Epacha Game Lodge & Spa — Hotel in Kunene Region

We have stayed here for two nights because of the good amount of reviews, but unfortunately we'd have to disagree with them.

Upon arrival in the lodge, it really felt like we jumped back in time by 40 years. We came here for our honeymoon, but we really which we didn't. Apparently our rooms were switched last minute, which led to us arriving in a room with a welcome letter for a completely different family. Upon mentioning this, we were told not to worry and just lay back. We then received a new welcome letter, which was for exactly the same family. Of course a welcome letter is not a big deal, but it was just a small hint of what was to come.

The rooms are VERY dated. Unclean shower/bathtub, fully exposed when you try to shower as there is no cover, other than some thin foil on the windows, no wifi/cell service.

The game drives in the private reserve started off with our tour guide telling us 'we have about 50% chance of seeing animals', which we found was odd, since it was such a vast area. Little did we know they have nearly no animals, other than some kudus and giraffes.

Breakfast and dinner service was very poor - my wife literally had mold on her tomato. On our second day we arrived at the breakfast area for our morning drive at around 6 am, where it surprised us that all breakfast options were already displayed and available to take. Upon return back at the lodge, the same food was still there and was obviously in a bad state.

We cancelled all our reservations that we had for our second day and just drove to Etosha ourselves, where we had more sightings on just the road to the park than what we had on 2 game drives within the private reserve.

All in all we would not recommend this lodge at all. For the amount of money that you are paying you would really expect fantastic service and luxurious rooms; sadly neither of them is the case here. There are far better options in this area that are cheaper - save yourselves some money and think twice before...

We had high hopes for Epacha based on the website and description of the facilities provided - it managed to disappoint on every level. We were two families travelling round Namibia independently and we were looking forward to a comfortable stay on Epacha's private reserve - Epacha didn't meet any of our expectations. The decor for this place is 1970s hunting lodge, out of step with modern day conservation and wildlife norms and nothing else seems to have been updated since - Zebra skin chairs with the mane down the middle of the seat were frankly just grim. The chalets are up the hill from the main building - they do provide golf buggies to take you up there, but they often have flat batteries which defeats the purposes - once in your chalet, there is no intercom or phone to get any service and there is no mobile reception or WIFI either - room service does not exist! The kitchen is extremely average - lunch service if you're not on safari is a disaster, very slow, missed orders, poor quality - the set menu for dinner is eclectic at best and the kitchen needs to lower expectations to a level the chef can match. The pool deck is filthy, black feet all round and no service from the bar for drinks despite the waiter looking bored behind the counter all day. The biggest concern was that one of the members of staff was wasted drunk at night, wandering among the chalets as we headed back up the hill to our room - travelling with four girls, with no way of contacting reception if there was an issue, this was a huge red flag and I would warn anyone to think very carefully whether to stay here or take another option...

We had high hopes for Epacha based on the website and description of the facilities provided - it managed to disappoint on every level. We were two families travelling round Namibia independently and we were looking forward to a comfortable stay on Epacha's private reserve - Epacha didn't meet any of our expectations. The decor for this place is 1970s hunting lodge, out of step with modern day conservation and wildlife norms and nothing else seems to have been updated since - Zebra skin chairs with the mane down the middle of the seat were frankly just grim. The chalets are up the hill from the main building - they do provide golf buggies to take you up there, but they often have flat batteries which defeats the purposes - once in your chalet, there is no intercom or phone to get any service and there is no mobile reception or WIFI either - room service does not exist! The kitchen is extremely average - lunch service if you're not on safari is a disaster, very slow, missed orders, poor quality - the set menu for dinner is eclectic at best and the kitchen needs to lower expectations to a level the chef can match. The pool deck is filthy, black feet all round and no service from the bar for drinks despite the waiter looking bored behind the counter all day. The biggest concern was that one of the members of staff was wasted drunk at night, wandering among the chalets as we headed back up the hill to our room - travelling with four girls, with no way of contacting reception if there was an issue, this was a huge red flag and I would warn anyone to think very carefully whether to stay here or take another option...