
PROPERTY HIGHLIGHTS:
- More than a luxury lodge, more than a dream safari destination, more than an African escape… Thanda Safari offers an authentically South African wildlife experience matched with sincere commitment to the Zulu culture and passionate conservation of the environment.
- Meaning ‘love’ in isiZulu, Thanda is a proud member of the Leading Hotels of the World and multiple winner of World’s Leading Luxury Lodge.
- It is known for meaningful safari experiences and exclusive close-up encounters with Africa’s magnificent Big Five.
- Thanda Safari is the proud location of three very different properties, each with its own style, atmosphere and appeal. Thanda Safari Lodge, Thanda’s flagship product, is known for its 9 bush suites – each, the height of luxurious exclusivity and African abundance.
- Villa iZulu, ideal for celebrities and those with a special taste for privacy, is a bush homestead beyond any traditional understanding of extravagance and service.
- Thanda Tented Camp, with its 14 grand tents and 1 grande deluxe tent, offers a truly relaxed and authentic safari experience.
EXCLUSIVE LUXE VOYAGER VIP BENEFITS & BEST PRICE
We negotiate rates & benefits for our clients directly with the hotels’ senior management. Our rates match or in many cases are lower than the best online rate for the property. Our clients also enjoy a suite of extra VIP privileges and recognition while staying at a partner hotel.
- Complimentary room upgrade on arrival.
- Daily complimentary buffet breakfast for two.
- Up to $100 dining or spa credit per stay, and or in-house dining / spa discounts.
- Welcome amenities (wine/chocolates/fruit) and card from the GM.
- Complimentary private airport transfers.
- Complimentary roll-away bed if required.
- Early check-in and late check-out.
- Complimentary Wi-Fi.
- Enhanced recognition through VIP status at all touch points in the guest experience.
A complete or partial suite of VIP benefits will be offered, subject to the property T&C, including availability, category of room & length of stay.
ACTIVITIES:
Experience a guided walk through the bush, a heightened sensory experience where every sound and scent is magnified as you get closer to nature. Your ranger will show you different plants, insects and birdlife as well as the flora and fauna of the Zululand area. Learn to identify the spoor and scat of different animals on this truly amazing experience.
Help to conserve our rhinos! Extraordinary effort is required to protect these magnificent creatures threatened with extinction as a result of poaching by international criminal syndicates. Now you can actively contribute to conserving the rhinos on Thanda Safari by joining our specialist rhino monitors who daily locate and record data on our black and white rhinos.
Guests have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in close contact with a rhino. Witness the darting of this prehistoric animal and assist the wildlife team in notching the sedated rhino for identification and research purposes, before releasing it back into the wild. The price includes the helicopter that is used in locating the rhino, as well as all costs involved in the darting, genetic sampling and notching.
This activity is hosted by a member of the Wildlife Conservation Team and starts just before sunrise. Guests will spend 3 to 4-hours helping the team track and identify the cheetah whilst learning all about their ecology, the threats to the species, behavioural and feeding patterns and much more.
Your Zulu cultural and community experience can include visiting a traditional homestead and village; spending time with a traditional healer (Sangoma); exploring King Shaka’s battlefields; meeting students at Thanda’s Star for Life schools or participating in community projects and Zulu celebrations.
Thanda is passionate about conservation. Our team of trackers, guides and researchers work tirelessly to ensure that our wildlife is healthy and protected. Guests have the opportunity to work with the conservation team for a day – this can include tracking and monitoring the Big Five, participating in game counts or translocating animals (seasonal).
The St. Lucia Estuary is part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Africa’s largest estuarine system and a World Heritage Site. The largest congregation of Nile crocodiles and African hippos can be found in this area, which is also the last significant breeding ground for the world-famous giant leatherback and loggerhead turtles. Experience a two-hour interactive boat trip up the St. Lucia Estuary, led by knowledgeable rangers.
For a 360-degree vista of Thanda’s incredible Big Five reserve, experience the highest point on Thanda, aptly named World’s View. Perhaps even propose to your loved one here, in style.
Work with Thanda’s Wildlife Team to insert tracking devices into the horns of our rhinos – one of several anti-poaching measures that Thanda has introduced to assist this unique animal threatened with extinction.
At sunset on the game drive, your field guide selects one of Thanda’s unforgettable outlook points to toast the last rays of African light with a Thanda Martini.
The Zulu people refer to the Marula Tree that grows on Thanda as the Marriage Tree. They believe that marriages held under this tree are divinely blessed. We invite you to make or renew your wedding vows here, where a powerful awareness of the circle of life will embrace you.

