3 Day 4 Star Pilanesberg Safari

Spectacular place and service at the hotel. Value for money 5/5

After reading many reviews, I chose MoAfrika to arrange my short safari in Pilanesberg National Park. After some emailing, they set me up with Black Rhino Game Lodge. I had guides from MoAfrika for game drives on the ways to and from Black Rhino and guides from Black Rhino for the rest of the time. It was an excellent experience all round. MoAfrika is well-connected with many safari lodges. They were able to set me up well even though I was late in contacting them.

I had an incredible experience with MoAfrika tours at the Bakubung bush lodge in pilanesberg. All of my drivers, both transporting me from jozi to pilanesberg and doing the game drives, were incredible, including: Clement, Arnold, and Sunny. The game drives, in particular, were incredible, and much better with the MoAfrika team than with the lodge, as the lodge vehicles were substantially larger. Desmond was a fantastic, enthusiastic guide, with so much information about the park and animals; he really went out of his way to stay in touch with other guides to search for the animals we hadn't had a chance to see yet. And just a hilarious, kind guy. On one day, I got lucky, and had Eka as a guide with no one else in the vehicle. Eka and I spent four hours together chasing animals through the park, eventually getting within feet of some lions due to Eka's quick thinking and passion for getting as close to the animals as possible. He is a brilliant, kind, funny guide, who taught me so much about the park and the animals in it. I cannot endorse him enough. All of the MoAfrika guides so clearly loved the work they do, and were a joy to be around. My only criticism with MoAfrika is that communication before the day of departure/arrival could be better. I always got the information I needed (confirming pick up time, who my guides would be, when they would come, etc...), but I had to ask for it. I trust they would have shared this information eventually, but it would have been nice to have it sooner than a few hours before.

I had a long weekend after a week of work and would highly recommend this tour and the agency. The tour included everything you'd need for the 3 days, including transfer from your hotel (or airport), meals, and game drives arranged from the lodge and the tour group itself. Pilanesberg itself was incredible, and we saw 4 out of the big 5 while we were there. found that messaging through WhatsApp was the best way to contact MoAfrika (the number is on their official website). The only thing I would mention is to be proactive about communicating with the staff. On the first day of the tour, I was picked up at my hotel and placed on a bus where I ended up being the only 3-day tour (the others were on the 1 day). As soon as I mentioned it to the tour guide, I was straightened out, but if I hadn't then there might have been some confusion. So, communicate well, communicate often, but expect an amazing time. The Ivory Tree Lodge, where I stayed for 3 days, was an incredible location and well worth the cost. This is reviewed separately.

Booking a 3D2N tour with MoAfrika was a right move! I did my research on a Wednesday, sent some messages to them on WhatsApp and got my queries answered and trip booked subsequently for the Friday-Sunday! Fuss free, easy to do online payment and transfer as well (I literally did it on the Table Mountain itself while hiking..). The trip started with a knowledgable, dedicated driver called Alex from MoAfrika who picked me from the accommodation in Jo’Berg. We drove 2.5h to Pilanesberg with a short rest stop in between and he took me on a very informative closed van drive. Alex always seemed to be able to spot animals even while he was driving, and would explain about them enthusiastically! I then got transferred to Bakubung Lodge and had a great stay with them! Elephants and Warthog (aka Pumbaa!) would even come super close to the lodge for a visit! Imagine having a buffet lunch and watch these animals roam just outside. The stay was comfortable with super clean and huge room! They have top tiered services that had staff coming to clean and set up the room for you TWICE (while you are out for game drives in the morning / afternoon). Food is crazy excellent and I experienced Bakubung’s special Friday “Lamb on a Spit” dinner and “Boma Bush Braai” aka outdoor dinner in the wild on Saturday with Afrikan style performances, romantic dinner under the stars and unlimited laughter and vibes! Note that the bush dinner was offered only on Wed/Sat when I visited. I experienced 6 game drives in total (2 closed van, 2 sunrise and 2 sunset open 4x4) and every experience is different as you see different animals in different amount and distance! Patience is the key to really enjoy the safari, and expect the unexpected! I recommend doing 3 days as I only spotted lions close to me on the 5th drive (3rd day sunrise). After the entire weekend treat, MoAfrika also organised a van to drive us straight to the Jo’berg Airport. Fuss free, always reachable, Anthony from MoAfrika made sure I always get help or my queries answered ASAP. It’s been a great pleasure doing this tour instead of the others in Kruger, as Pilanesburg is only 2.5 - 3h away by car while Kruger is at least 7 hours away! This means you get 6 drives instead of only 4 in Kruger (due to the 14 hours required to travel to and fro Jo’berg by car). All in all, I am glad I took that leap of faith to book the tour even though it is out of my budget… But the experience is unforgettable and you’ll definitely have a good time for the whole tour and feel like an esteemed guest!

+16

The Tour company managed all the logistics exactly the way I wanted. Everything ran smoothly from the pick up to the drop off.

