Boteti Tented Safari Lodge

We arrived today. Our welcome from Kay at the airport was warm and friendly. Our itinerary had to change (we were informed before about this) due to the lack of rain. Transport to the lodge was fun. We arrived at the lodge to a very lukewarm - who am I kidding - cold welcome. Some apple juice was provided - savour that as you won’t get another drink - NOT EVEN WATER - with a meal. We were shown to our tent NO 4 - as there are 9 tents - and only 2 others occupied - we were very surprised that our tent veranda had no privacy and overlooked the parked cars. We asked to move and they did move us but we had to carry our heavy bags. The lodge is nice. Nothing special. The drawers and storage space in the bathroom is dusty. I wouldn’t want to store anything in them. You get one flask of cold water and one kettle filled with water for tea and coffee. Hot drink ? You make that yourself in your tent. Meals. We were told lunch is not included. Odd as we had it included in our booking AND you literally have no other choice. You are stuck out here. We ordered 2 wraps which were nice and came with a small salad but took about 45 minutes to appear. The evening meal was 3 course. Starter was nice, main traditional Africa style meal, rice, chicken, beans and butternut squash. It was presented nicely and tasty but not delicious. The main issue for us it was cool. Not cold. Cool. Like it had been served up 20 minutes before. Had it been hot it would have been a lovely meal. Desert edible. Again NO water. They gave cups on the counter and we asked do we get and hot drink and were told ‘no go make one in your tent’. For the amount we paid for this portion of our trip to Africa we are shocked. If I can’t get to a shop or another establishment then basics like water should be included. Pool - nice pool with FOUR (place for 18 guests) sun loungers. Towels are provided. Water is nice and hot on shower. There is a body wash provided. Once or twice our requests have been met with a smile. The rest of the time not. We can only hope and pray the rest of the week is better After today I cannot reckoned this place. Kay has been great!!!!

We had a wonderful stay at Boteti TSL. The only disappointment was that there was no water in the river and all the promo material showed people relaxing on the banks of the wildly flowing river. You need to alert potential guests to the fact that there is only water every decade or so. Staff were amazing, which made up for the disappointment a little. Also hey undersell the distances one has to travel to get into the parks. They say two hour, but the reality is a lot more, so you end up spending 14 hours o a vehicle for a day trip.