More than a luxury lodge, more than a dream safari destination, more than an African escape… Thanda Safari offers an authentically South African wildlife experience matched with sincere commitment to the Zulu culture and passionate conservation of the environment. Meaning ‘love’ in isiZulu, Thanda is a proud member of the Leading Hotels of the World and multiple winner of World’s Leading Luxury Lodge. It is known for meaningful safari experiences and exclusive close-up encounters with Africa’s magnificent Big Five.
Thanda Safari is the proud location of three very different properties, each with its own style, atmosphere and appeal. Thanda Safari Lodge, Thanda’s flagship product, is known for its 9 bush suites – each, the height of luxurious exclusivity and African abundance. Villa iZulu, ideal for celebrities and those with a special taste for privacy, is a bush homestead beyond any traditional understanding of extravagance and service. And Thanda Tented Camp, with its 14 grand tents and 1 grande deluxe tent, offers a truly relaxed and authentic safari experience.
As a multiple winner of the World’s Leading Luxury Lodge, we know exactly how to look after our guests at our exclusive game reserve. Thanda Safari’s warm, attentive team attends to your comfort and needs at our three superb properties, frequently showcased in the media. Thanda Safari Lodge has nine bush suites, personifying luxurious exclusivity and African abundance. Villa iZulu offers complete privacy, elegance and indulgence. Thanda Tented Camp, with its 15 luxury safari tents, offers an evocative into Africa experience.

Thanda Safari Lodge – The Flagship
Thanda Safari Lodge is our flagship property. Each of the 9 bush suites is a tribute to African abundance, with a spacious lounge, majestic master bedroom, double-sided fireplace and an indulgent bathroom, with a beautiful bath, and an indoor and outdoor shower. Thanda Safari Lodge’s shared areas are sumptuously African, including an inviting lounge, expansive deck and library overlooking a waterhole, private business area, cigar bar, impressive wine cellar and the Thanda Safari Spa.

Thanda Tented Camp – Into Africa Safari
Thanda Tented Camp offers an authentic safari adventure with 15 luxury safari tents in an evocative bush setting, enhanced by flickering firelight and lanterns guiding your way at night. This is bush living as nature intended: open and inviting with unparalleled closeness to the bush, its sights, smells and sounds. Each of the tents has a private sun deck and en-suite canvas bathrooms. The shared areas include a large rim-flow pool, a spa tent, atmospheric Hemingway-style lounge and dining area featuring authentic African artworks.

Villa Izulu
Villa iZulu was voted Africa’s Leading Luxury Villa at the World Travel Awards. This luxurious Afro-chic homestead features five beautiful suites and includes a heated swimming pool, wine cellar, library, games room and a spacious viewing deck overlooking a water hole. It’s the ultimate safari hideaway for guests needing total privacy or for families, friends and meetings. Villa iZulu has its own helicopter pad and separate accommodation for childminders and VIP security officers. The homestead was designed and created for Thanda Safari’s owners, Christin and Dan Olofsson.
South African cuisine is as diverse as its population, and Thanda Safari’s menus, creatively conceived by chefs, reflect this. From slow-cooked potjiekos to tender game cuts flavoured with homegrown herbs, our chefs produce perfection for the palate and cater for all dietary requirements. Every meal offers unique Thanda dishes and tastes, combined with carefully chosen wines and impeccable service. Our breakfasts, lunches, dinners and high teas personify the Thanda Safari style.

Bush & Breakfast
Imagine a tasty bush breakfast after an early morning game drive – sizzling bacon and eggs, pancakes, muesli, muffins, fruits, cheeses, meats, coffees, teas – set up in style. Thanda Safari is renowned for our bush breakfasts, where every detail is carefully conceived and every mouthful is memorable.

