Ongava Lodge

The reason I have given this review 3* is because our whole experience here was average. The lodge itself was excellent as was our room, spacious and very comfortable. The lodge has a beautiful setting with wonderful views, it also has a watering hole which is great for viewing the wildlife and unfortunately that’s where we saw most of the wildlife that there was to see. When we arrived we were welcomed by lovely Delamina and offered a wet towel to wipe our hands. Subsequent welcomes by staff after returning from a game drive were non existent or an afterthought with wet towels left on a pillar to help ourselves. Apart from Delamina not one member of staff including the manager and other assistant manager introduced themselves. They lacked the warmth that we have experienced in other lodges in Namibia and Africa as a whole, it was as if they were just going through the motions. Our guide Samual was a lovely young man but seemed to have no experience at all with guiding, driving yes but guiding no. He lacked the knowledge that other guides have and it was as if he was an apprentice without a teacher. We also spent 2 days driving around with a flat tyre. The lodge is close to Etosha National Park but our experience in the park was awful because a) our guide lacked experience and b) it’s a national park with no regulation so if there was an animal to see you were parked at the sighting with 20 other cars. Personally it was a wasted day for us. Would I recommend this place? No because Ongava park lacked animals, Etosha is awful and the staff and guides need more training.

Came here for a night on our honeymoon and it was fantastic! The staff were friendly and they gifted us a bottle of bubbles and wrote a lovely card for us. The room itself is very comfortable and well-sized. The view of the watering hole, and the broader landscape, is breathtaking. We even saw a rhino there late at night! Other animals visited too, like giraffes, impalas and an elephant so it’s a great place if you want to get close to wildlife. Wish we could have stayed longer!

Fantastic wildlife experience. The lodge rooms are comfortable and well maintained with luxury bathrooms and stylish fittings. Private terraces for dreaming and nature watching. The communal spaces are designed to make the most of the vista and views of the busy waterhole. The hide next to the waterhole is such a cool feature. Unbelievable views of animals coming to drink and interact. All the staff are so friendly and professional and the food is delicious.

Beautiful cabins positioned well away from others.. great big bed with gorgeous mosquito net fabulous outdoor shower ( indoor too should you so choose)… great bathroom products, biscuits and plentiful water. Huge open deck perched over the valley looking down to the waterhole. Great staff friendly and welcoming. A very nice dinner and breakfast. The best thing about the lodge is the hide… a fantastic opportunity to sit quietly and view the wildlife from only a several few meters away. In total we saw 14 black Rhinos!

Ongava Lodge provided a great entry to Etosha National park - plus the experience of seeing animals on the Ongava lands. Our guide Sylvanus was great company and did a wonderful job finding animals and giving us lots of information. The accommodation was lovely and spacious with the wonderful advantage of viewing animals from our chalet. All staff were welcoming and we also enjoyed having the pool to cool off in. We highly recommend Ongava for a great experience getting up close to lots of animals.

My family had a fantastic stay at ongava . The staff, particularly Ismail , anticipated our every need . It was a true luxury The game drives were always amazing and our guide , Sylvanos , was incredibly knowledgeable about the animals as well as the fluora and fauna . He even found a spitting cobra - the man spotted everything. The black rhino and baby as well as the pride of lions at the watering hole were the cherries on top . !

It really is hard to overstate how impressed we were with our experience staying at Ongava. Food, service and staff were excellent. The main lodge is stunning and in a great spot which provides excellent views across an expansive reserve. The main watering hole with the photographic hide provided an unmissable opportunity for viewing and photographing wildlife up close. Our room was very luxurious and impeccably clean. The absolute highlight however was the game drives (especially the sundowners) and on foot elephant and rhino approaches with our guide Salathied - a true gent who was super knowledgeable, accommodating and provided us with an experience we’ll treasure and remember forever. Thank you Ongava and Salad for making our safari holiday 😊

There is so much potential for this lodge to become quite perfect, but it is not unfortunately. And it would all be forgiven if this was a mid range lodge, but it is quite an expensive luxury lodge so expectations are just higher. Let’s start with the positives: fantastic location, waterhole with viewing hole is great and the food was nice. Our guide Kapona was also quite good. Now for the points of improvements: we got the impression that staff is just not trained properly. Although nobody was not nice, everyone lacked the friendliness and smiles we are used to for african lodges in general. We really had the feeling most staff did not want to be there. It is just completely lacking the nice details of hospitality of nice lodges. Some examples (some are of course very minor details, but it just adds up): - wet towels after game drives are provided, but put on a pilar. Nobody is there to welcome you back, ask how it was and to hand the towel to you (or make sure nobody puts a used one on top of the others). Sometimes there were not enough. - dietary requirements are being asked on check in but completely ignored afterwards (we send back food on 3 different occasions) - the towels to dry your hands in the public restrooms were not refilled often enough. - The public restrooms did not lock causing some awkward situations with other guests. - At some point one of the staff members accidentally spilled lemonade over a camera. Apologies were given, but we had to ask for a towel to dry the camera and no manager came to ask what happened. -We saw some guests arriving looking around bewildered because nobody was in the restaurant to greet them. - an absolute no go for me: staff was looking at some videos on their phone with the sound on in the guests area. This is very annoying if other guests do this (earphones people..) but just a no go for staff in my opinion. - and probably the worst thing: one of our party members fell down walking to the car when we were leaving. We were in the parking lot for about 15 minutes taking care of him. Nobody came to help.

This was our second accommodation for Etosha National Park, on the south western Andersson gate. We loved it!!!! We had two amazing chalets, very comfortable and thought out spaces - great mix of Safari camping and luxury chalet. The restaurant and pool overlook a waterhole which is lit up at night to watch the animals. Black and white rhino along with giraffe, zebra and antelope used this waterhole while we were there. They also have an amazing ‘viewing hide’ next to the waterhole for close viewing which was breathtaking. 100% an unmissable place to stay! Amazing game drive in their own reserve gave an incredible lion viewing experience too!