Mantis Akagera Game Lodge Reviews

We decided to pay a visit to Akagera National Park and, as some of the activities we wanted to do required an overnight stay in the park, we contacted the Akagera Game Lodge from the park gate to see if they could accommodate us. We were told that a room for 2 adults and a child would cost $252 – so we decided to go ahead. When we got to the hotel, the lady working in reception could not disguise her disdain that a child of 12 would be sharing a room with his parents. We explained that this was our preference and our decision, she countered that their policy was that we would have to book 2 rooms. My husband was asked to access the online system to book the rooms as they were unable to do so from the front desk. He did so and, to the chagrin of the reception staff, was able to book one room for 2 adults and a child. The reception staff reluctantly informed us that they would put an additional bed in the room. As we left to go to our room, we asked for 2 sandwiches as we had booked a boat trip that would begin shortly but hadn’t eaten much that day. After leaving our stuff in the room, we returned to pick up our sandwiches and head out for the boat trip. By now they’d had 20 minutes to prepare 2 chicken sandwiches, and they still weren’t ready. My husband actually had to run up to the kitchen to chase after them so that we didn’t miss the trip. We returned to the hotel later that night after an evening excursion. We went to the restaurant for dinner. It was explained that dinner was served ‘family style’. Family style consists of having to eat what is put in front of you or eating nothing at all. The first course was tomato soup – my son and I are allergic. The last course was a variety of desserts that had been sitting out in the open and subjected to the many insects flying around. Later, when we returned to our room after ‘dinner’ – we found that there was no additional bed for my son! But it was late, we had an early start the next morning, and my husband just couldn’t face any further disagreements with the staff in reception – so he just slept on the floor! The next morning after breakfast – which actually offered a variety of quality, insect free options – we checked out. We were presented with a bill for $385! When we challenged the manager about the lack of an additional bed, she turned puce with shame and offered to deduct the cost of breakfast from our bill. It was only later that we realised that breakfast should have been included in the price of the room – so, in fact she had been offering us no concession at all. Sneaky, sneaky… To top it all off, my son had picked up a stomach bug the previous night so we weren’t able to do the safari we had booked that morning. I guess family style fly saliva doesn’t agree with everyone!