Protea Hotel Zambezi River Lodge Review

I drove to Katima Mulilo in one for from Windhoek. It is a long drive and I would highly recommend it only during the daylight. Once you get up north there are too many animals on the road to drive quickly and safely at night. That said the road all the way is paved and in good condition. Only the turn to the hotel and the last 200 meters is a maintained dirt road. You are fine to make the trip without a 4WD vehicle. I did it in a Toyota Corolla.

I booked two hours before arrival using the app. They did not have the reservation when I arrived, but were able to find it when I gave them the number. I had booked the cheapest room and they upgraded me to a river view room.

The hotel is mostly empty as most of the travel infrastructure at the moment. Hygiene stations, masks and social distancing were encouraged.

The room was what I have come to call Protea standard. A bit tired, but not extremely so. On the edge of needing maintenance/renewal so that you think it might be unclean. However, it was actually clean. The pictures are accurate but show the rooms when they were new. They are no longer in this pristine state. I will attach some shots I took so you can see the current state.

Travelers to here should consider the increased malaria risk in this area. I did not take any prophylactics and just used caution. I avoided dawn and dusk, wore long sleeves, used room spray and spray on myself. Bottles can be purchased along the way at most petrol stations. I found that even at night and despite its location between a river and a more stagnant marshland, there were not a lot of mosquitoes.

The room is entered through a sliding screen door, followed by a glass door.  My screen had a hole in it, so I was not able to sleep with the doors open.

The room is airconfitioned and has all of the standard amenities. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

All of the buildings are in a row extending out in one direction from the main building:

This is the view back towards the main building: 

This is a boat ramp. Apparently in years gone by the hotel had a big boat and also had a floating bar out in the middle of the river:

The end of the buildings:

This is the area behind the row of houses. Looks like marsh to me. Despite this, there were not a billion bugs around.

This is the Zamebzi river view from the room. On the far side is Zambia. The hotel can organize a fairly inexpensive boat or fishing cruise on the river through Caprivi Adventures. For a boat tour 1-2 hours is sufficient. You can see some wildlife (crocodiles, hippos, otters). The river to the south of the Caprivi strip (Chobe) is better for wildlife. Sunset cruises are also on offer. I did not try due to the mosquitoes.

Everyone at the hotel was really friendly and greeted me each time. I was the only tourist at this time, which made me a rarity. The other booked 5 rooms were all business people.

The view of the main building from the boat. The visible portion is the hotel bar and restaurant with a terrace. You can also sit on the terrace.

This is the view from the brekfastroom/Restaurant onto the river.

Breakfast room from the main corridor

The main corridor, restaurant on the right, reception at the end

The restaurant coming from the rooms

The swimming pool. It did not look like there was any service happening bexond cleaning the pool. Swimming in the river is not an option due to the wildlife.

On my two-night stay I dined here once. The menu was a bit limited due to the pandemic and low occupancy. The food was reasonable quality. Table service was also okay, although I sometimes had to wait for drink refills because the staff was stretched thin. I found it acceptable given the economic situation.

The breakfast buffet I felt was rather limited. What was on offer was fine. They had a cook to order omelette station.

For any history buffs, the Caprivi Strip (now Zambezi Region) is a historical oddity from the Race for Africa colonial period. Germany wanted a way to get from its western to eastern colonies and therefore traded to get this strip of land to get access to the Zambezi river. Little did they know the access was pretty meaningless because the Victoria Falls were along the way.

Theis hotel is near multiple borders and is well positioned for day trips to Victoria Falls and various national parks in Zambia, Botwswana and Zimbabwe. At the moment however, the borders are effectively closed unless you want to dig deep into your pockets because you need to do so much Covid testing for your travel group and your driver to get across the borders on top of the visa fees most likely due. 

In the post-Covid era this will be a good starting point for tourists from Namibia (who cannot travel  across borders with their hired cars) to explore this natural area.

As a last photo....the sunrise on the Zambezi

I believe this is the only hotel in the area. Everything else is a more typical lodge. In any case, I can recommend this hotel if you find yourself in this exciting region.