Rhulani Safari Lodge

We had a great pleasure to spend 4 days in Rhulani Safari Lodge and it was beyond our expectations! Amazing rooms, great food, family atmosphere and wonderful safaris with Thato. We spent a lot of time in a hide, so I was able to capture amazing moments between elephants. Every morning and evening we had a nice chat with Martin! Everything was perfect, so we can recommend this lodge.

My husband and I spent 3 nights at Rhulani as part of our 30th wedding anniversary and my husband's 60th birthday celebrations. This was truly one of the best experiences of our lives - it's very difficult to find the words to do this justice but here goes : We travelled 4 hours from Johannesburg to Rhulani and upon arrival received a fantastic welcome from San Marie, Lisa and Moses - we had a welcome drink and our itinerary for the next 3 days was explained to us. Lisa then showed us to our lodge - well it was absolutely gorgeous - beautiful interior design and a gorgeous porch with sunbeds and our own dip pool. We faced out into the park and it was an absolute joy to sit on the porch or in the pool and see elephants stroll by! Later on day 1 we ventured out on our first 'safari ride' - our Field Guide was called Martin and he was fabulous. He taught us so much about nature and his excitement, passion and enthusiasm for the animals was infectious. Over the course of the next 3 days we had 2 trips out each day - 1 around 06.30am (with a wake up call from Mica at 06.00) and the 2nd around 15.30 each day. The trips lasted around 3 - 4 hours spent in the jeep and we were fortunate to see - elephants, rhinos, impalas, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, lions and many more -- all in their own natural environment. The park has only 4 cheetahs remaining - Martin managed to take us to see one of them - a beautiful creature. By far though the lions were amazing - to see them up close, literally 10 feet away from our jeep - we just couldn't believe it. Even with them so close, we felt very safe. The jeep trips were really exciting - driving on and off road and we really loved every minute of it. Tiring because of the early rises but great. On the evening trip Martin found somewhere for us to stop, get out of the jeep and watch the sun go down with a glass of wine and some nibbles. Then it was back in the jeep and to the lodges for dinner. Don't worry about taking clothes to change into for dinner - you just go straight from safari to dinner. To help celebrate our special occasions, Rhulani very kindly arranged a surprise for us with a private dining experience on our porch, beautiful food (we had ostrich that night) and a bottle of bubbly. On our last night the dinner was a Boma where all guests eat together outdoors - it's a version of bbq and delicious food. The staff shared some of their local culture and traditions with singing and dancing. To summarise this experience - every member of staff was lovely (special mention to Lisa, San Marie, Valencia, Mica, Sean, Alasdair and of course our brilliant Field Guide Martin). We cannot thank all of them and all other staff enough for making our holiday something we will never forget and giving us so many memories. It is a pretty full on experience but you get out of it what you put in and there is time for relaxing and chilling with a few drinks and a swim while you watch the animals go by and have a drin

From the moment we arrived we all felt very welcomed. Fantastic team always there to help . Food was excellent. Rooms were lovely and comfortable. We will always treasure the memories and would like to thank you all at Rhulani . Dean was a great guide so knowledgeable and always made sure my whole family had the best experience in the Bush. Miss you all and would recommend you . Joy Elias and family

We first visited Rhulani in 2022 for our honeymoon, and at the time we said we had been bitten by the safari bug and the magic of Rhulani - this has proven to be true and having just returned from our third visit to Rhulani we can't wait to plan our next trip. It was great to see lots of familiar, friendly faces at the lodge and as always the whole team went above and beyond to make our stay as perfect as the last. Our guide, Dean, was brilliant, and worked hard to teach us about different aspects of Madikwe plus we had some really special sightings out on drives which will stay with us forever. Thanks team Rhulani, we are sure we will be back soon! Sophie and Brett.

Having travelled extensively around Africa and had the privilege of staying in a great many safari lodges in South Africa, Botswana and Kenya particularly, Rhulani is right at the top. The staff are friendly, professional and good fun, the safari guides are brilliant (and I mean brilliant) and the way in which the lodges and public areas are laid out is quite simply perfect. We only intended to stay one night but extended to two and would have stayed longer if we could have done. I would recommend this place to everyone. If you want a break away from it all, to see some wonderful wildlife, to eat delicious food and to be looked after beautifully you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere better. We will be back!

Since there are already a huge number of absolutely fabulous reviews, perhaps another is almost unnecessary or even redundant. However, we absolutely concur with all the former enthusiastic visitors to this truly fantastic haven which boasts an alpha rating PLUS in all areas of Rhulani. We felt from the moment we arrived part of a very special family. It would be totally unjust to highlight anyone in particular since everyone, but everyone, went far beyond the call of duty. HUGE thanks and affectionate gratitude to all from Kathleen & Neil Mackie.