We booked a weekend timeshare stay at this resort. It takes a great deal of energy and passion to make the effort to go to this resort. The roads to get there once you have left the highway are full of potholes, the size that will swallow your whole car irrespective of whether it is a 4x4 vehicle or a normal vehicle, so that is the sacrifice that one makes to get to see this remarkably beautiful part of the world.

Check in was a horrific experience to put it mildly. 400 plus people were arriving at this resort on this day. The weather was miserable as it has rained non stop rather heavily from the moment we left Johannesburg. We had been contacted by the resort the day before the check in and were told in no uncertain terms that check in was at from 4pm. We specifically asked whether we had to fill in any forms and would prefer to do that before we got there and were told no forms were needed to be filled in other than the guest registration form used around the world.Upon arrival at 5pm , sat in massive queues in the car as we had to fill out many forms related to Covid 19 which could easily have been emailed to us prior to check in. Each car was given these many forms to fill in at the gate. Took an hour to get into the gate as cars were packed to capacity requiring all these forms to be filled in per person hence massive queues on a dirt road with heavy rain.Again no planning on how to ensure your guests have a terrific arrival experience after having driven for at least 4 hours, some 5 hours to get there with screaming children, hungry children, etc. Then at reception, another queue to pick up keys, note very SMALL reception area ( could have planned multiple reception areas as conference rooms lying empty, put up a small marquee to help with the large numbers), no apology about the massive queues , no polite engagement by management to say we are sorry , other people having issues with their villas , again those that had issues should have immediately been taken to another part of the reception area and dealt with separately rather than hold up the queue. Again no management visible to placate guests show leadership deal with the check in crisis, display confidence. Stood in this queue for another 30 mins. Took 1 hour and 40 mins from arrival at the gate to arrive at our villa.

Variety of villas on the complex but most are semidetached so you share one building with another villa. Noise is a massive factor as you can hear the loud TV next door and if your next door neighbours are naturally loudly spoken people you can clearly hear them in your villa so that ruins your secluded holiday immediately for the duration of your stay. I promise you there are 100’s of other resorts that are available around the country that don’t have this problem.

Monkeys are aggressive when you sit on your patio and are prepared to challenge you all the time when you want to braai outside but eat inside. Again nothing relaxing about this. There are many options to resolve this but none considered by management except to say don’t feed the monkeys and have put a lot of gates to prevent access into the villas.

Again - cleaning services are limited and the excuse is the pandemic. When I go on holiday I expect my room to be cleaned daily and if need be my towels to be cleaned daily. This is a cost cutting exercise rather than a Covid measure to prevent touch and transmission. All major hotel groups around the world still clean rooms daily unless the guest does not want the cleaning service.

400 plus guests on complex but again reception times are limited for assistance and management are not even remotely visible or make an attempt to engage with guests. Again a cost cutting exercise but the resort is at its maximum capacity as per the current regulations hence all services should be open and functioning.

Check out time is strictly 10am. Arrive as late as possible for your holiday but leave as early as possible and use Covid cleaning procedures as the excuse.

I wanted to leave early as I had a family emergency but had to wait until reception opened at 7.30am to wait for my chalet to be checked for any breakages and then I would get my R500 cash deposit back. I couldn’t wait so I now have to wait until 4th January to get my money back because their head office handles the refunds and not the unit. Again could have taken a credit card hold and then cancelled it but that is too much admin, rather inconvenience the guest.

Villas were comfortable, served their purpose.
From the car park to the villa is a distance so be aware of this when you arrive in the rain or depart in the rain as loading or unloading your car will be a challenge.

Will never go back to this resort because of its complete lack of planning around providing the best customer experience from check in to check out and going that extra mile with personalized service. Management attitude, presence, lack of sight let alone engagement meant to ensure guest happiness is not even remotely available.

Avoid this resort at all costs.

Everything that you could wish for is catered for. From being provided with a hairdryer to a pack of wood for each night that you stay there. Got to see Zebra, Jackal and Bushbuck right outside my chalet.