Kwalata Game Lodge in Dinokeng Game Reserve — Hotel in Gauteng

Unfortunately have to say wouldn’t Ever stay here again. Read this before booking. The review is slightly long, but sincere and it might save you a lot of frustration.

There is loud music from late afternoon through most of the night. Initially some staff said they didn’t know what music it is and doesn’t usually happen. Talking to various staff over the length of our stay, most however admitted it’s apparently music from a shebeen in the settlement right on the border of the conservation and it’s an ongoing and regular problem.

So the venue actually does know this is a huge, regular, extremely frustrating problem, yet there are no warnings about this before or after booking your stay to make an informed decision about the booking. Not being honest about this from the get-go is honestly very concerning.

The music is heard and the base is felt even INSIDE rooms and on some parts of the evening game drives it can also be heard. You book a bushveld breakaway to experience nature and peace and quiet, not to be frustrated by loud, thumping, annoying, poor taste music.

It is unfathomable that this can not be addressed around a conservation area. And even though the music apparently doesn’t originate form inside the venue itself, it is extremely frustrating inside the venue. If we didn’t already have game drives booked, we would have left the first evening already, as we wanted to. It was just that annoying and frustrating, which is unfortunate because the venue itself is generally quite nice. Ultimately we wished that we had just left on the fist evening and cancelled the pre-booked game drives, because we had to suffer through this every evening of our booking. It was meant as a birthday breakaway present for my girlfriend, and this aspect of it ruined a very large part of the breakaway.

I was highly inclined to rate the stay as a 1-star (lowest possible), because there were also some other frustrations during the stay like electricity not functioning in our booked chalet (not due to loadshedding) and booking excursions were a hassle that required constant prompting to make sure we don’t end up staying there without game drives, etc actually being booked. To give a balanced and fair review, SOME staff did however go out of their way to address some issues. We ended up eventually having to move to a different chalet late evening after a game drive, because the electricity situation was just a mess, which obviously isn’t really ideal – but ultimately and in fairness Sam did make an effort to provide a complimentary breakfast for all the issues experienced and the general manager did also personally come and apologise.

The rangers on the drives were knowledgeable and we did have some good sightings. During the evening drive the one ranger apologised on behalf of the venue for the loud music heard during the drive on behalf of the venue and also admitted this is quite a frustrating ongoing issue for them as well. It’s nice from the rangers side to apologise for this, but from my perspective I could rather have spent thousands at any of the other hundreds of great venues across south Africa where I didn’t have to endure a frustrating bush breakaway.

All things considered, this was one of the worst overall bush experiences I have ever had. Complete waste of money. That’s why I would likely never stay at this venue, or any of the ones close to it ever again. If they can’t solve this issue in a conservation area such as Dinokeng, then I surely and the very least don’t have to go and waste my...

We have been to Kwalata 5 years ago and it was wonderful but this year, I booked end of Jan 2025 two 4 bedroom chalets for my 50th birthday celebration as well as 7 people for a game drive and mother’s day lunch. 10 days before our stay, I contacted Kwalata to confirm the appliances in the chalets and then found out that only one chalet was booked for us! Luckily I phoned as it would have been an embarresment arriving with 7 people to find out there was only one chalet booked. I added one more person for the game drive and mother’s day lunch and paid on 29 Apr 2025 for it via eft and credit card respectively. Upon arrival it was confirmed all was settled and in order. One my birthday the Sunday, after our stay, after the game drive and after the lunch the woman at reception told me I owe R470 for the game drive! I worked with 3 different woman to make bookings. It will be helpful if there is one person only for bookings or that there is a system|In place that these receptionists can see the bookings and track payments. ||Friends of us arrived at 14:00 and their room was not ready to check in. They waited 40min before they could check in on 10 May 2025.||The cutlery was odd and ends in chalet 6&7. Steaks knifes were terrible and saw rather than cut. Vegetables knife wasn’t sharp. No egg lifter in chalet 6. |And then, the group of people who stayed behind us made such a noice after 23:00 that I had to phone the owner of Kwalata to silence them. Our stay was really disappointing for such a...

Very disappointed with our experience and the way in which we were treated by Kwalata. I booked well in advance for a special weekend away for my husband's birthday. When we booked in and I wanted to pay for my game drive experience it didn't show up on their side. After a lot of back and forth they said they had finally "sorted" it out on their side. I paid for it and thought all was sorted out. The next day again they started with their excuses. Apparently what we were promised the night before they were not able to deliver and in order to accommodate us they wanted us to pay more money. Twice they messed up my game drive booking and little to no effort was made on their side to rectify the matter. We eventually asked to be refunded for the drive. They had wasted so much of our time by the time they allerted us to the fact that they had messed up that we didn't get the money's worth out the self drive. The manager couldn't be bothered to meet with us and has to date not acknowledged my email of dissatisfaction. I also posted a comment on the Facebook page and my comment was deleted and I was blocked. Looks as if the only feedback you can give is possitive and no one acknowledges the shortfalls. What we paid for we didn't get. We were promised the bush experience but left feeling disappointed. Based on the behaviour we wouldn't be surprised if they are doing this to other people. What you see on their Facebook page is not a true reflection of the reviews and experiences people...