Set on the banks of the Luangwa River overlooking the South Luangwa National Park nestled under shady Mahogany trees lies the picturesque Croc Valley Camp. “Your camp with personality” We offer a variety of varied accommodation to suit everyone’s pocket, from self contained chalets on platforms, luxury en-suite tents on the river bank , ten dollar per night backpacker/dorm rooms, Family House to the campsite with thatched lapa's, electrical points and water outlets all on lush green lawns. All tastefully segregated but still part of the overall experience.Our chalets are completely environmentally friendly and in order to experience the nomadic night wonders at eye level our chalets are raised on platforms providing a fantastic safe viewpoint from which to see the wildlife that wanders through the camp. Throughout your stay, our chef's can provide delicious meals and snacks from original recipes using fresh ingredients for your meticulously prepared meals and for those that wish to self-cater or camp, full kitchen facilities are provided. Our campsite is well catered for campers and overland trucks with parking areas, fire places, power points, hot showers and ablutions.Between safaris, in the midday heat, our hippo friendly swimming pool provides the perfect place to relax and cool off. Hammocks are also scattered around the camp over-seeing the river and the swimming pool. The bar is always open and serves ice cold drinks throughout the day, whether you prefer to relax by the pool, catch up through our FREE WiFi , in a hammock or catch up with the news on our satellite TV.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Charming
Location
South Luangwa National Park, Kakumbi, South Luangwa National Park Zambia
South Luangwa was the highlight of our holiday! We had the most amazing sightings (wild dogs, lions, leopards, birds and that is not all!) in the Emerald season, early Jan. The 6 campsites are located right at the river, under a shelter, which was a total blessing. Amazing pool in the camp. It is unique to be able to self cater (camping) while also having the luxury of a bar, restaurant and a pool. Never had that before, so it felt like a five star hotel. We were the only ones camping. Game drives and park entrance fees are more expensive than in other countries like SA, Bots and Malawi, but I cannot compare with prices in Zam. The chef made some delicious cookies for the morning game drive. We went on a self drive once, but it was very clear that guides driving around are not too happy with you doing that. We did not see anyone else do it. Some small improvement could very easily be made in the camp: cleaning of the communal kitchen, cleaning the restaurant tables, tightening the safari vehicle’s wheel nuts (and perhaps adding a few ;)), cleaning cigarette butts from the vehicle.. We struggled with the monkeys, who would (especially when camp staff was out of sight) get in the car, even if you are standing in front of it, they just charge you and then go for it. Not sure what you can do about it... All in all I have had the most wonderful camping experience and we will definitely come back.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I booked with my family (8 in total) four river front tents for four nights with full board. We initally booked for 2020, due to Covid, we could only travel in 2022, while Croc Valley just kept our reservation without problem. Transfer with a van from and to Lusaka was conveniently organised. Location of the tent along the river is magnificent. Staff is very friendly and helpfull. The game drives were amazing, we had very good sights of leopards, pity that we didnt see any lions. Food is good and plenty too. Special compliments for the cooks who really dealt well with our dietary requirements (gluten and lactose free). Lastly, Croc Valley really provides value for money, I can really recommend them if you are travelling on a limited budget. And South Luangwa might be one of the nicest Parks you will ever see.
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Date of stay: August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We had a great Safari experience with Croc Valley. It already starts with the excellent location of the lodge and the bar/restaurant just above the river shore: crocs and hippos right underneath your nose and in the evening elefants crossing the river. We booked morning and night drives and a walking safari and our guide (Chadric) was absolutely superb and knowlegable. The walking safari was amongst the best safari experiences ever. And one night a huge elefant crossed the camp.
One mor hint: We tried to walk to the lodge from Mfue, but this is not recommended. Encounters with Elefants and Buffaloes are highly probable, even outside the boudaries of the national park. Better pay the taxi a little extra fee to deliver you at doorstep.
