Kingfisher Lodge — Hotel in Bunyaruguru/Kichwambe Volcanic Field

This is the worst experience I have had in Africa (and this is the 8th sub-Saharan country that I have visited).||Where to start? ||Bathroom: Never seen a shower dispensing so little water, hardly any water, the one side of the body has already dried when you get the other side half wet. Toilet seat not properly attached to the toilet. Add to that the constant smell of a public toilet. You know that sweet-stinky-smell of public male toilets? That’s what it was like and not even two windows help. Disgusting at best. Unfortunately room service leaves the bathroom door open so when you get back to your room you feel like entering a public toilet (and it wasn’t only the one room). |Main room: Mosquito netting has holes, even when told and they promised to fix, conformed it is fixed, still a hole there. Gave up, “luckily” it was on the top so I put a piece on clothing on it. The mosquito net is so close to the bed, that you cannot avoid laying against it in the net (=risk of being stung through the net). Inadequate lights. The door doesn’t close tight, leaves about 1 cm for mosquitos to come in. A room change didn’t help. Luckily it wasn’t too hot when I was there as there is no a/c - okay they are not everywhere - but no fan either. Almost all of the electric outlets are where you not need them. The one that is placed well at the head of the bed is outside the mosquito netting. ||Breakfast: Worst ever. The sausages are so dry they must have been fried days ago and reheated over and over again. But not when served. They are cold. (Don’t look for bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, beans or tomatoes). The only bread is over sweet toast (you want to get an insulin shot after each slice to cope with the sugar intake). Eggs are prepared fresh that is ok. No other items available. We convinced them to offer pancakes on day two. You’d think that with such an inadequate full English breakfast there would be a continental one. Forget it. Some milk and cornflakes and a lump of what looks like jam, but where to put it on not that imitation of toast. Butter? No way. A tub of margarine. That is it. You want to get paid for the bravery to have breakfast there. ||Lunch / dinner: You order your steak medium, you get it well done. They at length specify the ingredients of a shish kebab, what you get is unspecified ingredients and others missing. The pineapple “platter”? Three half slices of pineapple. The chips they do nicely, though. The rest is adequate but nothing to write home about. ||Payment: No credit cards whatsoever. But they don’t tell you that at check-in. From a distance you would think they except cards because there is a large sign on the reception door (if the door is closed). At closer inspection it turns out they have crossed out all of the cards on it. And if you think you can pay with valid US currency? Every bill is looked at through a microscope whether there might be a drop of ink on it (slightly exaggerating but not much).||Water: You get some on the first night. After that you are on your own. This is way below any standard. ||Bar: No sugar-free soft drinks whatsoever. The soda water is sold out on the second day. You’d think they would adapt to customer demand and send someone stocking up. But, no even on the third night not a change.||The pools: One has somewhat milky water, one is completely empty. ||My recommendation: Don’t fork out more than $20 for this place, it is not worth much more. Certainly not the 7 to 10 times they are asking. Unfortunately I am on a group tour and was bound to stay. But they will sure hear about this place and hopefully never again will put one of their clients through this ordeal of a place. ||If you have a choice: Avoid,...

I’m so sad to write a negative review about this amazingly located lodge. ||First the positives... the view is fabulous and the pool area is brilliant. I’ve visited many lodges in the region and this one has the best view! The staff are friendly but the place was so quiet (and therefore lacking in atmosphere) that we outnumbered staff by 2 to 1 I think! Despite this, it still took a long time to bring the food. The food was fine - nothing amazing but it was fine. ||The negatives... the place is way over priced, there is far too much concrete in its design and why use louvre windows when you have a view like that to show off? The breakfast was really poor for the money we paid. ||Also, a message to both kingfishers - please buy sheets that fit the whole bed and don’t leave a chunk of mattress at the bottom with no sheet! The one in jinja has the same issue. If you can’t get sheets that big then please sew two together! No-one wants an uncovered mattress when they’ve spent nearly $300 a night for a family room!|Note - we visited in January 2019, not February...

We loved staying here with our family. The pools are really great, although the lower one was not completely clean for a couple of days. The view is amazing and you can look out at the plain and the mountains from the pools and sip your drink of choice. We stayed in the normal bandas and they were fine. Nothing to write home about, but pleasant enough. You'll want to spend most of your time in the park and pools anyway. Food is much better than at the Kingfisher in Jinja, so you can have of sigh of relief on that one. Close to the site you can see elephants and plenty of monkeys, and obviously in the park you should see all sorts. The lodge helped us with this and arranged a drive into the Eastern side of the park where we saw a pride of lions. Top tip - don't let your children run from your friend's car over to yours as you are distracted, marvelling at the lions tearing apart...