We stayed at Chiawa Camp for 4 nights. The combination of a well-maintained camp, excellent tented accommodations, an outstanding range and quality of activities, meals beyond compare, and the AMAZING staff, makes it easy to strongly recommend Chiawa.
Each day began with a personal wake up that included tea and coffee delivered to our tent. They made it very easy to select our daily activities, and they go out of their way to personalize each experience. I suggest taking advantage of all the activities “we did”. A list of our activities included. Morning drives, walking safari, canoe adventure, river tour, afternoon and evening drives, and even some fishing.
Out tent 9 was amazing with a great view overlooking a river bed they entered the Zambezi. Sitting on our deck in the afternoon and early evening we witnessed many animals making the daily trek to the water. (A partial list included elephants, wart hogs, impala, majestic kudo’s as well as others).
We had the opportunity to tour with several guides over this period and all were extremely qualified, informative and truly concerned for your safety and quality of experience. It was especially pleasing to see the reverence they have for the land and the wildlife. I have not listed specific names as it would truly be a shame to leave a name out. On a side note even though this is the busiest time of year we never had more that 1 or 2 others in our vehicle game drives. (Many drives were just my wife and I). So no fear of crowded jeeps!
Meals are truly remarkable. A VERY creative daily lunch and dinner menu will please anyone, and interesting treats throughout the day are always an excellent diversion. It is a daily surprise as to where a meal may be served. Ours included a dinner in the bush, a white linen lunch on boat with a private attendant, as well as a private surprise dinner at our tent deck secretly arranged by the staff to celebrate our anniversary. Thanks to the Choir who shared a song or two each evening.
The management and staff is to be congratulated. Service is of a very high level yet done in a friendly family not ”staunch” way. Everyone no matter what their position is there to see you are cared for and have whatever you need, before you even know you need it.
We saw all the game we expected to see including leopards, elephants, buffalo, lions, hyena, impala, baboon and many more. It was always exciting to see the regular afternoon visit in camp by the elephants seeking their “biscuits”.
I could not rate our experience any higher. All items mentioned above made this into a remarkable experience.
UPADTE: After this camp we went to several others in Zambia and Botswana. Some may be considered higher end camps, and were great experiences on their own for various reasons, but the combination of everything at Chiawa made it our top choice! Chiawa had the most well done meals and treats, best guides overall, great camp feel, and best quality of activities and surprises outside the game drive.