Camelthorn Lodge

A beautiful lodge, friendly staff, and terrific guide and tracker. We did 5 game-drives in our 2 1/2 days there and saw tons of animals. The food was amazing; they have times planned out for everything, a very regimented schedule. I think if I were to do it again, I’d add one more day here in the park. This was our favorite lodge!

Elephant Plains is an amazing game lodge and provided us lots of unforgettable moments during the game drives. Wonderful place to watch Big 5, fantastic staff, excellent accommodation too, good food… Everything was more than perfect and we strongly recommend their services for incredible drives

The suite at Elephant Plains was beautiful, a great space.

Our safari was FANTASTIC! We really had the best time. Our room had a private deck which was amazing. Our ranger was incredibly knowledgeable and knew the answer to any question I asked him. We saw all the big 5 and more!

Elephant Plains Lodge was a unique experience but still fantastic in a different way. Elephant Plains Lodge provided, by far, the best predator game viewing we could have imagined. We were able to view several different prides of lions feeding on different kills they made throughout the night.

Elephant Plains Lodge at Sabi Sands was our best experience. Our room looked like something out of a fairy-tale. The staff were excellent and the tracker and ranger took us on an adventure we’ll never forget. The delicious food was a bonus!

The safari – truly unbelievable! Our experience here couldn't have been better. On our very first game drive we saw four of the Big Five, among MANY, MANY other animals, including some babies, and on the day we left we were lucky enough to see the fifth – a big male leopard. The staff/guide/tracker were accommodating and friendly: Rich and I stayed in the family rondavel (which I think might have been an upgrade), which included both an indoor and outdoor shower, and the kids were next door. We never felt crowded on the drives – it was usually just the four of us and one other couple. To be that close to those amazing animals was overwhelming and almost surreal. I think we probably have about 3,000 photos. That said, there is nothing that can compare to actually BEING there, to be in a jeep surrounded by elephants ten feet (or closer) away – close enough to see their eyelashes; to watch as a baby hyena tries to climb up the jeep tire while the mother plops down very nearby to keep an eye out; to witness a cohort of five young male lions feeding on a cape buffalo – again, so close we could hear them chewing – okay – so that was a little unsettling! It was wonderful!

The accommodations were delightful. We had a beautiful view of the watering hole and all the animal friends that stopped by. Our tracker and ranger were excellent and we saw the Big 5 within the first day and a half of being there. Every day we got to see something new and the climax was our last game drive when we came upon a pride of lions feeding on a Cape buffalo kill. It was an amazing site to behold. Our expectations were exceeded. The food was delicious and nobody went hungry. With a maximum guest count of 28, our service was outstanding. Elephant Plains gets a 10 out of 10 from us.

Our trip I can only describe as the “Best Ever Experience” we have had to date. Having tasted Africa on our honeymoon we have always wanted to revisit. Elephant Plains was an excellent start and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Can't beat seeing Leopard three days in a row from day one. Guides, staff, and guests made for a great stay. Loved it!

Our South Africa trip was absolutely amazing. With no exception, our night at elephant Plains was outstanding. The facilities were perfect and the Staff wonderful. We were vegetarian and the chef catered beautifully for our needs. During our stay we got to see the elusive leopard, lions, and wild dogs – these were the outstanding animals we desired and we were not disappointed.

Elephant Plains was excellent. We had an Amazing time. We want to go back. Their lunch and supper food was average but we had a great time. We would not hesitate to go back to Elephant Plains Game Lodge.

