Kwandwe Private Game Reserve — Hotel in Makana Local Municipality

This is a long review but worth the read if you want to hear how amazing this place and it’s people are. We would choose this reserve 10/10 times every day of the week and twice on Tuesday! If you are lucky enough to have found this special place in your search for a game lodge, book your stay at Kwandwe now!||Arrival: We booked transport from Port Elizabeth airport which does cost about R12,850 round trip. The lodge is roughly 2 hours from the airport and the company used for transportation was amazing. We arrived mid morning and were greeted at the reception warmly and with water. We were then driven to our lodge, The Great Fish River Lodge, by Luke who was a pleasure to talk to on our 15 minute drive from reception to our lodge. When we arrived at the lodge we were greeted with cold towels and the warmest welcome by Stacy, one of the lodge managers. We were offered drinks and then brought to our suite.||Suite: The suites are roomy, luxurious and possibly the nicest accommodation we had ever stayed in. Everything was spotless, beautifully designed, and made us feel at home. After every game drive or meal we came back to the suite tidied, bed made and fresh water bottles. The fridge located in the suite contained 2 bottles of wine, some fizzy drinks, beer, milk and additional water. Also located near the fridge is the kettle for tea / coffee for you to make on demand. The outdoor lounging area is perfect for a lunchtime nap followed by a dip in the pool also located just outside the suite. If you would like to book a massage they offer in suite massages where they come to you!||Food and Drinks: The quality and flavors of the food blew us away. Every meal (Breakfast served after your morning game drive 9:45AM, lunch served 12:30-2:30PM, dinner served after your afternoon game drive 8:15PM) had 3 main options and additional starter and dessert options for lunch and dinner. The chef(s) being the rockstars that they are accommodating to guests asking for tweaks to the food going off menu. The full bar at the lodge has anything you could ever want to drink made by a very talented bartender. The server team that we were most lucky to have been served by at the great fish river lodge was outstanding. Was able to joke with us, teach us words in Xhosa, make us laugh and have every meal that much more enjoyable.||Game drives: Every day you are given a wake up call at 5AM as a reminder to be at the lodge by 5:30AM for some light breakfast and coffee and then on to the game drive. We cannot recommend our ranger, Niso and tracker, Yongama, enough they are incredible people. We were able to find all of the big five and then some. Yongama has eyes like a hawk and a knack of where to look for animals in the given area. Niso took us to all the best areas to search for the animals and taught us all interesting facts regarding the animals we found. Niso and Yongama were great to talk to and felt like friends at the end of our trip. The land cruisers are stocked with waters, rain ponchos, blankets, binoculars, and good vibes! Something special Niso told us is if you are relaxed on the drive and open your heart to nature, nature will then come to you. One of my favorite parts of the game drives, aside from seeing beautiful scenery and animals, was the picnic breaks. Morning game drives picnic breaks are stocked with coffee, tea, water and some kalua if you are feeling frisky in the morning. The snacks we enjoyed contained some dried fruit, biscuits, and rusks. Afternoon/Evening game drives begin with some afternoon tea at 3:30PM daily. Arriving at the lodge at 3:30 provided time to indulge in some freshly made cake, cold juice, iced coffee, or tea. While enjoying these snacks Niso chatted to us about where we would be going during our afternoon drive and if we had anything specific we wanted to see.||Special event:|Prior to our trip I emailed Andrea at Kwandwe’s front office regarding proposing to my girlfriend. She provided great clarity and assurance that they can be fluid while still making the moment special. Niso suggested an overlook setting that we visited one day and in secret I let Niso know that this was a perfect spot. The day came and Andrea’s team (Andrea, Meghan, and Danella) set up a beautiful picnic with lanterns leading us from the land cruiser to the picnic overlook. The picnic looked absolutely stunning and made the moment feel beyond special. When I dropped to my knee to propose Danella was hiding in the bushes capturing the moment that will last us a lifetime. Andrea was also kind enough to film it. The thought and effort that went into planning and setting this up was above and beyond what I could have hoped for to propose. After a beautiful picnic and afternoon game drive we arrived back to the lodge. We were greeted by the staff singing and dancing to help us celebrate the special moment. The happiness and joy they felt you could feel and moved both my girlfriend and I to tears. We put our stuff down for dinner and were notified they had set up a special romantic private dinner in the library of the lodge. Once again the service provided was magnificent. If that was not enough we were greeted in our room by a note written to us congratulating us on our big step forward in life along with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. Rest assured any special event will not be underdone here.||Overall customer service:|I wish I could give a better rating than perfect because Kwandwe earned it. During our stay my girlfriend did not feel all too well and Stacy and Shannon brought our dinner to the suite along with some medicine to help her feel better. A special shoutout to: Tombi who made our meals fun; Stacy for communicating with Andrea about the proposal during our stay; Shannon for running back and forth to our suite for room service; Niso and Yongama for unbelievable, fun game drives; Andrea, Meghan and Danella for the beautiful proposal. We will be back, potentially for...

