6/10 Good
9 January 2025
Not "luxury", but excellent game drives
I was excited to take my family to a malaria free safari, high quality / luxury experience for our 2 weeks in South Africa. That the game drive, breakfast, and dinner were bundled made things easier. We loved the game drives - the rangers were knowledgeable- especially the ranger on day 2 who had maneuver through mother natures rain and who helped two other rangers with vehicle issues. We say the big 5, and I like that there's a pause for a snack about 2 hours in. I expected "luxury" - the lodge boasts about its food and dinner both nights was not great. Day 1 - there was a mad rush of people and the buffet was untidy with food caked on many of the serving utensils, and food dripped from one pot into another. Day 2 was better - fewer people and they had a few servers at the carving station. I think they could keep it more tidy and "luxury" by having people serve the buffet food instead of self serve. I also did not like that water and soft drinks were treated as add on charges. Please just include this in the price - this felt "nickel and dime" - and far from luxury.
Breakfast was good - though I would have liked tea and coffee to be ready to go vs the 10 minutes it took to receive anything at breakfast. And helpful if water was available.
I had pedicure with polish and the person providing the service cut me a few times, and the polish was not polished in the end. She seemed incensed when she bumped my not dry nails and I asked her to redo.
Verified traveller
2-night family trip
Verified Hotels.com guest review
