Understated Luxury in a Big Five Game Reserve. This is glamping! Tastefully decorated with lots of thoughtful details in the 'tents'. Excellent food and game drives. Friendly and attentive staff. Great value for this level of luxury. Saw all the big five. Will definitely return. Highly recommended!

Nothing.

The private tours with excellent guides (Chris/Victor)

Great game drives, great food and drinks. They made sure we had everything we needed. The room was amazing.

nothing

Location fantastic being 30 minutes from Hoedspruit town. Staff and guides excellent. Food fantastic. Amazing room and the best "tent" I've ever stayed in. Drives great. Exceptional property.

20/10 😊 This place is amazing! We loved every minute of our stay here. The staff was friendly and welcoming, food was delicious, the tents are decorated perfectly and the overall atmosphere is very relaxing. Then there are the game drives that were so much better that we hoped for. So a big thank you to everyone.

The perfect safari-spot! The whole team was so nice and friendly, everything felt very personal, the lodge and its location are beautiful and the food was delicious. Even though the weather wasn’t so good, the guides still managed to find so many awesome animals for us.

That we only stayed 2 nights…

Perfect Stay! After researching weeks for the perfect place to stay, me and my family decided to go for Imagine Africa. Trust me when I say this lodge excede our expectations. Beds/rooms are a 20/10, staff is 20/10 and the food was amazing! On our second day we already had seen the Big Five. Couldn’t recommend this hotel more!

Everything was absolutely perfect!

We stayed 3 nights and we can say that our expectations have been exceeded. Richard and Amanda just opened the lodge about a year ago and you can see that they put a lot of effort in every single detail. The tents were bigger and even more beautiful then we thought and also the main area of the hotel is so amazing and invites you to relax and chat to the other guests or someone from the team. Everything is very clean - even the outdoor bathtub still looks like it was brand new. The tents have an indoor and an outdoor shower, a seperate toilet, two washbasins and a very big and comfortable double bed. Everyone of the staff is really nice and the service was outstanding. The atmosphere was very welcoming and like visiting friends. The food was also great. After the morning drive you get fresh fruits, joghurt, musli, home-made bread/ croissants and an egg dish. Lunch (1 course) and dinner (3 course) change every day and it was always very good (and a lot). Drinks are charged separately but with very fair prices (not comparable to restaurant prices). The game drives were great. Gary and Victor will do their best to show you the big 5 but also highlight other very interesting things. On 6 game drives we saw: *10 different lions *2 different leopards (one of them we saw twice) *2 rhinos *hippos *chameleon *buffalos and a lot of elefants, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, … The lodge is one of the first once when you enter the Balule national park. Therefore, it is quite easy to get there (40 min from Hoedspruit airport). In the beginning we were not sure if we should book the hotel as it is very new and doesn‘t have many recommendations. But in the end we were so happy that we did it. It was probably the best value for money we have ever seen for a South African game lodge.

How great everyone treated us, and the food made by the inhouse chef was amazing.

Nothing everything was perfect

- room (with a view) - the waterhole where you can enjoy your breakfast or lunch with elephants or hyenas or all other kind of wildlife - pool with a view - hospitality - Game drives (saw almost the big 5, missed the leopard) and the game drive area! - my favorite sight: hyenas and lots of wild dogs - close to nature - food - perfect for solo travels as well

- there is nothing to complain

The scenery and tents are beautiful, every meal that Orlando prepared was delicious, and game drives with Gary, Ridwell, and Will were an adventure! Imcredible wildlife sightings.

Nothing!

Rarely do you come across a lodge where everything is perfect! From the moment we arrived to sadly having to say goodbye, Gary, JD and all the staff at Imagine Africa were ever present and attentive. Gary and Ridwell make a great guide/tracker team and we were lucky enough to see 2 separate lion sightings, hyena cubs, black rhino, elephant, and of-course zebra, giraffe, kudu and impala. The camp owners, Richard and Amanda, joined the guests for dinner on Saturday night which was a nice touch. They are wonderful folks and make you feel like part of the family. The luxury tents are beyond any other safari tents I have ever seen! They are amazing and the bathrooms are 5 star!

