A wonderful respite after a long day of travel. The traditional sundowner in the open air bar that overlooked the lake. The service was impeccable, and the accommodations could not have been better! Monkeys and Elephants have been know to come visit. Simon Gluckman of Intrepid Travels set this up for us, and everything was 1st class!

I recently stayed at Jacana safari lodge and can say it is one of the best places I've ever stayed (and I've travelled extensivly round the world).

As others have said the location is stunning, on the edge of the lake, in the middle of the forest, with wild animals all around, a hippo under our window, chimps in the forest, gentle colobus monkeys while you eat, spectacular.

Add to that the rooms and facilites themselves, they are beautifully designed, stay true to "eco" principles, and and perfectly maintained. (They must have had a facelift since the others have written as I simply couldn't find one single thing wrong with the rooms, and I'm incredibly fussy) Previous reviwers have mentioned the shower water. It does have a slight (only slight) smell of sulphur, but people pay a fortune to wash in volcanic water, this comes for free here, its a luxury rather than a negative to me!

Finally, and this is what makes Jacana, the employees of the lodge. They make the difference between somewhere good and somewhere stunning. The chef cooked the most wonderful meals, three courses, three times a day, served in the most beautiful dining room. The reception employees were efficient friendly and accurate, nothing was too much trouble, and the manager runs a tight ship where no detail is overlooked. All of them made you feel incredibly welcome.

We extended our stay because we simply didn't want to leave. Go, you'll love it.

P.S. the room rates I feel are a bargain when you take into account the facilites, location and quality of the food, (they are all inclusive).

I led a group of photographers on a three day Safari Photography Workshop at Jacana and couldn't have been happier. We had ample space for formal workshops and were well placed to access the park to put our knowledge into practice. The food was exceptional and the chef went out of her way to make the food as tasty and well presented as possible. Many upcountry lodges fail on the food front and claim it is hard to access proper ingredients. The chef at Jacana put these other lodges to shame and produced exceptional meals time after time.

The staff were incredibly good to us and were able to accommodate our needs which ran from the basic to the more complicated needs like extra fuel and mobile phone cards. After long days taking photos and talking photography the accommodation was a welcome retreat and the comfortable beds and hot showers were warmly received.

Couldn't have asked fro more from the lodge and its staff! We will be back.

The lodge is located 11km from the main road along a very bumpy road into the bush. We were based here for game drives into Queen Elizabeth National Park which was a short drive along the main road - on the way we saw some large game including elephants.
The facilities were good although there were some issues, mainly the mildew smell coming from the shower curtain. Other than that, the showers were hot and good. The rooms are spacious and well furnished with wardrobes and shelving as well as a table and chairs. The room had a veranda overlooking the lake. We did not have any problems with monkeys during our stay, and I cannot recall seeing any at the lodge, although there were some noisy birds!!
The food in the restaurant was very good, and the captain's table floating platform in the lake was good fun with the group of friends we went with. The staff were fantastic, not too pushy but helpful. There were not many other guests at our time of visit, so the lodge was very quiet.