Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge — Hotel in Makhado Local Municipality

Sadly this beautiful place has changed hands and is no longer the 4 star venue it was. Although the accommodation is nice and clean, the restaurant food is not up to scratch and let's the whole place down. Unfortunately the place is a bit of a drive from town, so popping to town for a bite at night is not really ideal due to the 3km of fairly rough dirt road. We stayed 2 nights. We were offered dinner at check in, which we accepted, pre-ordering crumbed mushrooms to share, Mozambique chicken with pap and veg and trout with mash and veg. We duly went to the dining room at 7, the opening time. There was one other couple present, so not busy at all. There was absolutely no atmosphere in the dining room. No candles, music, nothing. Bright overhead lighting and a strong smell of burning oil from the kitchen which wafted into the dining room. After a long wait, our preordered crumbed mushrooms arrived. Omw! 3 little button mushrooms on a plate....for R40! We sent it back, requesting 3 more. After about half an hour, 3 more arrived. Then the mains.....the chicken thigh and leg were dried out and overcooked, the pap had been squashed into a bowl and popped out onto the plate, so it was like rubber (no sauce) and circling this pathetic scene were cold cooked carrots and brocolli. The trout I received was burnt and the veg was ice cold. We sent the whole lot back and requested a toasted sandwich be brought to our room. That too was pathetic with one slice of processed cheese and the thinnest slice of tomato. Breakfast was ok, although the muesli was soggy after having soaked in yoghurt for a couple of hours. Needless to say we did not eat there the next night, but bought a few things from woolies in town instead which we enjoyed in our room. We checked out before breakfast...but not before the lady on duty asked us what we had consumed/ bought during our stay because she had no clue. I would caution one about going to this place, especially if you have...

Booked an hour long full body couple's massage. The first lady was very nice while the second had a bad attitude. The massage was quite good. However, it lasted only 40 and 35 minutes, respectively. The second lady was late and started five minutes after the first, rushed the massage, went out halfway through for a small break, came back in, and finished her massage first. She then bolted out of the room, leaving the first to tend to us as the clients. It was very underwhelming as an experience and definitely not worth the R900.

The menu (a laminated page) was overpriced and bad in terms of selection, with about 10 options in total. Everything (whether it was two chicken schnitzels, beef stew, lamb curry, or oxtail) was R200. Sides (pap, veg, rice, etc) were all R40, and the reviews were not good. The starters (gizzard, crumbed mushroom, salad, etc) were also R40-50 and did not seem appealing.

The service was well enough. The people were overall nice, but the place seemed disorganised and definitely not what you'd expect from a remote lodge. As a whole, much could...

This was the worst experience ever. Firstly we were over charged for the whole experience and told we can use that money to get toasted 3 slice egg sandwiches for R200. Okay we didn't have a problem with that. Secondly we got to that lodge at 9.20am on the 17th of December 22, it started raining and we were patient. At 11.00 am rain stopped and when it was out turn to go Hiking, we were told it's slippery, okay we suggested to go Zip lining and we were told to wait for people who arrived after us to go first. The tour guide said it will take 35 minutes. We sat there for more than 1 hour and no one was checking up on us. At 13.00 we went to the receptionist and asked for a refund, the lady whose name is Fhumulani said we will get a refund and we gave her our account details... Now that the refund is due, the lodge is giving us a problem. I don't want to go back, I can't drive 4hours for poor service, I...