Deception Valley Lodge

Our room was large and spacious. Comfortable bed with mosquito net and windows with screens was useful to get air through. Ceiling fan and stand alone fan in the room. Hot water available. Guides and trackers were excellent, working hard looking for animals. Staff at lodge were good overall but need some additional training. Eg. When ordering fried eggs one waitress didn’t understand our request so we changed it to scrambled to avoid confusion. This same waitress also didn’t understand our order for two portions of bacon one day and only placed one order. However the biggest let down especially for the price was the food. When you read how they describe their food on the website it does not match with what we received. Breakfast was very bad. Some yoghurt, fruit one day, no fruit another day. One muffin per person. This is not an adequate breakfast. One brunch “two course meal” (that the waiter proudly announced) consisted of a few spoonfuls of avocado salad from a shared plate and then noodles with chicken stir fry which was served cold to everyone because they said they had already plated but were waiting for all guests to arrive before serving. This idea of waiting for all guests before serving means the guests ready to eat are impacted by the guests who are late, also making the kitchen look worse than it is, as the food sits around getting cold. One dinner soup was tepid, main also cold. After having received western food of mainly average quality, we suggested they cook a typical Botswana meal. They did do this which was probably the best meal we had but again served tepid/ warm. Other guests also commented that they would like to receive piping hot food but unfortunately through the stay the type of meals and standards was not to the standard for the price point. Guests were also asked for their dietary requirements but the kitchen did not follow the requests and served as they wished even though it was items guests had said they wanted to avoid/ couldn’t eat. If visiting the area again we would look to stay somewhere else.

An amazing experience! Beautiful site. Loved everything . The Lodge was beautiful. Spacious, clean, comfortable bed, beautiful bathroom plus an outdoor shower. Our Game driver was very implicated in showing us the most he could. The staff were truly friendly and accommodating.

The room was large and very comfortable with a beautiful indoor bathtub, an outdoor shower, a coffee station and mini-bar. I enjoyed the large deck, both for watching animals heading to the waterholes and for star gazing at night. DVL has two waterholes and by far the best on-site waterholes I’ve seen at any lodge. Given the time of year the game drives weren’t as productive as they would have been during dry season, but the waterholes more than made up for it. The entire staff was lovely, the service outstanding and overall a very well run camp (thanks Georgiana!). I took advantage of the pool and had a massage at the spa, which was very nice. Overall an excellent experience.

Deception Valley Lodge (DVL as they call it!) was the start of our Botswana trip. We loved the lodge, its facilities and services. Special shout out to the warm & friendly staff and their excellent hospitality. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful. While we don’t know the names of all but would like to mention those we do – Georgina (the manager), Dix (our guide), Xoma (our tracker), Siamo, and the entire staff in the kitchen and dining area. We had great animal viewings during our drives…lions, cheetah, impalas, steinbocks, black mamba, kudu, zebra’s, warthogs, mongoose etc. Also the waterhole across the dining area of DVL offers great animal viewing specially in the mornings. For us the highlight was the deep knowledge and understanding of animal behavior shown by our guide (Dix) and our tracker (Xoma), together they tracked fresh pug marks through dry and bushy vegetation and successfully tracked a lioness. The cultural experience with the San Bushman community was exceptional and very informative. We would recommend DVL to anyone visiting a private concession in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Deception Valley was the last of the four locations we visited on our trip. We were part of a group of 17 from the US. DV was by far the best location for a number of reasons. The lodge was beautiful and open to several watering holes on the property. The animals would come to the watering hole daily. We saw zebras, impala, kudus, kori bustards, pea fowl and, of course, lions. The staff feeds Porcy the porcupine nightly. In addition, the guides, Dicks and Knowledge, drove the safari vehicles along with a tribal tracker to seek out better views of the animals. So a total experience. In addition, accommodations were wonderful with spacious decks and rooms. The food was delicious (loved the kudu steak). My experience also unfortunately included an illness that had occurred at the previous location. Georgina and Bernie jumped into action and I had a televisit with a dr in Maun and they had the prescribed meds on hand. The next morning I was a bit better. They totally took care of me and made sure I had food in my bungalow. The caring nature of the staff was spectacular. I can’t recommend this lodge highly enough. Don’t miss it.

Beautifull! Just beautifull! The Lodge and the rooms are beautifully decorated, spacious and clean. The Staff absolutly helpfull and friendly. Food Top! At breakfast, lunch or dinner you can watch kudus, Zebras, Antilopes, even Leopard or Lions drinking on the waterhole right in front of the Lodge. The sweet porkupines are permanent Guests there! The visit to the San People is a must! Wether you're looking for Game or just Freetime relaxing by the pool...by the fire or in your room, the view is always BB ( bush beautiful). A place to visit! Last but not least, the Guides and Trakers are fantastik, always giving their best - finding what you're looking for. Prides of Lions, Orixs, Elans, Kudus, Leopards, Zebras, Wildbeast, Voltures......... A big big 'Shut out' to Knowlodge and Sota, our boys ( Guide+ Tracker). Thank you for making our dream come true! Sara, Olivia and Mum Oktober 2023

This is a beautiful lodge in a very well managed game reserve. The staff were attentive, friendly and knowledgeable. Our guide and tracker were excellent. They really focussed on helping us see the animals we were most interested in. We had a lot of very close lion interactions! The cultural experience with the San community was a highlight for us. The group made us laugh and seemed to really enjoy demonstrating their skills and knowledge. We were a bit disappointed by the dinner menu, however. We were anticipating local cuisine with a modern twist, as described on the website. But this was not the case. It was a western style menu, adequatley prepared, but left us feeling a bit let down. Had the menu received the same level of care as the guides offered us on our game drives, it would have been a 5 star experience! We drove in to the lodge and the road was no problem in a 4x4. Took about 2.5 hours from the B300 (tar to Rakops)

We stayed at DVL at the start of our safari tour and it was such an incredible experience. We were woken on the first morning by a lion growling and later saw the lioness drinking at the waterhole... such a great start to the day! All the staff were so friendly and welcoming, Georgina and Emmanuel were very attentive and great fun! The food was delicious and plentiful. The lodge rooms are complete luxury in such a remote place and we really appreciated the 'bushbabies' (hot water bottles) in our bed at night. This is an amazing lodge, we absolutely loved our time there.

If you look for remote and peaceful where you could get closer to your deepest feelings sitting with the glass of sauvignon blanc watching sunset over north Kalahari desert then milky way reflection on the sky surrounded by friendly staff and always supportive guide Knowledge and superb Georgina camp manager so there is place for you. Very tasty inside, great family villa with private pool, superb experience with Bushman life presentation, fabulous kitchen. The only think I could complaint is, maybe the owners that should be a little bit more responsive and opened to the guest (finally it is not the large flow hotel in Mallorca).