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Date of stay: July 2022
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Croc Valley is aptly named, as we have never seen so many and so large crocs, all in one place. Don't worry, the river bank is very high and the crocs don't come and try to visit. There is power in each campsite and a few lights which worked all the time. There is also a small central kitchen, with freezers, fridges and stoves, if you need to use them, but it is about 200 m from the camps. The campsites are quite small and very near the bar. Thankfully there were few customers, but it is likely to be quite loud if there are lots of guests, or backpackers.
The showers were OK, but often turn to a dribble if more than one person uses them. The other issue was the monkeys, which are quite prolific and you cant leave anything out in the campsite, otherwise it will be eaten or just chewed up.
Overall the place was OK, but a bit run down. COVID has probably affected their income stream, but there are nicer campsite around at similar prices.
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Date of stay: May 2021
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Buy firewood from traders on bicyles directly, otherwise prices are very high both from the camp...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Lodge is very nice with a good look out on sand banks. The Staff is very friendly and ready to help you if needed any assistance. The experience show that the Turtle Rooms (being the cheapest) show some drawbacks such as a not functioning Safe in the Room we stayed in, also the rooms are very tiny and crampt for housing 3 people. The room had a worn-out springbed and Mattress however when we asked it was shiftly replaced with better quality bed and mattress. Another important point, the full accomodation is not worth the amount we payed, the game drive was ok although amount of animals was segnificantly lower then in Malawian Game Reserves, the food was ok good quality but lacking some flavour and freshness. If you don't need a small breakfast at the start of the Safari at 5:30, we would recommend that all food, accommodation and Safari be booked separately as it would have been the cheapest option.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We absolutely loved our 4 night stay at Croc Valley. It is a fantastic lodge because of its old world charm and total immersion in wildlife. We had a herd of elephants wander through camp twice, each day woke up to big baboons bouncing on our tent roof, watched spotted antelope grazing by the pool and enjoyed spotting hippo and crocs in the river from the deck. Food can take a while to arrive but with that view, who cares. Staff were friendly and helpful. We did self-drive for the safari which was brilliant. If you don't have a car, they advise you not to walk to the local town of Mfuwe because of all the animals but you can get a taxi. There are several great lunch spots in town, so it's fun to visit and get a wider selection of dishes if you're staying for a while.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: August 2023
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The lodge is outside the NP but very close to the gate.We needed 2 family chalets for the four of us.Each chalets have fully furnished kitchen and beds to accomodate 3 adults.There is a huge fan too to help beat the October heat.The chalets face an open glassland and sitting in the cosy veradah one can see the elephant troop marching by,the buffaloes munching as they move to the river,the pukus and kudus all day long and ofcourse the notorious monkeys.Such a treat to watch the babies playing with each other and their moms. The resturant serves all three meals and the food quality is good.Yes,the furniture,the famous chess set ,the hammock are all worn out and need replacing but then covid has been hard to all of us .So if more local tourist come better the chance for renovations.The location of the restutant is amazing.Facing the mighty Luangwa,one is in for treat.Hippos roam about,elephats come to quench their thirst,crocdiles float by and numerous bird fly by. For the last night we were moved to the accomodation which is meant for backpackers.It was near the kitchen but surprisingly had AC.Not very comfortable to sleep in a place full of beds,bunk beds,queen bed but we managed for that single night. The workers are quite polite.Herbert was very helpful and answered all my queries. The lodge also organised the walking safari and game drive for us which as other reviewers point out is the best!
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Date of stay: October 2021
Value
Rooms
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
If you are looking for great food, bar, staff, and safari experience, then Croc Valley is the place for you. With different types of accommodations, this will give you choices on how you want to live on your stay. The safari's experiences are great and I highly recommend doing a combo of night and morning safaris. A guide to use there is Banard as I have used him three times and he is a very experienced guide and has great knowledge. Herbert the manager will help you in any way you can and is extremely friendly. Do not hesitate to stay here if you come to South Luangwa
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Date of stay: April 2021
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:River Front Tents
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
-13.101052, 31.793907 Campsites near Mfuwe, South Luangwa National Park, are a popular choice among travellers due to their excellent proximity to the park, reasonable prices and diverse wildlife viewing opportunities. Guests often mention waking up to views of wildlife right from their tent or chalet.
