Savute Safari Lodge desert and delta — Hotel in Chobe District

My wife and I stayed in 5 camps/lodges in Southern Africa. Savute had the best food (without a doubt), great wildlife drives (probably the best of our entire trip) and excellent accommodations (though not the best.||Our good luck on game drives was almost comical. When we arrived, my wife and I were missing only a leopard to finish our “big 5” sightings (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard). So we told our guide we want to see a leopard, as if he could conjure one up on demand, ha ha. But about 15 minutes later, there is the leopard, walking across a field. On a night drive, one of our companions said she wanted to see a porcupine. 30 minutes into the night drive, there is your porcupine. A running joke with our guide was to point out a tree that would be perfect for a leopard, but which had no leopard, and call out “leopard tree”. On a morning drive, we were following an active male lion, which itself was making for a great game drive. Our guide suddenly said “leopard tree,” which we thought was continuing the joke. Nope, there was the leopard sitting in the tree plain as day. Goodbye lion, hello leopard.||Service was very organized and personalized. One example — at our first meal they offered still or sparking water, and at each meal after that they remembered our preference for sparkling. The remembered my wife likes tea with milk and sugar and that I like coffee with milk and sugar. They knew we celebrated our 11th anniversary on the trip and gave us a special private dinner. This level of service takes organization. I gather the camp keeps a chalkboard to record guests’ various preferences. Even the small touches made us feel like valued guests.||Just a couple things could make this camp even better. The tents had one ceiling fan, and two would have been a lot better (or add a floor fan). And a mini fridge in the tent would have been welcome. No big deal, I’d fully...

I want to be clear that I am writing this review not of the entire camp, but to relay one unfortunate incident. |While staying for three days at this camp, my sandals were stolen from my room. They were very utilitarian sandals, Tevas, so had little value but were necessary for my travels. I informed management of the theft as soon as I discovered it on my second day there. The manager said she would speak to the housekeeper. When I returned later that day, the sandals had reappeared. The manager asked me if I had found them in my room and then told me that the housekeeper took them to clean them, thinking for some reason that that was what I wanted. Not true, but not wanting to make a scene I just thanked her for their return. Let me be clear--I did not want them cleaned and did not put them in the laundry basket. I was grateful to get them back but I would have appreciated a heartfelt apology from the manager. None came.|I conveyed this incident to my travel agency and my agent contacted Desert and Delta for a response. Their response was beyond disappointing. Rather than a full throated apology, I got a letter of blame and shame. They said that I had put the sandals in the laundry basket (most definitely not true) and the housekeeper cleaned them for me. They then said that no one would do such a crime as their jobs mean so much to them and their communities that they would never do such a thing to jeopardize their employment. Ergo, I must be lying? |The experience itself was irritating, but then to have management lie to cover up what should have been just an unfortunate incident is really crummy.|This was the third camp owned by Desert and Delta that I have stayed at. Two on this visit and once before at Moremi. While I enjoyed my experiences at all camps aside from this incident, being treated so callously by their management makes me want to never book...

This place is newly renovated and is therefore super fresh! The rooms have new and nice furniture with both an outdoor and an indoor shower. The porch (on at least room 5 and 6) has great views over the water hole, where we saw giraffes, lions, elephants and impalas. We were visiting during rain season, so if you are there during dry, I guess you can see even more! The food is ok, but dinner could have been better. Unfortunately we had a group of 15, staying in the same time. With a group that big they take over everything. If they go to the bar, there is no room for anyone else. If they stay by the pool, there is no room for anyone else. That made our stay not so great. |There is no wifi in the dining room, so if you have a kid or just a sick partner in the room, they can’t communicate with you while you are at dinner. And as no one is allowed to go out by themselves in the dark, that person is stuck in the room. |I also left a dress for laundry. It came back with holes….no one said anything. It was a new dress, I had just worn it once. The manager apologies after I pointed it out. But nothing was done. The manager said he had written the HQ about...