The Motse at Tswalu

At A Glance

Destinations
Children Under 12 Welcome

Accommodation Highlights

Set in South Africa's largest private game reserve, covering over 100 000 hectares
Luxurious, exclusive Kalahari experience
Expert field guides & great game viewing
Wide range of wildlife & many rarities
An abundance of other activities on offer such as bush walks & horseback safaris
Family owned & managed

Overview of The Motse at Tswalu

South Africa, Kalahari

Located on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in a remote corner of northern South Africa, Motse is set in Tswalu Private Game Reserve, the largest privately owned reserve in the country. Motse is also Fair Trade accredited and the recipient of a number of awards, including National Geographic Adventure’s Top 50 Eco Lodges and the Spa Awards.

A stay here is all about experiencing the wonders of the Kalahari in luxury and in comfort. Relax and unwind at the Sanctuary Spa, around the swimming pool or in the comfort of your suite. If you have children with you, let them be entertained on fascinating bush walks, star-gazing trips and sleep outs. Motse offers amazing Kalahari game viewing, rewarding birdwatching and a number of exciting safari activities. Enjoy guided walks across the dunes, game drives in open-air safari vehicles, hot air ballooning, and trips to Bushmen rock engravings sites in and around the reserve.

Highlights & Activities

What's on offer whilst on this itinerary?
Set in South Africa's largest private game reserve, covering over 100 000 hectares
Luxurious, exclusive Kalahari experience
Expert field guides & great game viewing
Wide range of wildlife & many rarities
An abundance of other activities on offer such as bush walks & horseback safaris
Family owned & managed

Animal tracking experience

Cultural visits

Game drives

Historical tours

Horse riding

Local village visits

Star gazing

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Rooms at The Motse at Tswalu

Unwind and relax, in your own private luxury
  • the-motse-tswalu-kalahari-sa-bedroom
  • the-motse-tswalu-kalahari-sa-suite-bathroom
  • the-motse-tswalu-kalahari-sa-family-suite-verandah
  • the-motse-kalahari-legae-deck

Motse Legae

The Motse consists of a ‘village’ of nine spacious suites, including three family units with an extra bedroom. Built from natural materials, each suite blends seamlessly with the Kalahari landscape, offering uninterrupted views across the savannah and toward the nearby waterhole. Sunlight filters in each morning, while shaded areas provide a cool retreat throughout the day. With inviting indoor-outdoor spaces designed for privacy and comfort, The Motse sets the tone for relaxed bush living and memorable time together.

Families will relish the space provided by the two Family Suites, each with two bedrooms, an en suite bathroom and separated by a spacious lounge that leads onto a patio.

General Facilities

Curl up in the mezzanine library area with one of the lodge’s books or in front of the satellite TV.

Wi-Fi internet is available throughout the lodge and rooms.

To ease away the stresses of the real world, spend some time in Motse’s secluded Spa with its choice of indoor or outdoor treatment areas, or just spend some time around the infinity swimming pool with a good book.

You can also pick up a few items for friends at home from the Foundation Gift Shop, knowing that all proceeds are used to fund research at the reserve.

Bar

Children's club

Gym

Library

Spa

Swimming pool

Wi-Fi available

Dining

Motse serves delicious cuisine inspired by South African dishes and local Kalahari ingredients, complemented by the finest wines from Tswalu’s private cellar.

The chef at Motse aims to both surprise and delight you with varied and imaginative food served in a variety of inspiring locations.

Enjoy your meals in the dining room of the main house, in the privacy of your luxury suite or in the atmospheric boma under the stars.

Your meals can be served around the swimming pool overlooking the Kalahari or you can ask for a picnic in the dunes.

Expert Opinion

We know because we go
Ramona Cilliers

Ramona Cilliers

Africa Safari Expert

One of the most unique experiences in South Africa, breathtaking scenery and landscape, indulgent accommodation and total flexibility on activities... a true safari to your tune!

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Traveller Reviews

  • DB
    David Beever
    traveler

    Tswalu was very different but also very good. It was a bit colder there and the rooms are not quite as good (when compared to Singita Ebony and Royal Malewane). The reserve is of course huge and so the game tracking was more difficult but still very enjoyable. We saw a pangolin for the first time which was great but the meerkats stole the show there – really amazing.