On the banks of the Luangwa River, 500 meters before the Mfuwe gate on the right, this large accommodation caters for backpackers, campers, overlanders, families and groups. It has a bar with great river views, (pre-ordered) restaurant with Wi-Fi reception and a swimming pool. Enjoying your cold beer, you can see hippos and crocs in the river and on the sandbank.
The campsite has several open kitchens with mosquito nets, BBQ facilities and ablution blocks for camping and chalets, air-conditioned river tents with and well-priced ‘backpackers’ turtle rooms with shared facilities. A walk-through Croc Valley shows it has seen better days, the pizza ovens and coffee bar are closed and maintenance leaves to be desired. The facilities could benefit from upgrades and better maintenance to improves the overall experience
During our stay in June 2024, a water shortage at Zambia’s hydroelectric dams caused power cuts for 12 hours, necessitating hot showers to be scheduled. During the day, baboons and antelopes walk among the tents and at night the campsite is visited by hippos and elephants and sometimes lions. The owner warned every guest not to leave their tents at night risking being chased by a hippo.
The camp offers guided game drives, which are led by knowledgeable and passionate guides. These drives provide ample opportunities to see a wide range of animals, making it a highlight of the stay.
For travellers looking to explore South Luangwa National Park, Croc Valley camp offers a good balance of affordability and wildlife adventure. Recommended.
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Date of stay: June 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Location is really cool on the river and also loved the pool. I had to leave a 1 star review due to poor management and resolution of an issue we had with our morning game drive. Our game drive started well seeing an elephant really close up, however the next few hours were spent stopping and and starting our way around the park as the truck continued to cut out, eventually us needing to push start it multiple times. I'm not sure why the guide continued driving as if the truck was going to fix itself??Eventually it completely stopped and we had 1hr-1.5hrs waiting for another car to bring fuel!!!! We had assumed it was something serious, not running out of fuel!! We had spent 50US each through our tour company to spend the morning stopping and starting and pushing the truck to start it. After we refuelled we made our way back to the campsite doing a couple of loops by the gate looking for leopards. Other than the elephant, the other wildlife we saw was also in our campsite.
We immediately spoke with the staff at the campsite to inform them what had happened and over the afternoon they said they would need to speak to the manager and come back to us. We followed up several times during the day and got the same response with no resolution. We asked if we could have a discounted night drive at-least. Management didn't even bother to come back to us before going home for the night and was not present in the morning to discuss the issue.
Of 14, only 3 people did the night drive (still full price) where as there would have been atleast 10 if management had at least talked with us. We were worried about wasting more money and the same problems happening. We couldn't use another provider without having to pay double for our accomodation*. We spoke to other guests at the park and they said they would have demanded a full refund. Really really disappointed in the service and experience as we were all really looking forward to South Luanga! Also, this made no business sense for them to behave like this as all we were asking for was a discount for the night drive, where we would have been spending another few hundred USD. Go figure.
* if you use a different game drive provider, Croc valley will double your accomodation costs!! With this mentality they should take more responsibility when their game drive provider's service was not at all acceptable.
NOTE: Happy to adjust this review if management respond to my partners emails and provides us with a partial refund or some sort of resolution.
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Date of stay: November 2023Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
hello, i don't understand by comfort tents but turtle tents are not on suite while river front tents are on suite. hope this helps and please do let us know if there is anything more you would like to know. thanks, Herbert.
There are more places to choose from in the Kakumbi area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
croc valley camp hotel south luangwa national park
LOCATION
ZambiaSouth Luangwa National ParkKakumbi
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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