Honeyguide Tented Safari Lodge is situated part of the Greater Kruger National park. The lodges is about a 20-30 minutes drive from Kruger National Park’s Orpen gate.
Having been to Honeyguide tented safari lodge previously, where we had a fabulous experience, we wanted to share this with our kids (ages 4 & 1)
Being based in Cape Town, there are a few options on getting there but the quickest for us was to either fly to Hoedspruit or the newly opened Skukuza airport (beautiful) in Kruger park.
Both flights are approx. 2.5 hours from Cape Town. If travelling from Johannesburg by car, it is approx. a 4 hours drive.
We opted to fly in and out of Skukuza as we wanted to see more of Kruger.
It is a long drive from Skukuza to Honeyguide safari lodge (approx. 3.5 hours), due to speed limit in the park. When trying to push the speed limit, in my attempt to end the misery of my two little girls being cooped up in a car for extended periods, I subsequently received a costly speeding fine! So be warned.
If I was to do it again (and was travelling with kids), I would recommend flying in via Hoedspruit. If travelling without kids, I would definitely drive through the park again as we had some excellent game sightings.
Once we were in the bush, we could all relax and enjoy being away from cell phone reception. For those of you who need to be digitally connected, there is WiFi at the lodge, but don’t expect to get your mail on demand.
Honeyguide has two camps in their concession namely, Khoka Moya, which is geared mainly for children and larger groups and Mantobeni, which is couple focused.
Having stayed at Mantobeni previously, it was great to stay at the Khoka Moya to experience something different.
Accommodation was very comfortable. I enjoy staying in the tents as one can hear various animals (elephants, buffalo, various antelope, etc) passing by at night and feels like a true bush camping experience (minus the hassle). We would often wake up in the morning to see waterbuck grazing just a few feet away from our tent and evidence of elephants passing through.
For those worried about bugs, no need to worry as tents are equipped with mosquito nets and the tents seal well and hence it is seldom that you’ll see bugs in the tent (as long as you keep the zips closed!).
Honeyguide is one of the few lodges that allow young children on safari game drives. Although these drives can be long, our driver was fabulous and manages to help entertain the kids where possible (just remember this is not a zoo, you have to go out and find the animals). WRT big five game viewing, this is one of the few concessions in and around Kruger National Park whereby one can frequently sees all big five on one game drive. On our previous trip to Honeyguide, we stayed 4 nights and had 3 big five game drives. Upon our latest trip, all guests that were at the lodge at that time managed to see the big five.
A exciting moment for us was to experience a lion kill from the moment the pride started to stalk a buffalo to talking down of the buffalo. This once in a life time event all happened in front of Honeyguide’s Mantobeni camp, which can be seen in the background of the below video clip.
Overall, Honeyguide tented safari lodge is a great lodge for those who wish to experience the bush and have a memorable safari. The animal sightings were great but those wanting more ‘traditional’ accommodation (i.e. not a tent) or focus on world-class cuisine, then I would not recommended Honeyguide tented safari lodge (to be fair, food and accommodation were good value for money).
Overall ratings: 7 of 10
• Accommodation: 7
• Food: 7
• Service: 6
• Animals sightings: 9
• Getting there: 7
• Value for money: 7