+33

I am giving this five stars because of the tour operator not because of the lodge. The lodge itself and the experience would be given four stars. Moafrika tours did a good job confirming everything and letting me know what time my driver would be picking me up at my hotel. Arnold picked me up on time and I boarded a minivan where we picked up a few more people for a total of eight for our trip up to the national park. Everyone on the van except me was going for a one day safari which started at 9:00 a.m. We dropped off the rest of the people for their safari and then I was passed off to Arnold's colleague, Sonny. Sonny was very personable and knowledgeable and drove me personally through the park for about two and a half hours giving me information about the park and some of the animals that we saw and he dropped me off at Bakubung Resort Lodge. This is where I stayed for the remainder of my time. When it was time to return Arnold was prompt in picking me up at the lodge and taking me again for a couple of hours drive through the park to get back to our original departure point where we picked up the people that had come up for the day trip and they rode back with us. My only suggestion to the tour operator would be to supply water both going and coming to Pilanesberg. Especially on the return , the people getting off the drive were quite thirsty and there is no place to purchase water at that departure/pickup location . We had to wait more than an hour and a half drive to get to a stop to purchase water . The portion of the trip handled by MoAfrika tours was five star. My review of the Bakubung resort was mixed. And I will paste below the review I wrote specifically for the resort. The Bakubung Lodge is quite large which lends itself to some pluses and minuses. Overall the general experience was positive. I have been to many game parks and on many drives and I debated whether to write this as a three or four star, but decided based on the personalities and efforts of the staff, I would give it four stars. The pros: It is very very close to the national park which has an excellent collection of animals. It's particularly plentiful with cats which can be tricky at other parks in South Africa. The staff you interact with is very positive and friendly. The lobby area is outdoor and looks out into the park and a large watering hole with a nice view of an assortment of animals. The game drive guides are very friendly and personable and have a lot to offer. The bed is very comfortable and housekeeping for the room was excellent. They have a fitness center on site with an ample supply of equipment. They have a very nice bar that's open most all day. There is a large variety of food presented as a buffet. The outdoor bush dinner on Wednesdays was excellent. The cons: Room; My room was quite a distance from the lobby and an uncomfortable journey with luggage. The air conditioner does not provide much in the way of cold air. I had it running for my entire visit at full blast and full cold setting and I was very hot in my room at all times. There were quite a few mosquitoes in my room which I finally managed on the second day by shutting all the lights off in my room and opening the bathroom door with the light on for a bit until I could trap them in there and then used the insect spray to kill them. The sink ran extremely slow and was hard to drain. I had a tiny little balcony on my room that overlooked the pool but there was not enough room for a chair so it was basically unusable. Food; all the meals were provided via buffet only. There were no plated meals nor an option for any. The servers were very friendly but you were never clear as to who your server was and I often had to order things multiple times in order for them to arrive because it didn't seem clear as to who was assigned to my table for things like coffee and tea. Game drives; while the game drive guides were excellent, the game drives themselves were probably the biggest negative to the lodge in my opinion. This is a very child friendly lodge which is great, however having a lot of children on your game drive can be problematic. Many of them were non-English speaking which led me to assume that the reason they were not interested in listening to the guide was because they couldn't understand English. A couple of my drives were greatly disturbed by having children kicking my seat through the whole drive and or shrieking, talking through the guide information sessions and basically disrupting the drive. My suggestion would be to put families together on one drive vehicle. Sadly not all parents appropriately monitor their children and this becomes a distraction for those of us who are trying to listen to the game drive or to enjoy nature. The other big negative to the game drives is that they are large 18 person vehicles that you are randomly assigned to each game drive. This means that the driver has no idea whether this is your first drive or your fourth drive, what you have seen, what you haven't seen etc. They have no history with you. So because of that all of your drives are repeats. I went on four game drives and they were all basically repeat of the same information, same routing, same introduction of all animals. My suggestion would be to separate vehicles to perhaps focus on different animal groups or areas of the park so that people could get a variety of drives rather than just four of the exact same drives and the exact same information. Also It would be nice if water was provided on the drives at the beginning. It gets very hot and many people were not aware that they needed to bring their own water. The mid rest break comes a couple of hours into the drive. Water would be a nice addition.

+1

The safari was a surreal experience, we were lucky enough to see the Big 5 which made it all worth it. I wouldn’t hesitate in booking this trip as these experiences don’t come around often. I highly highly recommend!

We had a fantastic time. The tour was organized perfectly and Anold got us there and back safely with lots of laughs.

Amazing experience. Travelling for business and decided to extend the trip to go on a safari. Stayed in Kwa Maritane Lodge and did 4 game drives over the 3 days. Saw so many amazing animals. Staff were amazing! Specifically want to thank my driver Arnold from Mo Afrika for being so friendly and helpful. Was travelling solo so having someone as kind as Arnold very much put me at ease. Thank you! Would recommend, thanks for an amazing experience.