Part of Wilderness Safaris' portfolio of premier camps, Jao is a special place that combines Asian style (the public areas and the rooms were inspired by a Balinese longhouse) with a very African feel (jackalberry and mangosteen trees, liberal use of thatch). Rooms are uberluxurious and the staff are extremely professional and attentive to your every need.
This place is an experience as much as it is a lodge and it does things that no other lodges do – it has a first-class wine cellar you're welcome to browse, a small gym, arguably the best gift shop we saw in the delta, a real tree-house feel that comes from an award-winning design that incorporates elevated walkways, and a high vantage point overlooking the water.
The rooms, with perfectly sited outdoor day beds on the long terraces, feel like your own extremely large delta hideaway. Wooden furnishings, nightly hot-water bottles placed in your bed while you're at dinner, marvellous beds, yoga mats, a mini library in your room – this is one place where you'll almost certainly want to spend an afternoon or morning in camp. If you do so, you might be really lucky and have the elusive Pel's fishing owl perch right outside your window.
Calling you out are the activities, from mokoro or motorboat excursions on the skein of waterways, to wildlife drives led by expert guides in search of lions, leopards and even sitatungas, not to mention rich birdlife.
Unusually, there is a small entertainment room with wi-fi connectivity for those who really must stay in touch with the outside world.
