Aha Makalali Private Game Lodge

This review is for our stay at the River Lodge, which is situated not far from the Makalali main lodge. It was our first time going on a safari and it was an absolutely incredible experience!! We stayed for 3 nights, doing 6 drives total and saw four of the big five on our very first drive! Each drive was awesome and we saw a different variety of animals each time. We stayed in one of the private suites and loved the accommodations and staff. The lodging portion of the reserve is not fenced in, so cool to see animals walking through the lodging area during the day. The staff was awesome- our safari guides Nongbu and Patrick were extremely knowledgeable and made each drive memorable for us. Chef Sarah cooked incredible meals daily, and Romi & Dorothy provided excellent service while hanging out at the lodge. Solly guided us to our room at night and is the absolute best!! Amazing experience overall. Would highly recommend to anyone considering staying with them and we can’t wait for our next safari!

We had the absolute trip of a lifetime, wish we would have done this many years ago! Saw the Top 5 and many more animals and birds. This was due to our excellent trackers, Paul Bhila and Patrick Sibiya. They made this an experience I will always remember! The entire staff was outstanding, the lodging made me feel I was really out in Africa!

Absolutely delightful hotel! Clean, good food and incredible safaris!! The safari guides Honest and Patrick are excellent! They truly took such good care of us and found every single animal we wanted to see throughout our tour! Both are skilled and know the animals and reserve very well!

Just returned from a Fabulous stay at the Makalali Private Game Reserve. Our family of 6 thoroughly enjoyed our visit in this beautiful property. We saw numerous animals, including the elusive Leopard! The staff were friendly, welcoming, and knowledgeable, the premises are breathtaking, and the rooms are very comfortable. Would return in a hearbeat!

We had the best time during our stay at Makalali. Oshel and Calvin did a wonderful job as guide and tracker respectively. We can't wait to be able to return one day.

We thought carefully about posting this but wanted to share our experience. The rooms have no lock, and during our stay we were robbed (someone stole about 200 euros from a concealed pocket in a knapsack). We reported it to the management but they did not meet with us before we left. They sent us an email 2 weeks later saying they had investigated, but concluded nothing has happened because they do not have a culture in which such things happen.