Tshukudu Game Lodge

1. This is definitely not a 4-star lodge. The rooms are very outdated and cannot compete with other 4-star lodges in the area. 2. Our shower drain was blocked and resulted in water spilling all over the bathroom. 3. The room has a funny damp smell. 4. We got 1 water for 2 people. 5. The finer details are terribly unkept. l.e. the basin is stained, the carpets are torn, the ashtray is tacky, the toilet flusher is worn out and lost all its coating. 6. The rooms are separated by a door so you can hear everything from the other side (eeeek). 7. Breakfast juice is a juice mixture, no fresh juice. Coffee at the restaurant is only instant Jacobs coffee- no filter coffee or cappuccinos. 8. We paid for a 120min game drive, got a flat tyre, waited 25min for it to be changed and arrived back at the lodge first of all the vehicles. We received only 55mins of what we paid for. 9. 2 mins before we saw 4 lions, we were told to get off the game vehicle for the ranger to change the tyre. No precautions, no warnings, no “in case of emergency do this”. 10. The signal is terrible and so is the wifi!! My husband needs access to reliable wifi for his work (24/7) and couldn't reach anyone. We ended up leaving before 9 just so he could be reached. I really am sorry to say this but this is far from a 4-star experience.

We booked two rooms. One was a big two bedroom villa with huge pool and braai area, which is a self catering. That was for our kids. Drive from the gate the reception is 6KM. Check in was quick. We even got welcoming drinks. Breakfast was ok with not so much selection, start from 8am to 9:30am. Dinner was good however, I find it that it was rushed, starting from 7pm to 8:30pm. We had half board, including bed breakfast and dinner. They have full boated option. Rooms were clean. Very friendly staff. They decorated my son’s bed for his birthday celebration. They also decorated our bed for our anniversary. We did morning 3 hrs game drive. We saw lion and giraffe . I would recommend it and will definitely go back.

This is a tough one because the good was REALLY good and the rest was slightly harder to stomach. The positives: Upon arrival we were greeted with a drink and a cool towel. The receptionist was lovely, as were all the staff. Truly amazing. We drove to our apartment which was everything I expected and more. We had booked the most luxurious accommodation – the cottage. It was far more stunning than in the pictures – all brick, airco in the bedroom, best kitchen we had on our entire trip and the best pool too. Deep, long, perfect temperature, lovely. We were told upon check in that the main pool was out of service and that other guests would be using our private pool, but that there were only 2 other guests at the time. People did use it and they were lovely and all was well. Dinner was also lovely. In short, our first night was amazing. The next day. I was sunbathing when the manageress came up to me and said she had just checked in a group of 15 and they wanted to come to the pool. The pool is literally 1 metre from both our windows, pretty intimate. I understood fully that the other pool was broken, but the lodge didn’t tell us that a big group was arriving the next day, nor offer us another room in light of this. Nor did they offer us anything in the way of compensation (free drink at the bar etc.) Also really odd is that this is the only game park I have ever been to where you cannot self-drive. There are NO signs saying you cannot self-drive and we were not told upon checking in and were afterwards told that it is on page 3 of our welcome pack item number 7. Not making this crystal clear to guests, both before they stay and during is a mistake that management should redress. Our pool had no chlorine in it after the first day and there were insects swimming half way down in it. Someone came every day to remove debris, but no chlorine was added meaning It was too much of a risk to swim in there sadly. Also, the Wi-Fi was horrible and there is no mobile phone reception to make a hotspot. I understand we are in the bush, but people want to advertise this and post pictures of themselves on social media in this lovely place. This should be redressed. On our last morning we went on a game drive. It was the oddest game drive I have ever done. The guide was driving quite fast and not speaking very clearly. Also, I got scratched by brambles and bushes several times. I would recommend to management doing some bush maintenance. It was also crazily full. We would have like to have known in advance when busy days would have been, so we could have done our drive earlier. Also, upon check-in, we were told it was included in the price. They ended up trying to charge us for it (the took it off the bill eventually though.) The staff were lovely but terrible Wi-Fi, unclean pool, lack of compensation for having a group descending on our privacy, game drive as if we were in a computer game and lack of information regarding non-self driving made this a dif

Thank you Steven Sussens for ensuring that our 23 Worldschool guests, parents and children, had the most wonderful morning experiencing Tshukudu on an early morning bush walk and learning more about your rehabilitation efforts. Indeed most valuable and necessary even though we advocate against certain types of animal interaction, we appreciate all you do for those habituated species alike.