Very clean and well appointed. The lay-out was roomy and included everything I needed. I loved the way all the rondavals and suites were situated on the property with lovely walking paths to separate them all. Staff was welcoming, friendly and very helpful. They all made a point of knowing us by name and making us feel at home. My ranger and tracker were EXCELLENT and I would ask for them again if I return (and I hope I do!). Food service was also very good – quality and diversity of dishes was great. I don’t eat red meat but the chef had options that were wonderful and the staff checked w/ guests regarding the menu each day so they could prepare alternate choices if needed. Wait staff was friendly, especially a man named Remember, who was definitely unforgettable! He was extremely attentive and entertaining while doing a splendid job making meal times even more enjoyable. Dinner in the evening outside was lovely with the tables arranged in a semi-circle around a fire pit with candles and torches and an ink black sky filled with stars you could nearly reach out and touch. I had the best hot stone massage of my life at Elephant Plains, by Janine. It was a “10”, no question. The lounge and bar area was comfortable, as were the outside seating/relaxing areas. There were plenty of options for people to rest and relax between game drives and the number of guests at one time prevented it from feeling too crowded, which was a huge plus. More people would have felt like too many. As much as I like children, it was very nice to have adults only, at least while I was visiting there. Staying at this lodge was one of the best experiences of my life – it was so lovely and enjoyable, I found it very difficult to leave and I would love to return one day.

We even loved Elephant Plains and I would highly recommend staying 2 days each at EP and Arathusa. The stay in Sabi Sands was the highlight of our trip and we really enjoyed staying there.

We were really happy with the service we received at Kruger and Walden house as it exceeded our expectations. We would recommend everybody to stay at these places. It’s getting difficult for me to express in words about our experience. Our entire trip was a very overwhelming experience for me. If I get an opportunity I would like to settle down in SA.

We did see the Big 5 when at Elephant Plains. The service and friendliness of everyone at all of our locations was beyond compare. The accommodations were the shining stars of this trip. Elephant Plains was equally as nice.

Elephant Plains was phenomenal. Extremely professional and courteous staff, beautiful rooms and common area, and our guide was extraordinarily knowledgable and patient with us. Elephant Plains lived up to its name, and we saw many elephant lumber by from the comfort of our room’s patio. My only complaint about Elephant Plains would be that the food didn’t quite live up to expectations – meat was often very overcooked and tough.

Elephant Plains was nice too as you undoubtedly know. Lovely facilities, everyone very accommodating, and plenty of food! I think it was good to change venues.

Elephant Plains was fantastic. Did not know it was 3 hours to the lodge from the airport. Interesting ride. The arrangements you made to transport us to and from the lodge were very good and prompt. I do not know if this was considered a mid price property and higher end, but it was fantastic. The staff was very good and so was the food and lodging. You cannot go wrong there. We arrived just shortly after the evening 3:30pm game drive left, but they called the guide back to pick us up. Just had time to drink the welcome drink and left and checked in after dinner about 9pm. We saw the Big 5 in the first two drives. They had not seen Cheetahs for 2 1/2 months and we saw two on a kill the first night. Awesome. The accommodations were luxurious. The food was prepared well and was on the healthy side also. Was never hungry. Game drive was at 6am, breakfast when we returned about 9 to 9:30am and then a bush walk. Lunch at 2pm and then game drive at 3:30pm and dinner 7:30pm. Since we were leaving before breakfast, they prepared sack lunches for us the night before. It was more than we could eat so we shared with driver taking us to the airport. Because of this he refused a tip.

Elephant Plains Game Lodge : We liked it so much that we are planning a return trip already. Only thing I would like to mention or ask you – The rondavels which was given to us had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Then on the top of that we had a luxury suite. It was an overkill.

Elephant Plains was wonderful in every way. The safaris were the highlight of our time in Africa, and we all loved the facilities, staff, food, animals, etc. The accommodations were very comfortable for our family.

We had a truly awesome trip. The safari experience in Elephant Plains exceeded our expectations. We definitely would recommend it to others. The road transfers worked well. We absolutely had no issues with any of the services that you had booked for us. Thank you again.

I highly recommend Elephant Plains. Our Rondaval was very romantic and perfect. The game drives were great, the food excellent, and the guests interesting. We saw so many animals up close and personal. It made our future National Park drives a bit disappointing. Three days was about right for us.

