Onguma Forest Camp — Hotel in Oshikoto

This is a good option, close to Etosha East gate. The entrance to the Onguma Reserve is right outside the gate, and then Forest Camp is about a 20 min (13 km) drive from the Onguma Reserve gate. ||It is a very small and intimate resort, with only 12 rooms, which gives it a private feel. The main area includes a pool and terrace which overlooks a waterhole with some animals coming to drink from time to time. It does not have a sunset view unfortunately which would make it just about perfect. ||The room is nicely decorated with high ceilings, a very comfortable bed and nice furnishing. The bathroom is fairly plain but adequate. There is a turndown service which sets up the room for the night, and there is coffee and cookies available in the room. ||The meals are well done. We had one night with a hosted barbecue in their boma area. The starter was a creamy mussel soup, then we were treated to a barbecue of lamb, kudu and chicken , with roast potatoes and some cold salads. Dessert was a well made pear and ginger tart. The next night was a three course dinner- the starter was a bit strange - a citrus salad with feta, but the main was a huge sirloin steak with blue cheese sauce - quite enjoyable. There is a good wine list of South African bottles to choose from. The breakfast consisted of a made to order list of options (cooked egg breakfast customized to your choice, smoked salmon wrap, pancakes/french toast, etc) , along with a self serve area of cereal, yogurt, cold cuts, breads, and juice. Coffee was pretty good overall. ||Service is very friendly and helpful. The team there takes pride in taking care of their guests. ||I did go on a sundowner game drive, which was a bit disappointing. There didn't seem to be many animals in the reserve- much less compared to the Etosha park itself, and much less than other private reserves I've been to. Even so, our guide did not seem very compelled to find animals for us, and was not communicating with the other guides from the other Onguma camps (which we could hear on the radio), so we spent most of the trip seeing bushes and trees. The sunset of course was nice , but the trip left a lot to be desired from. ||Overall, a very good stay- I would just suggest maybe to consider whether to do the sundowner drive or not- great for the sunset, but animals are...

This is a good option, close to Etosha East gate. The entrance to the Onguma Reserve is right outside the gate, and then Forest Camp is about a 20 min (13 km) drive from the Onguma Reserve gate. ||It is a very small and intimate resort, with only 12 rooms, which gives it a private feel. The main area includes a pool and terrace which overlooks a waterhole with some animals coming to drink from time to time. It does not have a sunset view unfortunately which would make it just about perfect. ||The room is nicely decorated with high ceilings, a very comfortable bed and nice furnishing. The bathroom is fairly plain but adequate. There is a turndown service which sets up the room for the night, and there is coffee and cookies available in the room. ||The meals are well done. We had one night with a hosted barbecue in their boma area. The starter was a creamy mussel soup, then we were treated to a barbecue of lamb, kudu and chicken , with roast potatoes and some cold salads. Dessert was a well made pear and ginger tart. The next night was a three course dinner- the starter was a bit strange - a citrus salad with feta, but the main was a huge sirloin steak with blue cheese sauce - quite enjoyable. There is a good wine list of South African bottles to choose from. The breakfast consisted of a made to order list of options (cooked egg breakfast customized to your choice, smoked salmon wrap, pancakes/french toast, etc) , along with a self serve area of cereal, yogurt, cold cuts, breads, and juice. Coffee was pretty good overall. ||Service is very friendly and helpful. The team there takes pride in taking care of their guests. ||I did go on a sundowner game drive, which was a bit disappointing. There didn't seem to be many animals in the reserve- much less compared to the Etosha park itself, and much less than other private reserves I've been to. Even so, our guide did not seem very compelled to find animals for us, and was not communicating with the other guides from the other Onguma camps (which we could hear on the radio), so we spent most of the trip seeing bushes and trees. The sunset of course was nice , but the trip left a lot to be desired from. ||Overall, a very good stay- I would just suggest maybe to consider whether to do the sundowner drive or not- great for the sunset, but animals are...

This was our favourite out of the 12 places we stayed on our trip to Namibia. We stayed in two different rooms - the Explorer Bungalow and the Bush Suite - as we couldn’t get one room for our whole three-night stay, and both were lovely. They’re quite traditional in style and have lovely little terraces, fridges, safes, comfy beds with good mosquito nets, and good bathrooms with lots of hot water - basically, everything you need. The lodge is located literally right next to the Namutomi Gate so super convenient for drives into Etosha National Park. ||The main lodge area is beautiful, with a small shop at reception, a bar, a comfy sofa area, a restaurant outside by the pool, and another seating area by the fire overlooking the watering hole (you don’t get too much wildlife there, but the different antelope are fun to watch). The food was consistently really good, some of the best we had on our trip. ||Most of all, it was the service that really impressed us - we stayed in lots of nice lodges but the service at Onguma was noticeably a cut above everywhere else. Everyone was so friendly and attentive, and made us feel really welcome. We were really impressed by how everybody, from the reception staff to the waiters and bar staff, knew exactly what our timings and needs were at any moment - without us having to say, they all knew that we’d changed rooms and had a different room number or needed our bags moving, or that we were doing an early morning game drive the next day and so needed an early breakfast and collection from our room (they walk you to and from your room in the dark because of lions!). It was all very slick and impressive, while still feeling warm and friendly. ||We did a mix of self-drives in Etosha National Park, game drives run by the lodge in Etosha National Park, and a sundowner drive on the Onguma private game reserve. All the guided drives we did were brilliant - the guides were really knowledgeable and friendly, and made sure we saw everything we wanted to see, and they had a great selection of food and drink available (even coffee brewed fresh in front of you!). We also did a morning in the photography hide, and again, our guide was really knowledgeable and had a lovely breakfast spread laid out for us. ||We’d highly recommend Onguma to anyone...