Tuningi Safari Lodge

I disappeared down a rabbit warren of safari lodges and stumbled across Tuningi. It was the greatest find of our travel journeys so far. The manager, Sasha, the staff - particularly Shaddy, Frans, Patrick and Keo were amazing. The food, the drinks, the entire atmosphere was so welcoming. The decor at the lodge is next level beautiful. So stylish and in keeping with Africa - the photos don’t do it justice. Andrew, our game driver was just brilliant. Open, warm, knowledgeable and so clever with finding all of the animals we wanted to see. He went out of his way to show us so much and his driving was brilliant. We travelled as a family of 4, our sons being 14 and 18, and can say it was the best holiday of our lives. We stayed in the family room which was incredible. Thank you Tuningi, you helped us leave South Africa with full hearts and a hope of returning.

Excellent experience with exceptional food both from a taste and presentation perspective. The elephant sightings at the waterhole were beautiful and inspiring.

We had a four night stay at Tuningi. The accommodation (luxury suite) was roomy, well equipped and the bed very comfortable. The meals were all excellent, delicious, well presented and obviously freshly made. Each day you were asked to choose what you wanted for lunch & dinner and there was a wide choice of items for breakfast plus a daily breakfast special. The rangers (Andrew & Gavin) were very knowledgably and made the drives interesting. We had some great experiences albeit the cheetah's & leopard's evaded detection in the long grass. Heidi & Sasha at the lodge were always cheerful and available for help & advice. Frans & the other lodge staff were friendly, helpful and attentive. Whilst the main reason to go on safari is to see the wildlife, (which we did), the time at the lodge is also important and Tuningi didn't fail to deliver excellence in both cases. This was our 5th Safari in South Africa and would highly recommend Tuningi.

We stayed three nights at Tuningi game reserve; We were picked up by Marcel from the small reserve airport; Marcel drove us to the game reserve and our safari started - Marcel pointed out animals on our way - truly amazing. We were then greeted by Heidi who gave us a wonderful greeting and tour We picked our lunch option; up to our suite for a tour with Heidi, quick change and back for the best lunch ever - the attention to detail was amazing Then our first drive; over the next four days Marcel became our friend, guide, teacher and instilled enthusiasm in everyone in the truck. Marcel loved our numerous questions and his answers were detailed and thorough. Cannot talk highly enough about Marcel Animals - we saw the Big 5 and all thanks to Gavin for spotting the leopard in the tree with his catch Food - food can make or break a holiday - the food at Tuningi reserve was exquisite; attention to detail for every meal. Service was friendly and always with a smile and a hello. Need to mention the breakfast muffins - need the recipe they were delicious Cannot rate Tuningi game reserve highly enough- great team who all worked together to make our experience very special; thank you and special shout out to Marcel

This place is magical. Everything about it from the amazing staff, beautiful decor and just calming feeling once you stepped inside made us know we’d chosen the best place for our honeymoon. Nothing was ever too much trouble. The kindness and generosity of the staff made everything perfect. Thanks to all the wonderful staff, Shaddy, Future, Patrick, Chante, Frans, Heidi and Keo who looked after us (and everyone back of house who we didn’t meet) and of course our wonderful, patient, determined and knowledgeable driver Marcel. He is a true gentleman and got us to see lions, black rhinos and a cheetah as well as a range of others. We cannot thank everyone enough and hope to return someday.

I actually don’t know where to start with this review. There are so many amazing things to say about Tuningi that I need to decide what I should write first. So let’s start with the first impressions on arrival. With a delayed arrival, due to a stressful journey (nothing to do with the reserve or lodge) we were met by Gavin at the airstrip and he drove us to the lodge. With the sight of zebra and other game on the way our stresses were already abating but then arriving at the lodge any residual stress was soon seen off. A lovely friendly welcome and lunch ready for us (with a glass of wine for me) and we immediately felt relaxed and excited for our days ahead. The lodge itself is stunning. Recently refurbished it has kept the essence of a game lodge but with those luxurious touches we all crave. Heidi, Gavin’s wife, has been in charge and has done a brilliant job. Our room was also one of the newly refurbished ones and far exceeded our expectations. We are lucky enough to have stayed at many beautiful 5 star hotels and this was one of my favourite rooms ever. I videoed a walk through to wind up our gown up children.. So the reason for going… the wildlife! Well we lucked out and Gavin was our driver. We had amazing drives seeing everything from leopards, to cheetahs, lions, lion cubs and the hard to pin down wild dogs. Gavin was also great company and we enjoyed catching up over what we had seen during the day at the lodge bar in the evening. Then one final thing to mention and that’s the food! WOW, the food is incredible. Not something I was expecting and wouldn’t have worried about as wasn’t there for a culinary experience but the chef was very talented. There is so much more I could add (all positive) but these comments will hopefully persuade anyone on the fence to book Tuningi. We will definitely go back. Thank you Gavin & Heidi. Top job xx