Rhino Ridge Safari Lodge

Capacity

Style

On-site stay

Catering

You will search for hospitality, friendliness, and professionalism like this at every place you stay after this, and will find only a fraction. Amazing food with local fresh ingredients, incredible and important involvement in local community, staff that will move Earth to satisfy you, and safari and game guides that have the most genuine love for the animals of the park. Truly, I have a hard time putting to words what I got out of staying here. The world needs more places like Rhino Ridge, not because they are a great hotel, but because they are everything this kind of business should be - community driven, conservation driven, and human driven. Special shout outs to: Abe, the community guide for giving us the opportunity to see and learn about the village as well as Isibindi and our role in supporting them. Cibo, the bush-walk guide, for teaching us practical game-tracking skills, and for the workout we needed after all the delicious food Rhino Ridge provided us. Tobeka, the safari guide, who I cannot thank enough. Her exhuberance and skill are simply intoxicating to be around. If you aren't smiling right along with her, you'll be jaw-dropped on her safari-vehicle taking in the sights she brings you to. Truly all of the Rhino Ridge and Isibindi crew are fabulous, and I'd like to thank them for not only a fabulous time, but for their knowledge and hospitality. A must-stay!

Amazing location, rooms and most importantly staff. The food was excellent, and travelling with a one year old was made so easy. The staff catered to our babies needs, even packing us pad kos when we checked out super early. We had such beautiful game drives, and were so lucky to be able to take our baby to experience the park and the animals. We can’t wait to return! Thank you everyone

We had a wonderful time at Rhino Ridge. It is a special place. The staff were lovely and the whole stay was perfect. The hotel manager Thami and his team treated us so well. We travel regularly and we can say without a doubt that Thami was exceptional as the hotel Manager. Our Luggage had been lost by the Airline and the hotel did everything they could to look after us. Thami's care and attentiveness to our situation was reassuring. His leadership in customer service definitely impressed us, as did his team. Thami helped make many calls on our behalf with the airline in an effort to be reunited with our luggage and resolve the issue before Christmas day. We know he even took calls off duty to try and reunite us with our luggage. We were so impressed by him as the manager. Thami also arranged for us to be driven into the local town to buy clothes with a Safari Tour Guide called Fizol who was lovely. At the Lodge the Safari tours were twice daily, at dawn and dusk. Rhino Ridge is located within the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, which is the oldest Nature Reserve in South Africa. We saw four of the big five there in four days and only missed out on the elusive Leopards! We liked that the safari truck stayed to the road networks inside the Reserve, giving the wild animals hundreds of miles of their own space and habitat without human intrusion. Our guide Sinda was a real character, very experienced as a guide, enthusastic and knowledgable. He kept us safe and we felt safe. His experience reassured us as this was our first safari and it can be unnerving, especially being so close to Lions and Elephants! The food and dining was beautful. The dining room setting was very open plan, high up overlooking the Nature reserve. My husband informed the Manager Thami that it was our anniversary, and on the night the staff performed an suprise impromptu live music ceremony for us. They also decorated our room with flower petals. It was lovely. We definitely recommend Rhino ridge and we hope to return again. It was a magical place.

This is an experience I would recommend to every person. From the moment of enquiry to the Lodge, throughout the booking and our stay: nothing was ever too much, every effort was made to provide an exceptional service. The food was exciting, making your taste buds dance with flavours. Our safari experiences were more Ethan I could have ever dreamed of. I felt incredible completing a walking safari tour too. All I can say is book this, stay here and live a dream in reality.