Honeyguide Tented Safari Camps

Me and my family had a good time. Pro 1: The staff were nice and friendly and the service was great too. Hospitality was excellent. The rooms were in good condition. The food is good. Pro 2: Lots of animals can be seen during the game drives and elephants can be seen at the pool very often as they drink water there. Con 1: The room is very hot and has no Aircon so it is hard to sleep if used to cold rooms like me and my family. Also the rooms are not very well lit so at night you have to use your phone flashlight if your eyesight is not the best. Also the shower is a walk in shower. NO food is allowed in the room as it will attract animals. Con 2: The food but limited options for food during lunch and dinner with only 2 options 1 normal and 1 vegetarian. Breakfast had a menu with only a few options. Dinner was the only meal with an appetizer 1 normal and 1 vegetarian option and dessert no options. Con 3 & 4: The first game drive/ morning game drive is at 5:30 am in the morning which is very early. Also you can't have breakfast before the game drive as breakfast only starts after the game drive. Lunch is at 2 pm and dinner is at 8 pm except for the first day at 7:30 pm in a bush.

This review is about the resort not the people who are very customer focused, nice and helpful. The location of the rooms are in rustic setting to blend in with the bush. The accommodation is a tent, so beware of staying in summer when temperatures are running high. I wish they had basic amenities like fridge for cold water, coffee making machine etc. would have appreciated workable WiFi in the room. As to breakfast/lunch/dinner, wish they had individual tables and chairs instead of community style dining. Location is remarkable as one can watch wildlife right in front of the room to a point of elephants in 10 ft from the front porch. Manyeleti park is large and one can see Big 5 and other wildlife.

We stayed at Mantobeni Camp in the Manyeleti Game Reserve which is owned and managed as a private reserve by the local Mnisi tribe. It borders on Kruger and the animals roam freely within Manyeleti - so, the benefits of Kruger without the density of tourists and with the freedom of private concessions and their small limit of jeep numbers at sightings. The camp is run by local people and seems to be quite large and the 10-seater jeeps were mostly full to capacity but game drives,on the whole, felt quiet as there are fewer jeeps and fewer camps in the Manyeleti area. Our guide, Twice, was excellent and we had some great sightings of a large pride of lions, their cubs left behind alone, cheetah sightings, rhinos, leopard and many more. The jeep experience, however, is largely dependent on who’s on the jeep with you. Most of our game drives were wonderful and we shared with like-minded people but we were unlucky with two game drives when we shared with a loud and obnoxious large family group who repeatedly disrespected the rules that had been explained by the excellent guide at the outset. We’ve been on three other safaris in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana and have never experienced anything like this! It is no fault of the camp whatsoever but we would urge the camp to consider allowing temporary transfer to another jeep in special circumstances. The camp is high end, comfortable and unfenced. It is visited daily by a large herd of elephants once or twice a day. Lovely to watch the antics of the babies. Our last morning had the added excitement as we finished breakfast in camp, of impala alarm calls and a lioness approaching the waterhole close by. The tents are huge and are well sited and private. The dining area, lounge, bar etc were well-maintained and pleasant. Staff were excellent - efficient, charming, friendly and very good-humoured, especially Mumcy! Thank you to the team for the surprise, magical bbq and delicious dinner by the fire in the Boma.

This is an exceptional property in the Manyeleti Game Reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park. It is a magical place where Impala's roam the property and the elephants come to drink water from the pool. The "tents" are very nice with toilet facilities and showers and comfortable beds. The food was good, but the staff are the best! They do everything they can to meet your needs and wants. Everyday there are two game drives into the reserve where you can get very close to amazing game animals. The guides on these drives are very good at their jobs. Ours was named Brilliant and he truly was brilliant. He can find animals, birds and snakes at distance and at night in places I can barely see. He is amazing! We want to thank the staff for making our stay very special-Dan, Mavis, Trevor, Previous, Noa and others…and especially Brilliant!

We were extremely disappointed with this establishment. We are South African and have been to many private lodges in the Kruger area and sadly this was our worst experience. Firstly, the central booking didn’t inform us that as a couple (telling her we were celebrating an anniversary and a birthday) that we were placed in the kid friendly camp and would have to endure noisy, squealing foreign kids on every game drive and at every meal (we had to share tables for meals with our vehicle occupants). We were there for a long weekend and they needed to employ a freelance ranger to accommodate all the guests. He was beyond pathetic and cost us multiple exciting cat sightings because he was too afraid to go off road without the head ranger’s permission. Once he had communicated with the head ranger, the cat was obviously out of view already and the sighting lost. He also didn’t feel confident asking for a standby at sightings and had no light for night game drives which isn’t very helpful! Worst of all, when we complained, we felt management was pretty disinterested. It was, ‘Ooops, sorry’ attitude. There is no managerial presence at the lodge. We are used to friendly front of house interacting with guests and DEALING with issues raised. There is no personalised service or attention to deal in accommodation, food serving etc. no value for money at all.