I recently stayed at Ishasha Ntungwe River Camp for two nights and have to say that it is one of the most overpriced and disappointing places that I have stayed in Uganda. The proprietor Allan is very lucky in that he does not have much competition in the immediate vicinity but with a new lodge opening next door later this year he will have to smarten his act up. The first disappointment were the new ‘luxury’ river side tents which, despite us asking and being told that they were, are not river-side at all. You can hear the river in the distance but it is probably a good 250 metres from the tents and you cannot actually see it. In fact the whole name of the camp is a bit of a misnomer as unless you go looking for the river, you won’t see it from anywhere in the camp.
The tent that I stayed in did not have electricity or running water and despite telling the management this nothing was done about it whilst we were there. My parents stayed in the adjacent tent and although they had solar lights and solar heated water, the water flow was restricted to a slight trickle so you could only shower with the aid of a water bottle. The food, apart from breakfast and a nice ham sandwich in our packed lunch, was pretty atrocious and on the second night our main course was cold. The bar, despite having a very cold fridge, did not have any Bell lager which is a pretty heinous crime in Uganda considering that it is the number one lager in the country! Two of my friends were camping and the facilities for campers were terrible with a horrible pit latrine and an open to the elements shower – which at $5 more a night than the UWA campsite is a disgrace.
What was most galling about the whole experience is the price – which (at the resident rate, let alone the tourist rate) ranks as higher than Mihingo and Nile Safari which have up until now been the best lodges in Uganda. The Ishasha Ntungwe River Camp would be bearable if it were marketed as a backpackers’ place but as a luxury resort it does not come close to cutting the mustard. If you can, pay the extra $15 and go and stay at the Ishasha Wilderness lodge or go and camp at the lovely UWA campsites!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
25 February 2011
Dear valued customer
We regret the fact that you did not enjoy your stay at Ishasha and would like to have loved the tents closer to the river. The old tents were built a safe distance away because Ntungwa River seasonally floods. The river swells up to 1.7 Meters in the wet season thus creating a large flood plain.
The river side dining is set up in dry season, and at the time of arrival it was not safe to do so and that's why you did not get to enjoy that part of our camp. The new river edge tents are borne out of comments from visitors over the years, i.e.
1. The old ones are too hot in the midday heat, so we had a cooler thatched roof.
2. Not close to river. just below the river edge tents where you slept are its banks in the rainy season. Safety was of paramount importance when we were building these new units. We could not have them built in the flood plain.
3. Service: although not mentioned on our website, Ishasha Ntungwa river camp is a community based Eco lodge and with that comes many issues. We employ the community to do the work as an agreement for them to have alternative sources of income due to issue of crop raids, That said this has its has its draw backs in terms of their ability to learn new things. We have however committed ourselves to this partnership because it’s only way for them to share benefits of conservation. Being served cold food is still unacceptable, and we have plenty of safari chairs at the camp and these still should have brought to you, we apologies for this.
4. Solar water heating. and lighting. in line with requirements we have to meet to pass as an Eco lodge we use solar water heating and lighting, this has its draw backs as well, for solar water, the tank is heated in the day and should one have an elephant shower in the night in the morning there would be little hot water left, The lighting units are also not as consistent depending on weather.
5. The shower, this is an issue of something going wrong at the wrong time, we have had no problems with pressure before but we have since rectified the issue.
Conservation being at the core of our mission in the area we hope you will come back to support this effort as all the reforestation efforts and livelihood that it supports would be lost without you.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
