We had a terrifying, disastrous stay at Ghoha Hills. Stay away. In short, thanks to their repeated complete lack of care, we spent hours stranded in the midday sun (35C+) in the middle of a national park, without a working radio. This could have ended very very badly. They don't take basic safety seriously. We booked a birthday weekend trip at Ghoha Hills and had the hotel organize transfers, supposedly 3 hours each way by jeep from Kasane (at US$1,000 round/trip), which they contract with Flame of Africa in Kasane. On the way out, our jeep broke down 30 minutes in - after about an hour's wait, the jeep was replaced by another one, which broke down as well and was thankfully jump started by a passing vehicle on the way (luckily the other vehicle had starting cables, ours didn't). Its radio didn't work. Imagine our surprise when that same vehicle came to pick us up two days later for the return journey. Of course this vehicle broke down in the middle of a dirt road in the national park, in the midday heat, infested by sand gnats. We obviously couldn't go anywhere to hide because of the danger of animals - an elephant walked by and luckily was uninterested in us. Thank GOD we had a single bar of service on our phone so we could call for help - the radio of course still didn't work. We could have been genuinely stranded. Not a single other vehicle passed us going to Kasane in three hours. We missed our connection and pre-booked Chobe River safari. Flame of Africa offered to bring us to our hotel on the Namibian side, but sure enough their boat broke down as well, leaving us stranded in the weeds surrounded by hippos and elephants on the riverbank (I wish I was making this up, but if it weren't all so dangerous, it'd be farcical). After our stay, we received no apology, no note, no explanation. After I then reached out, all Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge offered was $250 off the $1,000 transfer cost. It's fair enough to expect the unexpected when traveling on dirt roads in remote areas with limited infrastructure - things happen. But the complete lack of preparation or ownership of cascading, avoidable problems was shocking, and I've never experienced anything like this in decades of traveling, especially not at this price level. And if all of the above isn't disqualifying, please also consider staying closer to the Chobe River for safari reasons. The landscape around Ghoha Hills is very dry and our game viewing was poor (in April). Over 12 hours of game drives, we saw zero cats (there aren't any resident lions in this area), mostly impala, some elephants, a few ostriches and plenty of giraffe. Please also don't believe their website as they don't offer visits to the baobab grove or the cave paintings (supposedly because of "safety", yeah right) on their day-long excursion, despite advertising it. We saw more wildlife in a single hour on the river than in three days at Ghoha Hill Savuti Lodge. On our 10-day safari trip, this was the most expensive and by far the most disappointing stay. The staff at the lodge was lovely. The complete dereliction of duty otherwise, less so. Unethical and unprofessional, please do yourself a favor and go anywhere else.…
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