Fire & Flames
There is nothing like a campfire in the bush at Thanda Safari under South African stars in our traditional African bomas – either at our lodges or deep in the reserve. Thanda’s chefs prepare your feast ahead of your arrival, knowing how hungry you’ll be after your evening game drive. Dine the African way, to the sounds of the wild.

Romantic Dining
The light of the African stars glints on your wine glass over a romantic dinner on the deck of your suite or in our atmospheric dining areas. Speak to us and we can arrange whatever you desire. Thanda Safari caters for indoor and outdoor dining and our chefs produce menus that delight and romance our guests.

Private Dining In The Bush
Fine dining in the wild is an experience you’ll never forget. At your request, our chefs and staff can create a special menu and private dining setting in the bush, where you’ll eat under the African night sky, surrounded by the sights, sounds and sensations of the wild.
Dawn & Dusk Bush Stops
During your game drives, our sunrise and sunset refreshment stops at breathtaking locations overlooking the reserve are one of the highlights on safari. Whether it’s sunrise coffee and rusks or sunset drinks and snacks, you’ll be reluctant to leave.
There is also the Thanda Spa, which offers reflexology; aromatherapy; hydrating; exfoliating and detox body treatments; facials; African massages; hand and feet treatments; hydrotherapy baths; hot and cold Kneipp therapy pools; and more, and is located in a quiet corner of the lodge.
Spa
In our two, beautifully appointed, restful Spas at Thanda Safari Lodge and Thanda Tented Camp our therapists offer a wide range of treatments, including a combination of western techniques and ancient Zulu holistic practices – learnt from traditional Zulu women. Our therapists use beautiful, non-allergenic products and are expertly trained. In their care, you’ll relinquish all responsibility for a while, and emerge refreshed, radiant and revitalized.

Pool
Area & Location
Area, Country
Hluhluwe, South Africa
Nearest Airport
King Shaka International Airport, Durban
Local Currency
South African Rand (ZAR)
Time Change
GMT +2:00
Language
Afrikaans, English
Best time to go
Best visited between September through May.
Related Hotels
- Lion Sands Ivory Lodge is a luxurious and highly exclusive lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which forms part of the Greater Kruger National…
- At the heart of the City of Gold, beneath the warm sunshine in the opulent, tree-lined suburb of Sandhurst, lies the enchanting Saxon Hotel. A…
- Set within easy reach of the Indian Ocean coastline and the famous iSimangaliso / Greater St Lucia Wetland Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal, &Beyond Phinda Private…
- In a remote valley overlooking the Bushman’s River in the Eastern Cape, Settlers Drift is the newest luxe heavenly retreat in Kariega Game Reserve, which…
- Set in the heart of the Private Reserve in thick vegetation overlooking a dense valley, Ecca Lodge offers breathtaking views onto an escarpment of steep…
- In a remote valley overlooking the Bushman’s River in the Eastern Cape, Settlers Drift is the newest luxe heavenly retreat in Kariega Game Reserve, which…
- Fringing the reserve’s wildlife-rich wetland system, along the edge of a rare sand forest, the vibrant and intimate &Beyond Phinda Vlei Lodge offers a tranquil…
- An ornately decorated, cliffside eyrie that will suit those who want mesmerising mountain and sea views, and value real privacy. With just six rooms, it's…
- Set within 75 000 hectares of safari park, Madikwe Hills Private Game Lodge is situated on a rocky outcrop in the heart of the malaria-free…
- Nestled in the breathtaking Western Cape Winelands awaits a sanctuary to start you on a journey of self-discovery and well-being. Discover Extraordinary at Santé Wellness…
- This exclusive lodge recaptures the romantic mystique of authentic safaris from centuries past. Experience the breathtaking natural world of Africa merged with colonial nostalgia and…
- We are always surprised at how a visit to Tinga can completely restore our energy after just a few days. When you’re right on the…
- The Tintswalo at Lapalala Wilderness is a Luxury Tented Camp located in South Africa’s malaria-free Waterberg region. This boutique lodge is set in the 44…
- Shamwari Eagles Crag is an avant-garde masterpiece of thatch, stone and glass secretly hidden away in a secluded lush valley in the central part of…
- Shamwari Eagles Crag is an avant-garde masterpiece of thatch, stone and glass secretly hidden away in a secluded lush valley in the central part of…