Gwango Heritage Resort

We were very disappointed when we arrived at temperature of almost 38deg C in the evening to the lodge that they had no fan in any room. Though other hotels we stayed during our Zimbabwe trip had AC particularly to sleep after hot day excursions. How can you list a hotel who do not even provide a fan, not even a pedestal fan for the night. The 2 rooms we booked for the family were a nightmare experience for all of us as none of us could sleep. We had a rat in one the rooms which made my daughters scare the whole night. There was no provision of water in the room, and had to be bought from the bar which closed at 9 pm. I will not recommend anyone to go near this lodge and recommend TRIP.com and other booking sites to delete this from their website

November is the rainy season means animals are more difficult to observe. Specially when the park is bushy like Hwange NP. Still the lodge has no low season prices. The 4x4 for game drives is in very poor condition, turning off every time we slowed down (we had to open the bonnet a couple of times to fix idling without real success), the roof does not block from sun burning because of its tree branches pattern cover. We paid for a full day game drive in Hwange NP and were supposed to end by 6/6.30pm til gate closure according to their brochure description but we had to really insist to extend after 4pm when the guide was simply running to the exit without even asking if we would like more. 4pm is when animals start being more active, no sense to stop at this time! Even the lodge called him at 4pm to know what he was doing. The guide was a young man with only 5months experience in this park. Seems he always goes the same route. We expected a guide who knows the park maybe better to be able to spot animals in this period. At the end we saw "only" some birds and a hyena the entire day except after 4pm a couple of Zebras and Buffalos. Moreover, the guide stopped for lunch at 10.30 at his usual place without asking?! We should have adapt to the poor game. Very disappointing for a 310 USD game drive for two people. We understood when going back at the lodge that the employees all knew the current conditions in the park for game drives and were not really surprised of the poor game drive quality. I don't understand why we had not been informed before going?! Not even a "sorry" from the team when we explained our feelings when going back. + the transport way and back from Victoria = 300 USD. At the end, including the room, a 800 USD trip for two people, for a poor quality game guided by the youngest guide of the park, in a too old-sun burning vehicule, with no low season prices and an empty camp (very large area with no customer except us - looked like a dead place really). We did many safaris before ; Gwango was the worst experience.

This is a gem of a safari lodge. The rooms are beautiful, and so are the facilities. The only thing they have left to update is the dining room and it was 90% ready. The location is perfect right outside Hwange. We actually enjoyed their private concession more and they offer a night drive there as well. The only bad thing was the quality of their safari trucks. Our truck broke down in Hwange once but we were shifted to another lodges truck. It didn’t affect our drive since we were at a viewing platform when it happened. Could have been much worse with no cell service in the park. However, other guest mentioned it broke down three times!