RuthieC

Kerikeri,
A very difficult choice. We stayed in all 3 camps in June and had a wonderful time. My instinctive rankings would be 1. Sandibe, 2. Nxabega and 3. Savute.

Sandibe and Nxabega are smaller, more intimate camps with wonderful staff and high quality of guiding. You also have a tracker as well as a driver / guide and you can do night drives.

Savute is a bigger camp and the rooms are very different from the other two - more like a hotel.Also IMO the quality of guiding is not as good. However the rooms overlook and are very close to a couple of waterholes where many animals and particularly elephants come to drink every day.

In terms of variety of game - we probably saw most at Sandibe. However the terrain at Savute is very different from the other two and likely to offer different game. That said, just about everything we saw at Savute we also saw at Sandibe.

I've posted below links to my trip report earlier this year, also one from uhoh_busted who also stayed there. Also there is a link to our photos which should give you an idea of the different game we saw in each area and also includes some pictures of the 3 camps.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=4

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=4

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=cji0utv...0&y=5lhzxy

Good luck and please come back and tell us what you decide.

kerikeri

thank you so much!

llee_2003

I stayed in the same lodges in May 04. In terms of game, I saw the most in Savute Safari Lodge (pride of lions, cheetahs brothers, herbs of ele, etc etc), then Nxabega and Sandibe. But out of the three, Sandibe is also my favourite. I think the people there makes a difference.

In terms of comfort, as Ruthie mentioned, Savute is more like a hotel and the waterhole in front of the room is lovely. Though Nxabega is tented camp, but it is very comfortable too, just remember to zip your camp before you leave or otherwise the baboons may steal your toothpaste.

uhoh_busted

Hi there - as RuthieC noted I was at all three in May as well. My favorite places were Sandibe, Nxabega and Savute in that order. The two ccafrica camps had better guides and food...it was all just more personable. The whole trip simply over-delivered on my wildest expectations. You can hardly make a bad choice.