Deception Valley Lodge is located on the biggest private reserve in Botswana, an oasis in the Kalahari. Experience the Kalahari with Bushman at hand, to share their knowledge, while you can relax in total luxury at this unique destination.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Quaint
Hidden Gem
Languages Spoken
English, Afrikaans, Dutch
Location
Private Bag Ha 115 Hak, Central Kalahari Game Reserve Botswana
We are staying at the Deception Valley Lodge, in the northern Kalahari. I have a friend who is bound to a wheelchair full time and he has expressed a desire to go with me one of these safaris. He has really resolved in his mind, and me in mine, that he would be unable to get around so a safari is not doable. The DVL has taken care of this problem in a straightforward way and should throw out a gigantic Welcome Mat for those who have a mobility problem.
The facility is surrounded by a boardwalk. The arriving vehicles are directed into a tightly fitted parking space. Departing the vehicle is such that the floor level of the vehicle is level with the boardwalk, so it is business as usual to go from vehicle to chair. All floor levels are the same and the doors are wide. To get to a specific room on the premise, the boardwalk is the walkway used by all. This is just the beginning, the facilities re suburb and comfortable. The guides are very good ,the individual lodges are fantastic. This is my 8th trip so I really am speaking with experience.
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Date of stay: March 2023Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
When we arrived at the lodge we were immediatly blown away by the stunning location and the kindness of the staff. After a delicious dinner we sat down in front of the cabin and were fascinated by the quietness and the sight of thousands of stars in the sky. The gamedrives under surveillance of our very friendly guide conveniently nicknamed ‘knowledge’ were astonishing. Since the lodge is located in the middle of the premises the animals were all around us. While sitting in the various comfortable chairs and couches on the deck next to the main lodgebuilding, where we had dinner and breakfast every day, we could observe a waterhole where the animals were able to drink. Everyday there was different wildlife there; giraffes, a lonely elephant, 100+ wildebeasts, lions, zebras, gemsboks, … The icing on top of the cake was watching the sundown at the end of every gamedrive. The guide and the spotter brought some drinks and snacks which, combined with their amaible personalities, made for an evening filled with animalfacts, humour and relaxation. In short, we had a great time and wish we could have stayed longer!
- Noah & Petra
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Date of stay: March 2022Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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.
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Date of stay: February 2024Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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.
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Date of stay: May 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Janie Swart, General Manager at Deception Valley Lodge
Responded 03 Jun 2024
Dearest Italian_kilt Thank you so much for your valuable feedback and bringing this issue to our attention. I'm truly sorry that you didn´t enjoy your experience. We will consult our head chef to get to the origin of what happened so that we can take preventative measures. We hope you'll visit us in the future and give our team a chance to make things right, as our mission is to provide an unforgettable Kalahari experience. You are always welcome to contact me at office@dvl.co.bw Have a lovely day and our warmest regards.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
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.
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Date of stay: August 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Luxuary accomodation, fresh food expertly prepared by Chief Jack, Game Drives with expert guide Knowlege (animals NOT surrounded by circle of vechicles of noisy tourists) , every staff member mets your every need ... efficient friendly service with great humour. The waterhole near lounge sports a miriad of animals coming to drink. Truely magical experience BEST HOLIDAY EVER Thank you
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Date of stay: June 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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.
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Date of stay: December 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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)
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Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The lodge is in a private fence 40'000 ha game reserve North of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
The lodge as such and the staff were excellent, and their services left nothing to desire. The lodge has been newly rebuilt during the Covid pause and its buildings are appealing as well as very comfortable. Guide Knowledge (Kitso) was very experienced and helpful, particularly for excellent birding. Game viewing from the lodge's porches near the water hole is very interesting. a particular asset were the night drives where we saw porcupine, African wild cat, caracal and sleepy chamaeleons.
The main problem (quite beyong the control of the helpful staff) is the dense vegetation (Kalahari bushveld) throughout most areas of the reserve. This and the fact that most antelopes are excessively shy and run away from cars is a distinct disadvantage to safari travellers. The elephants are virtually never seen! The web page of the lodge promises that there should be "chances to see Kalahari lion (we did), cheetah, leopard and wild dog (we saw none of these species, and the guide made it quite clear that such sightings would be very unusual). the web page also states that there aer "often" sightings of the elusive brown hyaena, pangolin, aardvark or aardwolf. This is simply not true. We did not see any of these animals quite in contrast e.g. to SA Tswalu lodge. We were accordingly informed by the guide that indeed scuh sightings would be extremely rare and unsual. The information on the web page is therefore misleading. We would recommend this lodge for the lovely service offered by a very committed staff, for its high quality birding and some interesting night drives, but not for the "classical" gane drives.
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Date of stay: May 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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
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Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
deception valley hotel central kalahari game reserve
LOCATION
BotswanaGhanzi DistrictCentral Kalahari Game Reserve
NUMBER OF ROOMS
8
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