Our stay at Elephant Plains was perfect and air transfers with Bateleur Air also were great. I would give both high regards and recommendations. Elephant Plains seemed the perfect recommendation for families looking for a safari with children. They were prepared ahead of time with a special children’s menu for the kids to choose special meals for dinner if they wanted and the guides and trackers all seemed to take special interest in making sure they had a great time – which translated into a great time for my wife and I. I cannot think of any negative thing to mention – only great things about both EP and the associated charter flights.

All your arrangements were great and we loved Elephant Plains in spite of it not being the best time of year to visit (we knew that before going). Food, staff and accommodation was great. It was made extra exciting as the day before leaving the rains were so heavy that the river rose and there was serious doubt as to whether we would be able to get out. One couple had been unable to leave and the Lodge staff were amazingly helpful and didn’t charge them for their extra night at all. We did manage to get out as the river level dropped impressively overnight so our plans were not affected at all.

We had a fabulous time at the Elephant Plains Game Lodge. The experience exceeded our expectations. In fact, I have decided that although Mark and I experienced a private reserve this year, we need to include a comparable experience next year.

Hi Lianne. We just got back & the trip , lodges & guides/drivers were all great.
It was hard to surpass our Dutch World Cup experiences, but the safari was just unforgettable.

Our safari in Sabi Sands was the most amazing experience of my life. The rangers were magnificent and were able to find all the animals. We saw the Big 5 and had lots of sightings of leopards – awesome!! Elephant Plains was a really top class Game Lodge. The staff helpful and friendly and our lodge was very luxurious. The food was good and we felt really well looked after there.

Elephant Plains was something special. A real trek to get to but worth it. We stayed in rondaval 1 which was 2 rondavals joined together – our duagther in one, us in the other joined by connecting door – perfect.
The game drives where first class, our guide, Wayne, was first class too. He’s a bit of a photographer and got everyone to the money shots. We saw all the animals we could have and got the best photos. The general staff were also very friendly, facilities are great. It’s hard to think what the more expensive lodges can offer in addition to what we got from Elelphant Plains. We use their web cam often from home to overlook the watering hole and bring back the great memories.

The highlight of our trip as far as viewing was elephant plains and the leopards. Amazing.

The charter flight to Elephant Plains was great (I thought the sea plane I had been in before was small). Our room at Elephant Plains was wonderful. A great place to finish. We didn’t get to see Lions there but we saw the rest of the big five and the Leopard viewings were amazing.

Our favorite place was Elephant Plains. They were just amazing. We had a fantastic ranger and the room was phenomenal! We saw all the big 5 on pretty much on our first day and overall we just had amazing viewings! And then when we got back to the room we could sit on the deck or lay in bed and watch all the animals at the watering hole. We would definitely go back there in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact I already am plotting our next trip after I can figure out how to save the money. We highly recommend this place.

We loved Elephant Plains, and the little treats like a hot water bottle on safari in the morning made it great. We did struggle to find it. Then, we absolutely loved staying at Kruger. We were completely fine with the accomodation and found it very relaxing and loved being able to have a fire in the BBQ at night. We really liked Elephant Plains, but I think we enjoyed driving around looking for animals on our own even better. It seemed less regimented, and you got to meet more people from South Africa. We saw so many animals, so close up, I was really blown away.

E/plains ansTanda Tula was sensational. We saaw the big 5 , 3 times. There were great people thst really looked after us.
I love the way the black Africans “LIGHT UP” when you take the time to TALK to them.

Elephant plains was amazing and we loved it – we were so sad to not have had our extra night there as we did not get to see our lions or rhino. 2 nights and 4 game drives was not enough.

Hello Carene,

Thanks for coming back to us after this amazing trip. It was… whoa !! from the moment we got picked up from the airport til the time we flew back to Jo’burg, we had such a great time.
We had such an experience in the bush, seeing at end the big 5 and much much more!! tons of pictures of course and lots of memories kept in our heads.As for the lodge, both were really nice but we did actually liked better the Elephant plains one. The suite was beautiful, with a deck in front of the bush, the food was nice was well.
Just a side note regarding Arathusa is that people were not as friendly. As for the food, even if there was a chef, this wasnt as nice as we could expect. however the place itself was beautiful. The guides in general were also friendly. If you need more details on anything, pls dont hesitate to ask.

