Maramba River Lodge — Hotel in Southern Province

We made our only mistake in our trip around Zambia by booking this hotel/unit. The place sounded good and was a decent price for an air-conditioned glam tent near the river, with restaurant etc. We expected more of a boutique hotel – instead we got a large, crowded and noisy hotel with very little atmosphere and a dark gloomy aged tent with en-suite( not terrible, but it felt basic). |The restaurant typified the place. We sat outside on the terrace and basically had to go to the bar to order our wine, return later to pick up the wine and glasses, go back to order our food from the barman after waiting a while for a waiter, then of course wait for around an hour for our mediocre food ( overcooked/inedible Bream, an OK beef curry). We did see the odd waitress moving around inside, but( we found out a little later) service charge of 10% was included automatically in your check and not optional - so if the waiting staff were invisible or huddled together chatting they got a tip anyway. The barman was great and worked as hard as he could making up for the distracted/invisible serving staff, but he was trapped behind the bar and he couldn’t speed up the cooking of the food( the hotel/resort also seems to cater for large corporates and kids groups, so not so much a boutique hotel as a large canteen and meeting areas with garden units attached?) ||We did get the service charge removed after an awkward discussion at check-out, but you want a nice experience in a town with 50 plus good accommodation options, not a broody and sad conversation at check-out. ||We booked eight different hotels and lodges in Zambia and this was the only disappointing one. Avoid this one – there are so many better options in Livingstone and...

We made our only mistake in our trip around Zambia by booking this hotel/unit. The place sounded good and was a decent price for an air-conditioned glam tent near the river, with restaurant etc. We expected more of a boutique hotel – instead we got a large, crowded and noisy hotel with very little atmosphere. The restaurant typified the place. We sat outside on the terrace and basically had to go to the bar to order our wine, return to pick up the wine and glasses, go back to the bar to order our food from the barman, then wait for an hour for our mediocre food ( overcooked/inedible Bream, an OK beef curry). We did see the odd waiter but( we found out a little later) service charge of 10% was included automatically in your check and not optional, so if the waiting staff were invisible or huddled together chatting they got their tip anyway. The barman was great and worked as hard as he could making up for the distracted/invisible serving staff, but he was trapped behind the bar and he couldn’t speed up the cooking of the food( they also seem to cater for large corporates and kids groups, so not so much a boutique hotel as a large canteen with garden units attached in a good location?)

We got the service charge removed after an awkward discussion at check-out, but you want a nice experience in a town with 50 good accommodation options, not a self-service experience and then a broody and sad conversation at check-out.

We booked eight different hotels and lodges in Zambia and this was the only disappointing one, which says a lot. Avoid this one – there are so many better options in Livingstone and...

We stayed in the Landela Tents for 3 nights in February. ||The tents were spacious, clean, and have permanent attached bathrooms. The showers are outdoors, but very private. There is AC in the tents, but because of the brown outs, there was no power during the day. However, the lodge ran the generators at night (on a set schedule)so that we had water and light and could charge devices every night. ||As it is low season and we stayed mid week, we almost had the entire lodge to ourselves. We had the pool to ourselves every day, usually the restaurant too. It was a perfect way to recharge and enjoy some quiet. |The bartenders were excellent- 5 stars! The food was great. Nice cappuccinos in the morning. Service was decent in the restaurant. ||At night, we sat at the bar and watched the hippos come in from the Zambezi. It was really lovely. ||We did a river cruise our first night as well. As there were only 3 of us we used the small boat. This meant Specter could chat with us all the time, and could stop and look whenever something interested us. It was a beautiful sunset cruise where we saw crocs, hippos, impala, bush buck, monkeys, and many types of birds. ||For other expenses/excursions I would suggest going your own way, though the lodge will assist with booking. Our taxi from the airport was 1/3 of the transfer fee the lodge wanted. We kept the drivers number so the rest of our excursions were much...