Ai Aiba - the Rock Painting Lodge

Great location.Cozy rooms with wonderfull view. Staff very friendly. Very good food.

This lodge is remote and offers a lot of memorable experiences, even to the most seasoned traveller. - You can meet and greet San people, who until this day live as hunter-gatherers - you can admire superb rock paintings - you can see rare species like Hartmann's Mountain Zebras or Damara Dik-Diks, endemic only to this area. - or you can just marvel at the stunning scenery and breath-taking sunsets. We had chosen this lodge to break up the long journey from Swakopmund to Etosha and we are glad we did. We arrived around midday. I really wanted to meet the San people in the nearby Living Museum, whereas my family was hot and couldn't wait to get into the swimming pool at the lodge. As a compromise we chose the short demonstration tour of 30 minutes. It is an exhilirating experience, yet it has its fair share of awkwardness. While the San were very nice and welcoming and demontrated how they make fire and ropes, the short time we spend there wasn't enough to make us feel less like being intruders and more like guests. That being said, I would highly recommend it - just that next time I will come earlier and do a whole tour of 2 hours. On to the lodge. Nice, yet the place felt a bit old-fashioned and the swimming pool was suprisingly cold. The resident grazing warthog was an amusement for the kids, though. We did the well signed walk above the lodge, which had stunning views and magnificent rock art. Probably the best one-hour long "free activity" of any lodge in the whole of Namibia (see pictures). We also joined a sundowner Rock Art/Game drive in which we were unlucky in terms of animal sightings - we barely saw any wildlife. Ronny, our guide, was an awesome companion, though. He showed us some more rock art and nice rock formations, so the whole drive turned out to be very memorable. However, we saw a lot of wildlife when we left the property (giraffes, Damara Dik-Diks, Mountain Zebra and other antilopes - you just cannot predict nature! Food was good, so was the overall service. In a nutshell, this place has something going on, with a few refurbishments this place will be an absolute winner.

Excellent Hotel Lovely location with excellent room facilities..The water hole attracts a lot of animals which were a real delight. Breakfast was excellent and service from the restaurant staff was also very good.. Reception staff had a bit of attitude especially if you did not agree to their suggestions