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Stanley and Livingstone Review

I was pleasantly surprised by the Stanley and Livingstone review. This is an unashamedly colonial lodge (rivalling Victoria Falls Lodge for period ambience). So it is a bit of a marmite experience. You either love it or you hate it. Personally I like a bit of the old colonial myself!

I was expecting it to be dated and tired but in fact it was looking surprisingly good. The new owners have begun some updating and yes there are areas where some updating would not go amiss eg. the bathrooms, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with them. However I would recommend the newer suites on the pool side of the lodge. These seemed to be brighter and lighter being less enclosed by dense foliage.

What the Stanley and Livingstone has going for it is period charm, if you like that, lovely tropical gardens and attractive pool, a feeling of peace and tranquillity, good food from an experienced chef, views over the game reserve and the choice of game drives into its own reserve.

The game drive was actually pretty good with sightings of elephant, black rhino, buffalo and lots of plains game, all on one drive. It seems from their sightings chart that lion are also often seen, but not guaranteed. You can choose between a morning game drive, afternoon drive and having a bush dinner followed by a night drive.

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