Tshukudu Game Lodge

This is a tough one because the good was REALLY good and the rest was slightly harder to stomach. The positives: Upon arrival we were greeted with a drink and a cool towel. The receptionist was lovely, as were all the staff. Truly amazing. We drove to our apartment which was everything I expected and more. We had booked the most luxurious accommodation – the cottage. It was far more stunning than in the pictures – all brick, airco in the bedroom, best kitchen we had on our entire trip and the best pool too. Deep, long, perfect temperature, lovely. We were told upon check in that the main pool was out of service and that other guests would be using our private pool, but that there were only 2 other guests at the time. People did use it and they were lovely and all was well. Dinner was also lovely. In short, our first night was amazing. The next day. I was sunbathing when the manageress came up to me and said she had just checked in a group of 15 and they wanted to come to the pool. The pool is literally 1 metre from both our windows, pretty intimate. I understood fully that the other pool was broken, but the lodge didn’t tell us that a big group was arriving the next day, nor offer us another room in light of this. Nor did they offer us anything in the way of compensation (free drink at the bar etc.) Also really odd is that this is the only game park I have ever been to where you cannot self-drive. There are NO signs saying you cannot self-drive and we were not told upon checking in and were afterwards told that it is on page 3 of our welcome pack item number 7. Not making this crystal clear to guests, both before they stay and during is a mistake that management should redress. Our pool had no chlorine in it after the first day and there were insects swimming half way down in it. Someone came every day to remove debris, but no chlorine was added meaning It was too much of a risk to swim in there sadly. Also, the Wi-Fi was horrible and there is no mobile phone reception to make a hotspot. I understand we are in the bush, but people want to advertise this and post pictures of themselves on social media in this lovely place. This should be redressed. On our last morning we went on a game drive. It was the oddest game drive I have ever done. The guide was driving quite fast and not speaking very clearly. Also, I got scratched by brambles and bushes several times. I would recommend to management doing some bush maintenance. It was also crazily full. We would have like to have known in advance when busy days would have been, so we could have done our drive earlier. Also, upon check-in, we were told it was included in the price. They ended up trying to charge us for it (the took it off the bill eventually though.) The staff were lovely but terrible Wi-Fi, unclean pool, lack of compensation for having a group descending on our privacy, game drive as if we were in a computer game and lack of information regarding non-self driving made this a dif

The reception was unpleasant and poorly trained and as the main point of contact, our stay went from bad to worse. The food was underwhelming. The bedroom and bathroom were old and in need of an upgrade. I have never received such shocking service before at a hotel or game lodge. We did have 2 nice game drives and the massage at the Spa was very good.