Nothing to dislike.

Imagine Africa's motto is "Guided by Excellence.....Driven by Passion". It was really gratifying to have the reality of our experience match the motto. Richard and Amanda set the tone, emulated by the whole team. We really enojyed having Gary, our guide/driver and Sydwell, our tracker, get as excited as we did when we came across cheetahs (twice!), black rhino, lion, buffalo, hyena, leopard, baby elephant etc! Gary has a wealth of knowledge - of fauna and flora - which he was very happy to share. Thus you too can find out how flies literally end up flying around in a Wildebeest's head, and where the Xhoi-san get their poison from for their arrows, and how to treat a person who has been 'shot' in the eye by a spitting cobra. Our stomachs were well-looked after, with each meal having its own special theme - in essence simple and traditional South African dishes which were extremely well cooked and well presented by Lukas, our charming Chef. Fellow guests Tracey and Mark, from overseas and also in the hospitality industry, were similarly impressed. The tents, airconditioned and with much-needed inside/ outside showers, were in immaculate condition and with all the privacy you need. Most importantly Richard and his team have gone for authenticity and simplicity in their approach, and this permeated all aspects of our stay. All staff were friendly but unobtrusive, yet on hand to assist with any queries. Richard is also a raconteur of note, and if your passion is enjoying a few drinks and yarns around the bar late into the night, you will need to have your wits about you ........Richard has the constitution, the energy and many campfire stories to outlast most who take up the challenge...........and Gary will be there the next morning - at 05:00 sharp - to drag you from your slumber in seriously comfy beds for the morning drive, even if it's pouring with rain minutes after you start! Kudos to all.

The friendly staff, from the front desk staff, kitchen and game drive. The food was delicious and the owner and his family were also friendly. The room was beautiful and comfortable. Had the best stay and the best Christmas.

Nothing. Everything was beyond my expectations.

Passionate staff going the extra mile in every way. Very knowledgeable about animals and birdlife. Learnt a lot even though just on one night short stay. Recently built on a big 5 conservancy area, only 10 rooms, overlooking a waterhole. Personal touch to everything. Tastefully decorated and excellent use of copper piping to create rustic effect, even with light fittings. Two showers and bath tub in each unit. Tented camp, with air-conditioning and fans. Great food, and catered for halal. We saw buffalo, rhino, elephant, hyena, wild dog, many antelope, giraffe, and a killing of a hare by a black mamba. Lions and cheetah were elusive, though were sighted in the area earlier in week.

Roads are gravel as soon as you enter the first gate, then about 5 kms to Imagine. Good animal sighting even en-route once on conservancy. Saw over 10 elephant on return while leaving.

The hospitality

The tents are modern and comfortable. The food was good as was the service in general.

As it is at the Western end of Balule, we did not see that much game.

Bush and private

Nothing really

Tranquil place with a lot of space and amenities. Game drives two times a day left nothing to be desired. Staff is very attentive and take great care for their guests.

We loved everything! We didn't see as much game as one would in the Kruger Park but what we did see was truly special; a hyena with her babies, lion cubs, wild dogs, running hippos. Solly - our ranger was great and shared lots of interesting tidbits about every animal. The lodge itself was beautifully decorated and our room stunning with an awesome outside bath. The staff very friendly and attentive. The food was also top notch, very tasty, pretty big portions and perfectly prepared. All-in-all a fantastic experience and I would definitely recommend the lodge to anyone.

Some suggestions but no criticism - We felt that the evening game drive could be slightly shorter and then supper could've been slightly earlier as well. We only ended up eating after 20:00/20:30 every evening - but it was really a small thing. We also had some strong winds one evening which was very noisy on the tent roof