Gweta Lodge

Gweta Lodge was our first stop on our trip through Botswana - and as other ratings show, it’s a mixed experience, at least for Europeans. There’s significant renovation taking place which will provide a much needed upgrade to the rooms. There’s a dedicated and friendly staff working hard to make your stay fine and to fix what’s to be fixed. There’s a pool and a nice bar area. There’s good food. So after all, for a small lodge in a remote place, it was a good stay.

What a disappointment. The staff were so unprofessional and uncaring about us. Such a surprise when all the other lodges we stayed in this part of Africa were fantastic. Rooms were basic and there had obviously been no maintenance for years with fans not working, half the lights didn’t work and the toilet was stained brown! Not too welcoming! On a positive note, breakfast and dinner were very good.

My wife and I stayed at Gweta Lodge for 2 nights, and have nothing but good things to say about the entire experience: friendly, helpful, and attentive staff, comfortable beds, delicious food, and very affordable. The owner, Pelo, is a true gem and made sure our stay went well. He even moved us to another nicer, newer, and quieter room unsolicited because we mentioned hearing dogs barking the first night. It’s got a great vibe, with a comfy bar area, and plenty of trees and lovely bougainvillea. The excursions we did (all through the lodge and with the fantastic guide/driver Chief) were wonderful. In fact the sleep-over at the Salt Pans was downright life-changing! With all the upgrades going on around the lodge, getting one of the nicer, newer rooms will become easier, and more of a reason not to miss Gweta and the Makgadikgadi area.

Terrible experience with Gweta Lodge. We love the southern African region and decided to search for new experiences here, so found a possibility to sleep in salt pans and started to look around where we could accomplish it. We chose to use Gweta Lodge, they had to pick us up from one of Maun hotels. Communication was extremely rough with them, but we agreed on pick-up time and details eventually. Worst was pick-up day, we waited for 2 hours with no communication with us, when Gweta lodge “manager” called to the hotel where we are staying and said that the driver isn’t reachable, that's why no one picked us up. Worst thing is that I was calling them multiple times and they were not picking up the phone. Eventually, they said they will arrange another pick-up, which looked sketchy as we wouldn’t be able to reach the lodge till the salt pan expedition start time. The driver came and he was so weird, he wasn’t even talking with us and trying to force us to get to his car, we couldn’t trust this person. It felt like he was planning to rob us. We contacted the lodge and said that we won’t go. They agreed to pay a refund, but this was the last thing we heard, they didn't refund and we are still waiting for about a month. So I think this lodge is just a scam, my recommendation is never go here. Stay safe and pick another lodge which will be a little bit more expensive, don’t make our mistake!

We didn't stay at Gweta Lodge but stopped in to do the village tour which was excellent and a good price. Our guide was very friendly and we learned a lot about the Botswanan way of life. He also managed to track down some Mopani worms to try...

It smells disgusting in there, the place is dirty and actually isn’t by the Makgadikgadi area. The staff doesn’t know what is happening , they just don’t do anything at all . There wasn’t hot water in our room