There are so many hotels and lodges to choose between in Africa, so how do you know if you are getting what you expect or are going to end up at sleeping in someone else’s old sheets? You don’t really, but a good tour operator will steer you clear of the real dogs.
Here are my worst hotels in Africa:
Ruaha Safari Lodge tops my worst ever list! Ruaha River Lodge is situated in the Ruaha Reserve in Tanzania. The lodge is owned by the Fox Family (who own a lot of lodges in Tanzania) and one of the families lives at the lodge and runs the operation. Not to particularly high standards. This supposedly 3 star offers dark and dank rooms and the bedding (sheets and blankets) have massive holes in them. In fact, I was lucky enough to have 3 blankets on my bed because all three of them had huge torn holes in different places, so at least that way I was covered….!!! The rangers leading the game drives could hardly speak English, let alone tell us anything about the animals – they were just there to drive.
I would tell you about the food, but I don’t want to make you ill! The worst two nights of my life
Inhaca Island Lodge is in a category of its own. This supposedly 4 star lodge, situated on the beach in Mozambique, is the most disgusting hotel ever. The rooms were dirty and without any hot water. We were told that it could take days to fix. The showers were thick with mold. The pool was a sludge of mud and not swim able. The only good thing was the cocktails, of which we partook in a large number!! We called our agent to get us out of Hell, but there were no flights for 3 days. Nightmare….! To be fair though, this was a good 3 years ago, so things may have changed…one can only hope.
Makakatana Bay is third on my list only because of their attitude when they didn’t have our 2 pre-booked rooms when we arrived. I was traveling with a colleague (male) and they decided that we didn’t actually need two rooms, so gave one of them away. We mentioned to them that we weren’t comfortable sleeping together and they didn’t care. In the end my colleague slept in some revolting room 15 minutes away from the lodge. My lasting memory is of them being absolutely blasé about our problem and the fact that they had messed up.
The 4 star Sunset Beach resort in the Seychelles is in desperate need of a refurb. I think the hotel was lost somewhere at the beginning of the 80’s and hasn’t moved since. You expect the cast of Love Boat to be sitting in the bar! The rooms smell bad, like it hasn’t been properly cleaned and the facilities were just dull. A good location completely wasted. Not a romantic holiday to remember. And consider that the Seychelles is one of the most expensive countries in Africa to visit, so you do expect your hotel to be semi decent in the 4 star category .
Knysna Wayside Inn is a funny little hotel in the centre of Knysna. My first impression of the hotel was its smell. It has that musty smell of an old age home, covered up with air-freshener. Yuck. And they had hairy dogs running around inside, which didn’t help the aroma. Great location though, so perfect for people with no sense of smell!!
Next up, my 5 top hotels in Africa
