Savute Elephant Lodge, A Belmond Safari, Botswana

We finished our two-week southern Africa safari tour in Botswana at Savute Elephant Lodge, by Belmond. For context, Botswana and Savute Elephant Lodge (SEL) is a bit off the grid! It is a deluxe tented camp with amenities. The view from the lodge is stunning and expansive. It is a perfect “pairing” with Londolozi which we also visited. Since this is a Belmond brand experience – it is kind of “glamping”. If you are in the vicinity of Victoria Falls you are close, and you should go! I understand Botswana is animal rich, and apparently the safest country in Africa. SEL is definitely animal rich, and people rich with the gift of their unique hospitality. In my post trip review with my travel agent Tara Beckett of Rhino Safaris, I told her SEL reminded me of my home city that can be summarized by grit, grind, and soul. SEL is not a manufactured service safari model that attempts to keep pace with some of the boogie seven-star camps that cost a king’s ransom, and miss out on the personal warm touch and a more authentic identity of southern Africa/Botswana. The Savute Elephant Lodge identity is very refreshing and draws you in the longer you stay! They value substance over style. We stayed four nights and experienced four days of game drives. Two nights is not sufficient to immerse yourself into their identity. The last day was our best with two close up leopard sightings in like a thirty minute period – two different leopards. Plus, many other animals - just awesome! In pre-trip planning, we almost didn’t stay that fourth night and that would have been a big mistake. So, three people that made an impact on our stay at SEL: • Driver guide John was an animal tracker/driver guide that always found the animals he was looking for. He is an animal savant locator, and as good as our Londolozi driver guide who I classified as a superstar in that TA review. On one drive he turned off the vehicle and said, “Guys tell me what you see on top of that hill” like 300 to 350 meters away. The four of us in the vehicle didn’t see anything unusual but some typical bush and trees. I thought he was kidding. He then said, “ Look just to the left of a particular tree.” Our response, “John, we don’t see anything unusual.” I thought again, is he pranking us? He further said, “I see two lion ears on the horizon just left of the tree. Do you see them”? We all said no. He then turned the vehicle back on, drove up the hill, and voila eight lions were resting underneath a tree (2 males, 3 females, and 3 baby cubs). There were zero safari trucks here until John radioed in and some eventually found our spot. We all four were stunned with John’s innate ability to find the jackpot location – and what we started to realize is this is who he is. • Chippie was our designated butler/server. She is a seasoned pro who knows the extra special touches that will make your stay at the lodge and your room go well – think glamping again! She surprised us with three special meals that were highly custom and in special places. The last was a dinner on our room 4 overlook which looked directly at the elephant drinking pond. It was yummy and so cool to dine just above the elephants on our anniversary! Chippie knew. We didn’t ask for anything special that night. She also knew that we favored a dry rose wine. She made sure that wine showed up at every meal, and every other possibility for celebration – including on game drives. • Last, chef Ruth. Chef Ruth was the chief cook for SEL. One morning my wife and I were a little weary so we decided to stay at the lodge and skip the morning game drive. Well, we had a long breakfast which we needed. About 10am seven giraffes showed up at the drinking pond. Ruth came out. It was mid-morning and every guest was out viewing animals. Ruth saw me on the lodge deck staring at the seven giraffes – very close to us. Five more came. She walked over and said to me, “I have worked here for several years and I have never seen 12 giraffes here.” I responded, well here come three more over the hill. “She said, “ I think you are the giraffe whisperer”! At our departure, Ruth gave me an artist drawing of a giraffe she did that said “15 giraffes and still counting…” I will get that framed and cherish for a lifetime. What a cook, and what a human being! They all are… including Walter! On my 15-hour flight from Cape Town to Atlanta, I kept asking myself, which was better Londolozi or Savute Elephant Lodge? They both were spectacular. Interestingly, I had so many recent memories of SEL it was a bit challenging trying to remember the highlights of Londolozi. We saw the big 5 in both. We saw more leopards in Botswana. More safari camps should study SEL and dig deep on how to sustain an authentic identity that embraces their region. The pairing of both lodges we experienced was essential to grasping the bigger picture of southern Africa! I am grateful we got that done, and more. So sorry for running long.

Love this place!!The guides were incredible ,very knowledgeable and the staff were so friendly and helpfull.Food delicious,honestly can’t say enough good things about Elephant Camp.Highly recommended!!

This has got to be up their in a great all round experience. We had JR as our guide which very informative but also a great sense of humour. Maybe we were lucky or his great tracking skills but we saw some great animals up close, the whole lodge experience was superb.

The company who helped us book our safari journey was incredible Wildrenes . From our first day till the last . We explore 3 direct locations in Botswana and every trip was perfect . From the lodges till dining and safary experience all great . Definitely I will use them again in the future

From the moment we landed at that Savute Airstrip we knew this was something special. We’ve had Richard as our guide and he led us to Cathy and Lorato who’s ready to welcome us with champagne and wine. Spoiled! The lodge is absolutely fantastic from the room, the view, staff’s enthusiasm, can’t stop raving! Everyone’s on site are fantastic Kenny the masseuse, my housekeeper Tshidi keeping my room clean and welcoming at all times; Naledi whom toured me the room to get myself familiarized; there’s also Chippee, Nadie, Walter sorry if I couldn’t remember you all. Highlight: sorry chef I forgot your name. Your ground beef is to die for!!! Back to the experience We went during the off season but still we managed to see elephants on site, we saw heeps of wild dogs fighting against a hyena what a sight! Richard our lovely ranger was fantastic during our safari game drive we saw a lion from afar and with his experience he could it would still be there in the afternoon and boy it was still there when we went back after lunch! I’m convinced there’s never a bad season in Botswana! Just find the expert aka go with Richard (we heard from another guest that Moses is amazing also) and just go experience it yourself! Lastly thanks to Dan the GM for getting everyone so organized. You should be so proud of your team!