Madikwe River Lodge by Dream Resorts

We had an unforgettable stay at Madikwe River Lodge, our guide Gerry was very knowledgable, we saw sooo much of the local wildlife including all of the Big 5 within the first couple of game drives! The staff at the Lodge were friendly, helpful and really made our stay memorable. Great food too - especially the evening Boma!

We stayed in this lodge for 4 nights and had a truly unique and amazing experience. The lodge has a great location, superb cottages and (large quantities of) amazing food. But I definitely need to give a thumbs up to its staff who went the extra mile to make our stay an experience to remember. Especially our guide and driver Jerry who is most likely the best wildlife spotter I've met in all my safaris. He showed us what it means to have "bush eyes" which resulted in a lot of unique wildlife sightings.

My three sisters and I went there for a celebration of my birthday, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit! The Safari was quite phenomenal, seeing the big 5, twice in 2 days! Jerry our guide was exceptional! The staff at the lodge were so pleasant and friendly and helpful! We can’t name them all as there were too many good staff to mention and I’d hate to miss out on someone! Would highly recommend to friends and family to visit!

No info given on check in (game drive times, meal times, can you drink the tap water? etc) and we weren’t shown to our room so we had to hunt for it ourselves. The bathroom was dirty and the towels torn. The staff struggled to manage a group booking. Not enough game vehicles to take us all so we had to overload the vehicles and all squash to fit everyone. The one game guide Jerry was so rude, didn’t communicate with us, ignored our questions, didn’t offer us the poncho blankets on a freezing morning drive, and didn’t even let us stop for a quick bush coffee to warm up which is supposed to be included on the drives. The curio shop shelves are completely empty. The chef in the morning struggled to make a fried egg, and the coffee was awful! Bedding substandard and bed was rock hard. Madikwe itself was amazing and the sightings spectacular so I would visit again, but definitely not stay at this lodge.

We spent 3 nights at Madikwe River Lodge earlier this month. I am going to put some basic info on here that I would have found useful. There are 2 safari drives a day included in your stay - one at 6am (they do a wake up call at 5.30) and one at 4pm. The 6am was always around 3 hours long, the evening one was sometimes closer to 4 hours. In the morning drive, you stop for a hot choc and a biscuit (they leave out some biscuits before you leave as well) and in the evening drive you stop for a drink and snacks as the sun goes down. You have breakfast when you get back from the morning drive and then can relax around the pool or in your room until and after lunch and then dinner is after the evening drive. Both lunch and dinner are 3 course meals with 2 options for each course and breakfast is a buffet plus cooked to order. We had a wonderful time. Our driver (Jerry) was very knowledgeable and great at finding the animals - we saw the big 5 plus cheetahs twice really close to and even a glimpse of a hyena on an evening drive. The lodge was great and really cool for being on the river - apparently there are crocs/hippos which we didn't see but we did see a lot around the lodge - monitor lizards, a bush buck, lots of hornbills, warthogs, a vervet monkey and a terrapin - some other guests even saw a bush baby outside their lodge in the evening. We were travelling with 2 children - a 6 year old and an 8 year old. The 8 year old loved it all - the drives were quite long for the 6 year old but she managed one a day. Would definitely recommend for people who want an immersive safari experience - you could hear hippos, baboons and leopards at night. Oh and the food was great!

We had such a wonderful, memorable time at Madikwe River Lodge. Not only did we get to see so many animals with the brilliant Amos (including a leopard!), we also got to have delicious meals in such an open and authentic space. Our bedroom was big and clean too and the view on our terrace was spectacular. Thank you to all the staff who made our stay extra special, including Batallion, Sylvia, Polite and, as previously mentioned, Amos.