Imbali Safari Lodge — Hotel in Bushbuckridge

My wife has never been to the Kruger National Park, so I decided to treat her to a 5-star Lodge experience for her very special birthday celebration.

After lots of research and reading all reviews, we decided to stay at the Hoyo Hoyo 5-star Safari Lodge for 3 nights and at the Imbali 5-star Safari Lodge for 2 nights.

IMBALI The Cost per person per day was R 9 403 and included accommodation, all meals, local beverages and 2 x Safari drives per day.

ACCOMMODATION The accommodation was decent and spacious.

There was only a minibar but also no expresso machine in our suite which we believe should have been standard, especially for the price we paid.

The mini bar was only stocked with some water and gas cooldrinks including tonic water but no gin or any other local alcohol.

CUISINE The food, albeit fresh, was not on par with any 4 or 5-star establishments that we have been to and food choices were limited.

There was only one Expresso/Coffee machine and at times there were 12 - 15 guests around.

On our first night, we were informed that all guests will be treated to a braai/barbeque in the large Boma after our game drive which initially sounded exciting.

Upon our arrival, my wife and I were ushered to a table to join 4-men of which one was our Game Ranger and the other 3 contractors staying over at Imbali as they were performing work there for the week.

There were no other tables available so we decided to make the best of it, but did not enjoy it.

The service we received on our first night in the Boma was shockingly bad.

We had to fetch our water and red wine from a central bar counter as all the waitrons were mostly gathered around a large table of international guests and not taking much care of our ‘South African” table.

The meat was tough and the side dishes very average, overall just a bad first evening experience.

We had a private table the second evening and the food and service were better except for the choices of wine which were mediocre. (same as Hoya Hoya)

Rather offer good wines and limit them to 1 bottle per person/couple per day.

SAFARI DRIVES They were well organised with good rangers and comfortable vehicles although the sitings were not as good as I have seen when driving on the tar roads before.

WELLNESS TREATMENT We decided not to book any wellness treatments given our experience at Hoyo Hoyo.

SERVICE We were well received upon our arrival and after checking in we requested 2 x in-room Gym bags and we were promised that it would still be delivered to us that afternoon which did not materialise.

We went and collected it ourselves the next morning.

The general service was not as good as Hoya Hoya and certainly not acceptable for a 5-star establishment.

NOISE POLLUTION During our last afternoon rest before the game drive, we were rudely disturbed by loud machine noise nearby our suite, and when we enquired about it, we were told that it is contractors doing excavation work.

The bottle of sparkling wine and fruit received thereafter as an apology does not make up for it.

Surely management should know when maintenance work is performed and then to assure that guests are housed far away from any form of disturbance?

CONCLUSION Given our experience, Imbali does not offer good Value for Money as we have stayed at many other 4 and 5-star Lodges that offer much better value for money.

Given our disappointing experience, we give Imbali 2.5...

This place is so wild that past 7pm you have to be escorted from your room everywhere you go, just in case you get swept away by a leopard, it's pretty wild here 😅

🛏️ The Room:

The Room we stayed in was lovely, a little dated I would say but they certainly made an effort once they knew it was our honeymoon and made it very pretty on a few occasions.

⚠️ There was also a warning next to the pools in the lodge and outside our room, that if you use them, it's at your own risk if you get attacked by animals!

🍴The Restaurant:

Everything we had tasted great, the breakfast was your typical buffet breakfast but lovely all the same. For the evening menu it was a set menu to choose from which was a lot more fancy, the steak I had in particular is easily one of the best steaks I've ever had!

🚙 The Location:

The location was perfect and right in Kruger National Park so you really couldn't get any closer to Wildlife if you tried.

In the evenings we could genuinely hear lions and hyenas outside our room, it was insane.

🦁 Game Drives:

We saw all of the big 5 and a whole lot more, one of the rare finds was seeing wild dogs which apparently are very rare and all of the rangers from other camps were going crazy to see them too.

We had Andrew as our ranger for the duration of our trip, a really lovely guy. He was more of the quiet reserved type compared to what we experienced in our previous camp. He was certainly good at finding all the animals but maybe could have been a bit more talkative/informative about the wildlife.

🗻 Overall Experience:

We thought this place was pretty special and everyone was very friendly and welcoming, now I've got to be honest we literally came from a 10 star resort in Camp Jabulani where we got married and we couldn't help but compare.

The only criticism I would say is that our holiday was planned since 2020 from the moment we arrived to the moment we left, and my husband made special requests to each location as it was our honeymoon and there was initially no effort made at all until speaking with management so it was a little disappointing and awkward when we first arrived but things did certainly improve once we met Ursla.

🐘 We have to give a special thanks to Ursula who then kindly arranged some very special and thoughtful suprises for us once she realised it was our honeymoon, which we will never forget. There was very little planning and attention to detail on their part so I think if I was to share any feedback it would be for them to pay closer attention to their guests, not just when guests ask them too, it avoids any awkwardness if it's a special occasion.

Imbali was absolutely lovely, we would definitely come back even if it was just to say hello to our favourite waiter Weston. The sounds and the views are worth the visit alone from the lodge, it is a very relaxing place to be...

There was a lot I enjoyed about the Safari side of things however there were a few choices that sadly negatively impacted our overall experience.

Lodge location is excellent and staff and food were very good: Constructive feedback: The ordering and service deliver style of dinner menu we experienced prior to the arrival of the LARGE group from the UK was excellent and far superior that the banquet style that followed. I believe that having orders in advance is far more efficient, creates less wastage and feels significantly more personalised.

Rooms are spacious, clean and decor is stylish and in keeping with the overall experience: Constructive feedback: The shower was beautiful and hot - I would have loved to have a shower hose extension so 'all body parts' could be reached more easily.

Power Shedding: I appreciate power shedding is part of SA life HOWEVER I am disappointed with a lack of mitigation when your back up generator had broken down the week before we arrived. Why has there been no investment in purchasing a rechargeable light source for each of the 12 rooms e.g. large butterfly torch. Instead we were basically (candle) left in the dark on return from our PM safari and unable to organise items for the AM Safari - 12 rechargeable lights is not a great expense considering the daily room rate !!! Benny was able to lend us a small finger torch initially that helped to a degree but once the LARGE group from the UK arrived this was not sustainable. Lack of a suitable back up plan, took this from a Luxury experience to a basic one :-(

Lack of Power Adaptors: One of our group had a SA power adaptor however it did not fit the Lodge power sockets - despite asking Benny multiple times we wee told they didn't have any power adaptors which I found surprising for a Lodge that hosts guests from around the world. I found out the morning we left, according to Ursula that they had a drawer full of power socket adaptors :-(

Final Farewell with Safari Guide - Victor: We were incredibly disappointed that Victor out Safari guide with 25+ yrs experience was NOT allowed to join us for our last evening meal. He had spent more time with us than any of the staff and made the greatest impression. I noticed even in the morning while he waited he often assisted the other staff with guests morning tea/coffee requests. The only reason I didn't INSIST with Imbali staff that he join us for dinner was fear of embarrassing him and creating a riff between him and his colleagues.

I have seen the Imbali Team response to my feedback below and thank them for this - it is a shame that it has taken a Google social media post to receive this it despite having emailed them directly 1...