Kind Regards, Celine

Elephant Plains was delightful, fabulous room/suite. Food was OK, not the best but perfectly adequate and the rooms were very clean and had absolutely everything one needed. Loved the outside shower! Our ranger and tracker were both excellent, and once they knew we were also interested in birds, took time to point them out to us etc. Its quite dense vegetation in that area, so difficult to spot the game. Some days we saw practically nothing, but on one evening we saw the big five in one drive. We never got bored, loved it all.

Elephant Plains was an excellent lodge and we have no complaints about it whatsoever. We were also impressed with your efficiency and helpfulness, so thank you very much.

I just wanted to thank you for all your help. We had an amazing time. Garonga was absolutely beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for better service. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful and went out of their way to make our stay a delight. I have to admit that I now completely see your point about going from there to Elephant Plains – I almost broke down and wept when we arrived, wanting to go back to Garonga, especially since we’d seen all of the big five (bar buffalo) at Garonga in the three days we stayed. But we had a nice group of people staying there and it turned out to be good fun

Elephant Plains, while a much more elegant facility, lacked the nice appeal I describe at Gomo Gomo. The rangers pretty much stuck to themselves, didn’t associate much with guests except on game drives. They set all the places at lunch, so noone really interacted much with other guests. The bomo was setup in groups and not contiguous. So guests were not at all encouraged to interact with each other. I came to know so many of the guests at Gomo Gomo, I got to know 3 people at Elephant Plains because they were on my game drives.

was amazing (leopards every day), you were right the wildlife and service were spectacular.

The accommodation was out of this world, food was superb, staff were excellent in all respects.
Thanks again for your assistance and we both wish you all the best for the future.

ps. – we’ve already decided to return to South Africa in the not too distant future as we enjoyed it so very much.

The drive was perfect, however, because we really got to see the countryside. At Elephant Plains we spent time with 2 couples from the US who were part of our game drive. It turned out they had also gone through Go2Africa.com, and they were having a great time. They had just been in Botswana. Elephant Plains was the perfect camp to start our trip. Our ranger, Morné, was quite informative. The stay there was perfect.
I am now back at work and reality is setting in. First of all I have to tell you our trip was FLAWLESS! Catherine, you and “gotoafrica.com” really delivered. And Mark and I cannot thank you enough. Every accomodation you recommended was flawless. Every detail of our itinerary that you set up was flawless. Every transfer that you scheduled was flawless. No one dropped the ball. This was truly an amazing journey to your country. It’s a vacation and experience that we will never forget.

Thank you so much for making our trip flawless.

Thank you, especially, for recommending Elephant Plains. The lodge was beautiful and luxurious without seeming stuffy and all of the staff went out of their way to make us welcome. To top it off we saw 5 different leopards whilst we were there and the big five every day. Stephen, the manager, acted as out ranger and even started going further afield in search of animals we hadn’t seen on the last few drives.
The holiday had everything we asked for and I can’t thank you enough for your help. We’ve already recommended you to several people and will no doubt be in touch when we come to organise our next African holiday.

It would have been helpful to know that there was going to be a 3 hour drive from the Kruger Airport to Elephant Plains Lodge.
It would also had been helpful to know that most things were ala cart at Elephant Plains… water, alcohol, laundry, drinks.

We had a brilliant time

It exceeded my expectations. We were both really impressed with the staff and the level of service.
The wildlife was amazing and the rangers and trackers were very enthusiastic and attentive.

