isiLimela Game Lodge — Hotel in Maruleng Local Municipality

It seems like the lodge aims to create a luxurious ambience with attention to small details, but misses out on the big ones.||Pros:||• Game drives were nice. The car is comfortable and Sipho, the ranger, is great. We saw 4 of the big 5 in one drive (but other 2 drives we saw quite little, a lot of it plain luck).||• The room was well-equipped and comfortable. Nice balcony, aircon, safety deposit box, comfortable bed, kitchenette.||• Staff are nice and helpful.||• View from the site is nice, nice lookout deck.||• The property is closed and safe.||Cons:||• Power outages: we spent more than 7 hours of our less-than-48-hour stay with no power. While the outages are not up to the property, they happen frequently, yet they don't have a backup generator. This meant hot hours with no airconditioner and sometimes in (almost) total darkness (candles were provided).||• Wifi is only available in common areas.||• Dinners: while the food was tasty and high quality, all dishes in all dinners arrived nearly cold.||• Extra charges: almost everything costs extra, including water in dinners. What is/isn't free should be made clearer (in writing), as we were surprised by some charges upon check out.||• Access to the property: a 35 min drive on bumpy gravel road. If you have a tall car, it's not too bad.||• Communication: before our arrival we contacted the property with questions and requests. It took about 2-3 days to get answers per email. While Maikel, the owner, is available via whatsapp, it's not always convenient to use. We recommend smoothing and hastening the communication with potential guests.||• The pool is very small and is more like a jacuzzi in terms of size. It's nice if you have it to yourself, but not as pleasant to share with other guests.||||Bottom line: for the price we paid, we expected more (and perhaps some compensation). I marked "poor" because it's how we felt expectations were met overall, and because we expressed this criticism to Maikel via email, got some answers, but after 2 messages got...

We enjoyed our stay at Isilimela Lodge, it was our best experience in South Africa!!!|The lodge is fantastic, our cabin was very comfortable, well kept, with all the commodities and a perfect view of the sunrise. |Our hostess Wanda was great, she went the extra mile to make our stay unforgettable. |Oshel and Musa, our tour guides and drivers were incredible helpful, funny, and they also went the extra mile for us. Antoinette always received us after a trip with fresh wet towels for our hands and juice. |Thandiwe, the chef, prepared for us delicious and exotic meals every day, a delight to our eyes and to our palates. |We saw so many animals during our early morning game drive and the day visit to Kruger Park. We had lunch one day at the viewing point and had a visitor, a giraffe was only 50 feet away from us, staring at us and posing for pictures!|We don’t have words to express all the wonders of the lodge, the staff and the unsurpassable experiences we had during our 5 days stay. |Thank you Mike, Wanda, Oshel, Musa, Thandiwe and Antoinette, you made our trip to South Africa an experience difficult...

Hi Bass, sorry we are a bit late in writing a review about your marvelous lodge and the wonderful hospitality that we received from you and your wife. We are from USA and stayed at Isilmela Lodge with our 3 boys ages 11,10 and 3 in Dec. 2017. From the three course meal to the "home away from home" treatment, everything was to rave for. It felt more like we were visiting old friends than just strangers passing by. The accommodation is so modern yet sitting in such a serene setting. We enjoyed seeing the animals in the bush while having breakfast and the stars and calming sounds of the bush at dinner. The only thing we regret is not booking for a longer stay. The drive to the Lodge itself was an adventure...have to bring an SUV! We vacationed in South Africa and Zimbabwe for a total of 16 days and this was our most favorite place to stay in. We look forward to going back to Isilimela on our next visit to...