We are still staying at Uplands as I write this, having spent the most fabulous 2 nights on safari with my family celebrating my father in laws 70th birthday. The experience which sadly ends tomorrow afternoon has incredible. ||||From the moment we entered the reserve we were greet with friendly welcoming faces. Offered cool towels and homemade lemonade as we checked in, which was most welcome after our 6 hr road trip. ||||Our bags were swiftly transferred to the 4x4 and we were whisked away by Brendan our amazing ranger for our stay. ||||As we traveled the short distance we were soon spotting warthogs and zebra to everyone's delight. As we crossed over in to Uplands, our home for the 3 days we were greeted by the fantastic team who have looked after us. Stunning is all I have to say about the place! The rooms were amazing ( be warned I'm going to over use this word!).||||We were asked by Brendan what we wanted to see,any specific animals/ birds that we hoped to photo so that he could plan the next few days with our spotter Denis. ||||Lunch then followed - which can only be described as incredible, one of our party is gluten intolerant and this was catered for throughout our stay magnificently. ||||Safari was amazing, not only do Brendan and Denis have great knowledge and experience, their enthusiasm for jobs was obvious- these guys love their work. Every effort was made to ensure we saw what we wanted - animals are so unpredictable- but their experience paid off time and time again. ||||Drinks at sunset at Eagle point was magical, Dinner back at the Lodge was outstanding!||||The next days safaris, 2 jeep and one on foot safari have been incredible, to get up close and personal with herds of elephant, giraffe and both the North and South Prides of Lions has been a privilege. ||||Uplands is a step back in time but you will want for nothing, they can't do enough for you. Even remembering if you take still or sparkling water with your meals ( which by the way you will need to take a pair of a size larger shorts as everything the chef Bongi prepares is fantastic!). The little details make all the difference. ||||Kwandwe is amazing, the animals, birds , flora and landscapes and people will leave an impression on you that will last a lifetime. Only too sad our trip to paradise will end tomorrow, the 5.30 starts aren't as daunting as I thought they would be... I refound my inner child - it's just like Christmas as a child wanting to go to bed early and waking early to see what the next days safari will bring..... I'm hoping it'll be the elusive Leopard we've been tracking. ||||Just go, you...

My sister and I had the most incredible 5 night stay at Kwandwe! ||I will start with our ranger (Luke) and tracker (Sibu). They were truly fabulous and made our safari so special and memorable. I especially wanted to see the big cats and we saw them every day. We spent a lot of time observing the cheetahs and lions and even saw a leopard. We saw several other magnificent animals as well (elephants, black and white rhinos, buffalo, zebras, giraffes, eland, kudo, impala, oryx, baboons, rock hyrax, warthogs, birds and so many other interesting animals I had never seen before). Each of our game drives were different. We had a wonderful sunrise game drive one morning! We also learned so much about the land, plants, flowers, trees, animal behavior and how they track other animals, and the culture and languages of South Africa. It was so nice getting to know both Luke and Sibu. They were professional and so accommodating! I can't say enough about both of them. They are wonderful, warm and kind people!||All staff at Kwandwe were professional and helpful. Fikele (sp.?) always had a smile on his face and was there to greet us, whether it be coming back from a game drive or at the restaurant. Our rooms seemed to be cleaned multiple times a day. The housekeeping staff were great! The managers were also very helpful!||I had two wonderful in room massages from Anahti! ||Sarah Britz from reservations helped organize the safari for me. She was so helpful and responsive. I had reached out to several different game reserves, but chose Kwandwe because Sarah had given me so much detailed information and basically said Kwandwe can do whatever we wanted. She was so right. Our safari was exactly what we wanted!||Our room was beautiful! We had a great view of the bush and river from our room. There was a little pool, lounge chairs and table and chairs on our patio. The beds in the room were very comfortable. We had everything we needed in the room (big desk, comfortable chairs, mini fridge) We loved the decor too.||The meals were great! I am a very picky eater. I am vegetarian and Keto. The staff basically created special meals for me. My sister eats everything and said all the food was delicious.||Kwandwe is truly a one of a kind experience! Thank you again to everyone at Kwandwe for making our stay...