One big moan was the dreadful directions we’d been given by Go2Africa! It was dark, we were in Acornshoek looking for signs for Gowrie Gate and there were none!! No one at a petrol station was able to help and we couldn’t get through to Elephant Plains to stay and got some amazing shots of a leopard in a tree! Highlights were a herd of 300+ buffalo seen during dinner one night (one of the rangers had a flash light which he shone at them from the patio and they also had a webcam by the water hole so we watched on the TV in the bar!) -we then tracked the herd down the next day – immense! One night drive our driver spotted a chameleon in a bush (goodness knows how) – he got hold of it and let the children hold it! Also the usual lions and some great views of leopards. Food here not as good as Rocktail, but perfectly OK!

One downer was we were stopped by a corrupt police man on our way from Elephant Plains to Acornshoek! Matthew failed to stop completely at one of those ridiculous STOP signs in the road -there were not roads coming in from the sides and there was a barrier which was open – so he slowed down, but carried on and was promptly flagged down and stopped by a policeman. Asked to get out of car, show his driving licence. Taken over the road to the police car and told he was to be fined 1000 rand for not stopping completely at the stop sign! We had very little money left as end of holiday and Matthew explained this, so he said we had to go to the police station which was miles away. Finally got away with paying him what we had left – only 150 Rand and didn’t (of course) get issued with a receipt! Shame as left rather a bad feeling on our last day.

We had a wonderful weekend at Elephant Plains. Facilities were wonderful and relaxing, the staff very courteous and fun, and the game viewing was excellent. We saw all the big 5 except for a lion. My only recommendation would be to warn people about the roads they will encounter when the map says gravel road. While we made it in and out safely, we were driving a Toyota Yaris (very small car), and a bigger car/SUV would have been better suited for that kind of driving.

The flight there was awesome. The accommodation amazing. The service even better. We just could not say enough positive things about the whole two days. We would even like to go back again someday to see the new lion cubs that are going to be born…. Landing at the airfield right next door really topped the whole thing off though… 🙂

The directions to Elephant Plains were very indirect. The route awas very poorly described or marked toward the end. We traveled in a caravan and got lost several times. Luckily we had a cell phone and the EP staff described an alternate way for us to arrive. It was a very stressful evening but a minor gitch in an otherwise great trip.

The accomodations were very nice, however, Elephant Plains “luxury” room (from an Interior Designer view) was a bit tired–need upgrading. Everyone was very nice and we had great meals everywhere.

This was our least favorite of the game camps. Although the room was very nice the rest of the facilities, dinning room, food, game drives and so forth, were just not up to the standards set with Desert and Delta. Where at the other camps the rangers seemed to be concerned that you learned something and that you saw the animals you wanted to see, the rangers at Elephant Plains seemed only to be interested in the big cats.

Plains was great and everything was organised so well. It really was a trip of a life time. Thank-you so much for your assistance and organising the Safari. We were lucky enough to see the ‘big 5’ and much much more. It did take a few days to get used to 5am starts but it was definitely worth the early start. We couldn’t have asked for anything more and we can honestly say that we did not have one criticism.

We had a good room and a 1st safari experience.

We had a brilliant time at Elephant Plains. It exceeded my expectations. We were both really impressed with the staff and the level of service. The wildlife was amazing and the rangers and trackers were very enthusiastic and attentive.

We will definitely be recommending the lodge to our friends and family.

We loved the mixture of comfort and informality at elephant plains. The game drives were mixed – some more successful than others but that’s how it goes and we saw our big 5 with particular emphasis on leopard. Particular mention to the lengths they went to cook Ti some really, really nice veggie food. The flight back was uneventful.
Your bit was magically matched and beaten only by our wedding which was perfect.

Thanks for everything.

The accommodation amazing. The service even better. We just could not say enough positive things about the whole two days. We would even like to go back again someday to see the new lion cubs that are going to be born…. Landing at the airfield right next door really topped the whole thing off though… 🙂

We were a little surprised by the length of the drive to the lodge, but once we got there, it was all worth it. Our room was beautiful and the staff, guides, etc. were excellent. The food was really delicious too AND the animal viewing was INCREDIBLE. We can’t wait to go back!