Umkumbe Bush Lodge luxury tented camp — Hotel in Bushbuckridge

A NEW gem in Sabie!

Do you want a luxurious tented camp experience in Sabie? Do you want to be treated like family, enjoying a very high level of service? Do you want to see lots of game and have customized game drives? Do you want to eat great food at every meal? Do you want this all at a reasonable price in comparison to other properties in Sabie?

If the answer is yes to all, then the Umkumbe Bush Lodge is a wonderful new option in the Sabie Game Reserve. My husband and I just finished a 2 night stay and wish we had the time to stay a week!

For orientation, the Umkumbe Bush Lodge is brand new and the sister property to the Umkumbe Safari River Lodge. We were a little confused by this when making the booking, but we are so glad we chose the Bush Lodge!

I have included a number of pictures of our "tent" and the property. Although technically a "tented" camp, this was one of the most luxurious safari camps we have ever stayed at in all of our travels in Africa. Our room was incredibly well thought out and extremely comfortable. Lovely touches included rhino shaped welcome cookies and solar lanterns that we could use at night.

The lodge itself was even more impressive that our "tent." The lodge is situated as a tree house where we enjoyed meals and drinks. During our first 10 minutes in camp, a giant bull elephant came right in front of the lodge and started feasting on a tree!

The food during our stay was the best we had on this trip to South Africa. Very thoughtful and tasty recipes without being too cute or complex. We loved the salads in particular!

The game drives (morning and night) were very enjoyable and we had many incredible sightings. We had an incredible leopard sighting on our first day at Umkumbe (pictures included). To see a Leopard and her cub up close was an experience we will never forget! There is even a resident male Rhino that knocks over their sign regularly! We got to meet him the first day as well.

Juan, our guide for the game drives was extremely friendly and really knew a lot about the animals we were seeing. Further, he went out of his way to ask us about what we were interested in seeing. We are very interested in birding and he helped us find over 30 birds that we wanted to see and photograph. Juan also assisted with some astrophotography in the middle of the night. We really appreciated his willingness to go the extra mile for us.

Meghan, who ran the camp was tremendous and very attentive. She made us feel like family during our visit. She did a great job of meeting all of our needs and requests, and is an expert on birds and their calls. A tremendous hostess!

Umkumbe Bush Lodge presents a tremendous value in Sabie. It is our honor to be one of the first guests to write a review on Google. We had a magical visit to Umkumbe and wish it were longer. We...

I don't usually write hotel reviews especially not bad ones but my experience at umkumbe makes me feel obligated to share it with potential future travelers. First thing first, all the staff we came across at umkumbe were really nice and did their best, however from arriving to leaving we can't help but notice how understaffed the lodge is(e.g. struggle to greet and see guests off upon arrival and departure). The worst and most detrimental example being there is no animal tracker on the morning drive, which is extremely unusual for a private safari lodge. Not only is this making guide's job very difficult(imagine driving a safari car on difficult terrain + spot animal in bushes+ tracking lion tracks on the ground + talking to keep guests engaged), this is also greatly impacting guest's chance of seeing animals. After asking staff the reason for this it seems the lodge owner is reluctant to hire additional staff and is therefore using trackers to do pool maintenance in the morning, which is pretty shocking considering the lodge price vs local labor cost.

Room wise - I went during June which is the South Africa winter. During first night around 8:30pm we discovered the warm aircon in our tent doesn't work. After reporting to reception, a couple staffs came to try fix the issue but couldn't, promised us to bring us a heater and 1h30 later reception lady showed up with a couple blankets. Only after us asking were we told there's no heater on site and we have to do with blankets. No apology, no explanation. So there it is, we slept in 8 degree freezing weather in a TENT. Second day they came to fix the aircon(which turns out is because gas ran out and totally could've been prevented if there's regular maintenance), and afterwards still no contact from management. When i went to query about compensation I was told there's nothing to compensate, and the fact that they fix the aircon next day is plenty good from the lodge. Conclusion from my experience - Umkumbe Lodge thinks guest paying 500 pound/night and slept in a freezing 8 degree tent is entirely guest's own fault and lodge bears no responsibility.

To be fair the safari and bush walk experience was still good for us as the guides worked really hard to make sure we see plenty of animals, but considering the price range and subpar management (giving me the vibe of owner trying to squeeze out every penny from the lodge instead of genuinely interested in good service) , it is definitely not a lodge i will ever...

I don't usually write hotel reviews especially not bad ones but my experience at umkumbe makes me feel obligated to share it with potential future travelers. First thing first, all the staff we came across at umkumbe were really nice and did their best, however from arriving to leaving we can't help but notice how understaffed the lodge is(e.g. struggle to greet and see guests off upon arrival and departure). The worst and most detrimental example being there is no animal tracker on the morning drive, which is extremely unusual for a private safari lodge. Not only is this making guide's job very difficult(imagine driving a safari car on difficult terrain + spot animal in bushes+ tracking lion tracks on the ground + talking to keep guests engaged), this is also greatly impacting guest's chance of seeing animals. After asking staff the reason for this it seems the lodge owner is reluctant to hire additional staff and is therefore using trackers to do pool maintenance in the morning, which is pretty shocking considering the lodge price vs local labor cost.|Room wise - I went during June which is the South Africa winter. During first night around 8:30pm we discovered the warm aircon in our tent doesn't work. After reporting to reception, a couple staffs came to try fix the issue but couldn't, promised us to bring us a heater and 1h30 later reception lady showed up with a couple blankets. Only after us asking were we told there's no heater on site and we have to do with blankets. No apology, no explanation. So there it is, we slept in 8 degree freezing weather in a TENT. Second day they came to fix the aircon(which turns out is because gas ran out and totally could've been prevented if there's regular maintenance), and afterwards still no contact from management. When i went to query about compensation I was told there's nothing to compensate, and the fact that they fix the aircon next day is plenty good from the lodge. Conclusion from my experience - Umkumbe Lodge thinks guest paying 500 pound/night and slept in a freezing 8 degree tent is entirely guest's own fault and lodge bears no responsibility.|To be fair the safari and bush walk experience was still good for us as the guides worked really hard to make sure we see plenty of animals, but considering the price range and subpar management (giving me the vibe of owner trying to squeeze out every penny from the lodge instead of genuinely interested in good service) , it is definitely not a lodge i will ever...