T+L’s Resort Evaluate of Xugana Island Lodge in Botswana

I’m standing below a gradual stream of scorching water after I spot a chicken that prompts my jaw to drop in a cartoonishly dramatic trend. It’s an African fish eagle, its darkish wings unfold majestically earlier than touchdown on a close-by tree. I’m within the teak outside bathe of my safari tent at Xugana Island Lodge, surrounded by a flurry of spectacular birds, ebony and African mangosteen bushes, with the reverberating sound of honking hippos, mere toes from the banks of Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

Guests typically flock to this landlocked nation north of South Africa for Chobe Nationwide Park’s well-known recreation drives amongst elephants, giraffes, and lions. However equally fascinating is the Okavango Delta, an enormous inland wetland shaped the place the Okavango River followers out throughout the Kalahari Desert. This UNESCO World Heritage website gives its personal unparalleled wildlife viewing—from large recreation to uncommon antelopes and over 400 chicken species—throughout papyrus-lined waterways and islands. As a result of a lot of the Delta is simply accessible by small planes or boats, tourism stays low-impact.

Located in northern Botswana on the Delta’s Xugana Lagoon, Xugana Island Lodge (pronounced “coo-gana”) was inbuilt 1974 as solely the second vacationer lodge within the area. A part of the Desert & Delta Safaris portfolio, it not too long ago underwent a whole rebuild, reopening in April with 12 luxurious lodging, a swimming pool overlooking the lagoon, a thatched-roof bar, and an overwater firepit excellent for sundowners and stargazing.

Xugana’s central hub is a classy open-air reception and eating space the place my fellow company and I gathered for meals or to sprawl out with a guide on cushioned loungers overlooking the lagoon. A small library supplied a collection of books in regards to the Delta’s ecosystem, whereas a curio store supplied discipline guides, locally-made jewellery, handwoven baskets, and different souvenirs. I remorse forsaking a carved wood hippo, however couldn’t resist a silver butter dish topped with a tiny elephant and colourful beaded bracelets for my daughters.

Past the idyllic setting and refreshed facilities, Xugana’s real hospitality is a attract itself. Throughout chilly morning boat excursions, scorching water bottles appeared on our seats. Afternoon outings included chilly drinks and freshly baked herb scones or biltong, the spiced Southern African beef jerky. Every dinner started with a joyful efficiency of conventional songs by the employees, and each return to the property was met with chilly towels and heat smiles.

I spent two nights at Xugana Island Lodge simply after its reopening—this is what it was like.

The Rooms

To name the lodging at Xugana Island Lodge “tents” seems like false promoting. Technically, every 915-square-foot construction has canvas partitions and window screens that open and shut with a zipper. However after I entered via the heavy wood door, stepped onto the hardwood ground lined in woven space rugs, and turned on the lights, the cavernous house felt like a lot extra. The modern design attracts inspiration from the blue-hued lagoon, and there’s even framed images and different art work hanging on the canvas partitions.

Customary lodging embody a canopied king-sized mattress (that may be remodeled into two twins by request), an enclosed viewing deck with upholstered seating for an up-close view of the Delta, a desk, and a wardrobe. The separate rest room space is supplied with a double vainness and each indoor and outside teak wooden showers, stocked with eco-friendly bathtub merchandise, sunscreen, and pest repellent.

Meals and Drink

Meals are sometimes served buffet type on the principal lodge, with menus that rotate day by day. One morning, I stuffed my plate with an egg wrap, pork sausage, a heat blueberry muffin, and freshly minimize mango, paired with a made-to-order cappuccino. Lunch included a wide array of dishes, like cumin-scented beef kofta, roasted rooster, chickpea salad, and rice. At 3 p.m. day by day, afternoon tea is served with candy and savory bites (I beloved the lemon cake with marmalade filling), and a collection of teas and occasional.

Dinner can also be a set menu, with an analogous collection of meat and fish, aspect dishes, salads, and a cheese platter, plus crimson and white wine pairings that includes South African wineries. Visitors can guide a non-public dinner in a floating “restaurant” within the lagoon any evening, besides when the hippos are too energetic close by.

A thatched-roof waterfront bar is open all day. Whereas it’s stocked with just about any spirit, I completely opted for a nightly gin and tonic made with The Sentinel Okavango Gin. The Botswana distillery infuses the mix with seeds from the indigenous Mopane tree, which tastes like juniper berries. One other South African spirit, Amarula, is a cream liqueur constituted of the fruit of the marula tree, and I poured a bit of into my night espresso for a neighborhood tackle a Baileys Irish espresso.

