Wolwedans Dunes Lodge

Absolutely fantastic! Set in a lovely setting in the middle of the Namibian desert, super exotic and very comfortable, great food. We highly recommend our guide Willy, who was very knowledgeable, friendly, flexible, and great to be with. Thank you for a memorable stay !

Most wonderful place on earth! The views are absolutely spectacular and the staff makes the experience unforgettable. We stayed in Plains camp for four days with a family of seven and these were definitely our most special days in Namibia! We celebrated Christmas here and our hostess Pewa together with chef Ephraim prepared the most amazing christmas dinner for us below the nightsky. Our guide Benny showed us all around the reserve during these four days and told us everything about the dessert. We did sundowners, daydrives, an e-bike tour, horse riding and really, everything was amazing!! The lodge is a forerunner in sustainability which is really cool to experience right in the middle of the dessert. Everything is possible here!

OMG. This pace has got to be the MOST amazing place in Namibia. There are three seperate camps to choose from, Boulders, The Lodge & Dunes. We stayed at Dunes. Exactly as it sounds, red sand dunes. Amazing glamping tents with an indoor & an outdoor bathroom. The landscape is completely different at each camp. The base camp is unbelievable. They recycle everything including food scraps, leftover timber & metal scraps. They are doing everything to reduce their carbon footprint. They train staff in hospitality & welding & are looking at starting a course in engineering. They got rid of all the plastic water bottles & replaced them with glass & their own filtered still & flat water.

This was the first of four properties we stayed at during our Namibia sojourn. We were torn about whether to visit the NamiBrand Nature Reserve over more time in the Damaraland region. In hindsight, we are glad with our choice - it offered enough variety and contrast compared to other parts of Namibia, and the fine people that supported our stay were arguably the best of the bunch. We opted to stay at the Mountain View Suite, which is on the premises of Desert Lodge (formerly known as Dunes Lodge) but is a self-contained unit that comes with a private vehicle/guide and chef, and is far enough away from the main lodge that it provides an air of intimacy and tranquility that we seek in our safari experiences. It also is the best situated - the MVS is at the far end of the lodge, giving it an expansive view down the valley as well as the mountains in the distance. It's a massive, 107m² Suite with separate dining, kitchen, lounge, living and sleeping areas as well as an enormous 118m² deck that features a plunge pool as well as a waterhole that is literally right outside the deck. Since Lions and Leopards do not roam the area, they were able to place the waterhole very close to the room, giving us awesome views of Jackals, Springboks, Oryxes and a variety of birds that frequented the oasis to quench their thirst. The MVS is due to be renovated in the near future (we were told that we may very well be the last guests to stay at the current iteration of the Suite), we did not feel it to be lacking when it came to creature comforts. In fact, given its location we felt that it did a great job blending in and giving it a good sense of place. Also, unlike the other rooms at Wolwedans, the MVS offered WiFi throughout the entire unit, which came in very handy for the both of us. The biggest benefit of the MVS had to do with the private guide and chef. Not only were we able to do what we wanted, when we wanted to, we really got to know our guide (Jakes) and chef (Selma), learning about their life, hopes and dreams. They are remarkable people that soon became friends rather than staff members. While the landscape and scenery are undoubtedly the primary reason to visit such a place, we soon found that the people are also a star attraction in Namibia in general and Wolwedans in particular. The majority of our three days were spent driving around and exploring the area, enjoying the gorgeous scenery and marveling at the various wildlife that have adapted to such a harsh environment. We also took a balloon flight (it's a very early morning departure, though!), a tour of Wolwedans' operations and their efforts at sustainability and staff training, and a Bushman walk with Boetie, a descendant of the Bushmen that used to live in a way that is reminiscent of people in the film "The Gods Must Be Crazy." If there is one thing you can't miss while at Wolwedans, the Bushman walk is it. Our next stop in our Namibia adventure was the Sossusvlei area, which is only about

Sustainability philosophy in action The lodge and its neighbours are all supported by a base village where some really impressive recycling takes place and where the hospitality school is located Really interesting to see water recovery system, salads grown in recycled yoghurt pots and sent out still growing, glass crushing to make bricks and sand filled plastic water bottles used to build walls Lodge staff excellent and always super helpful- guides extremely knowledgeable and the bushman’s walk is a must Food is varied maybe as a result of too much preparation at base village before being sent up to the lodge Please use more glass bottles for water rather than the plastic ones still given out - the Wilderness camp’s model is an example of no plastic bottles in use! Donate a tree to the foundation is the way we tourists can support an exceptional foundation to give the environment and local people a more sustainable future

We have travelled fairly extensively, and Wolwedans has one of the most spectacular settings of any lodge we have seen. The tents are amazingly comfortable, particularly for a location this remote. The staff -- well, they are simply the best. We enjoyed every minute of our stay there and hated to leave. You won't be disappointed. A truly magical place.