Every room additionally has a espresso and tea station stocked with all of the accoutrements for a scorching cup—even a glass jar of shortbread cookies.

Actions and Experiences

4 principal actions are included with a keep at Xugana Island Lodge: boating, mokoro rides, guided nature walks, and catch-and-release fishing. Visitors may also decide to take a helicopter tour for an extra payment. With greater than 400 species within the Delta, world-class birdwatching can also be an choice anytime.

Boating takes place on a motorized, flat-bottom vessel that zips across the waterways seeking crocodiles, hippos, birds, and the occasional elephants that come to drink on the water’s edge. On one tour, we noticed large crocodiles absorbing the solar on the banks, and a bloat of hippos (the precise, if not hurtful, time period for a bunch of the semi-aquatic mammals) on an early night swim.

On one other morning, we ventured out on the boat to close by Palm Island within the Delta for a strolling safari. To my extraordinarily untrained eyes it was an enormous inexperienced discipline, a part of the tropical savanna biome, however our extremely skilled guides, Gee and Metallic, stopped each few toes to level out one other hidden treasure: a household of jaunty warthogs, a marula tree (the elephants’ favourite), a sausage tree (hanging fruit that appear to be the within of an Italian deli), a bit of damaged elephant tusk, and a hulking white buffalo cranium. We additionally watched a operating herd of crimson lechwe, a troop of baboons enjoying in a tree, and the island’s lone zebra, standing on a termite mound to scan the panorama.

The mokoro is a conventional dugout canoe, human-powered with a pole that’s harking back to a Venetian gondolier. It’s particularly peaceable within the early night, when the water lilies are nonetheless in full bloom.

On the final evening of my keep, we had sundowners across the firepit on the lodge’s new overwater deck that juts out into the lagoon. We watched a crocodile slink by within the water and had been serenaded by grunting hippos earlier than the solar set and the sky lit with stars. As somebody who lives in a metropolis, it was a uncommon deal with to see the Milky Method and constellations galore, particularly the Southern Cross, which is primarily solely seen within the Southern Hemisphere.

Household-friendly Choices

Xugana Island Lodge welcomes households with kids aged six and older. One household lodging is designed with two related double-occupancy tents. There’s additionally a dwelling space with snug upholstered seating that converts to a mattress for an extra two company, which might be zipped off from the primary bed room for privateness. All of Xugana’s included actions are kid-friendly.

Desert & Delta Safaris additionally gives an Final Household Safari (UFS), and households who guide it get a non-public automobile and information at every camp with tailor-made actions and considerate touches. These embody kid-friendly welcome packs, extra versatile mealtimes, and guides who’re particularly good at partaking with the youngest safari-goers for interactive actions on issues like animal monitoring, bush expertise, and cookie making.

Accessibility and Sustainability

The camp is accessible with wood ramps which can be maneuverable through wheelchair, and one tent is accessible, with a wheelchair-friendly ramp. All tents have roll-in showers.

Desert & Delta Safaris is an Eco-Licensed Resort, Botswana Tourism’s highest standing for sustainable tourism initiatives. The Xugana camp operates solely on solar energy, and bottled water was changed with water purified through a reverse osmosis (RO) system. The lodge’s rebuild was undertaken with decreasing environmental influence high of thoughts. Principal visitor areas had been constructed with environmentally-friendly supplies like wooden from sustainably-managed forests in Southern Africa, lodging had been designed with high-pitched roofs to chill naturally and keep away from the usage of air-con, whereas the layouts prioritized defending present vegetation.

I arrived shortly after the property reopened to company, and surrounded by thick vegetation and an abundance of wildlife, it was tough to inform that building had not too long ago taken place on the grounds.

Location

Located within the north of Botswana on the Okavango, the lodge is on the Xugana Lagoon within the coronary heart of the Delta. Visitors arrive through a Safari Air Cessna, typically transferring from one other one in every of Desert & Delta’s safari camps positioned across the nation. It’s additionally accessible from Botswana’s Kasane and Maun regional airports.

After touchdown on a rural airstrip, we walked a number of yards to a ready motorboat for a roughly seven-minute cruise to the lodge. The boat trip is a spotlight, weaving via papyrus-lined waterways earlier than coming into the lagoon, with the picturesque waterfront lodge within the distance.

How one can Get the Most Worth Out of Your Keep

Desert & Delta Safaris is just not a part of any loyalty program.

Nightly charges at Xugana Island Lodge begin from $1,290 per particular person per evening, on a double occupancy foundation, in peak season from Might to October. All meals are included.

Each T+L lodge assessment is written by an editor or reporter who has stayed on the property, and every lodge chosen aligns with our core values.