  • IC
    Ian Carroll
    traveler

    Welcome at Tswalu with refreshing towel and drink, lodge is modern but very African themed. Individual lodge was impressive and the dining experience was very good. Staff were very friendly, happy to help and make your stay as special as possible. The dining room staff were great and organised a separate lamp-lit dinner looking out over the grasslands much to our surprise and appreciation. We were given the opportunity to invite our guide and tracker to dine with us, which we all took up; this was a great inclusion and another way for us to express our thanks for their efforts. Our guide Rudi and tracker David were great; their tracking skills especially on pangolin were amazing and had to be seen to be believed. They certainly worked very hard to ensure that we observed all of the major wildlife species on offer at Tswalu. We saw black-maned Kalahari lions, a pride of lions consisting of two dominant males and three females conducting a stalk on zebra (we had to leave due to nightfall before hunt concluded) white and black rhino, two pangolin including a juvenile, two aardvark, a caracal (only the second one seen by our guide in four years at Tswalu), two different groups of cheetah – one pair up close on their kill and a female with four cubs at a distance. Zebra – two species – wildebeest, giraffe, impala, springbuck, kudu, nyala and steenbok, Meerkats (up close), jackals, bat-eared foxes, Cape Fox and a variety of birds. We are really happy we experienced Tswalu. It has spectacular scenery, being surrounded by mountains and those red sand dunes especially at sunset is incredible. Seeing rarer wildlife such as pangolin, aardvark, black rhino and caracal is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

  • LC
    Liam Coppinger
    traveler

    Tswalu is an incredible place, they did all the big things and small things exceptionally well, we really liked having private safari tour which gave us flexibility of how long to stay at sightings, how long we could stay out, and allowed us to build up a relationship with both tracker and guide. Lodge, food, Malori star bed, and staff were all incredible.

  • IC
    Iain Campbell
    traveler

    It was amazing, sightings less frequent and not as close up but it truly felt wild and the luxury at camp was amazing.

  • KR
    Keith Robson
    traveler

    Tswalu was the highlight of our trip. We recommend it highly, and would love to return. We had no problem filling the five days that we spent there. We were fortunate to be assigned Warren Stuart, the chief field guide. Having a land rover to ourselves was a real treat. The informality of a small lodge, and the flexibility of meals and on game drives is a real selling point. But the main point of Tswalu is the vast Kalahari. You really felt that you were out in the middle of nowhere, with no roads, farms, or cell towers to remind you of urban living. We saw three kills on our visit, which was a bit unusual but quite thrilling. Plus, a leopard came into the camp and killed a nyala just behind our room, which was also very exciting. We enjoyed that feeling of tracking the animals and felt that we were truly having a wilderness experience. The only animals they don’t have at Tswalu are elephants, buffalo, and hippo, but we saw them at Pumba.

  • IE
    Ian Ellis
    traveler

    We had a great time at Tswalu a few years ago so I was worried that it could not live up to our memories and expectations. Fortunately I was wrong. We had an exceptional lady ranger and lovely tracker. We had some truly memorable exposure to the wild dogs (which have been recently introduced) and great fun tracking and finding lions. However interestingly one of the most memorable moments was a good aardvark sighting. The overnight deck experience was surprisingly good. Certainly another memorable experience.

  • LC
    Lauren Cohen
    traveler

    We had a wonderful stay at Tswalu! The conservancy was so green, with long lush grasses that glistened in the sun and danced in the breeze—-really beautiful scenery. The lodge was lovely, as was the staff, and we had a fabulous ranger. He was just excellent…warm and friendly, knowledgeable and experienced, super helpful with my photography and just a pleasure to be around. Horse back riding in the bush, sleeping out under the stars, getting up close and personal to the meerkats, and more. Having said that, we also had great lion encounters, watched a cheetah eating his kill, and got up close to a mother and baby black rhino who were very happy to have us hanging around! Best spa service yet at any game lodge.

  • BG
    Bill Gilliam
    traveler

    We had another great trip. Tswalu was perfect. Exactly the sort of trip we were looking for. We did the overnight on the dune and spent a great evening with the Milky Way. Better animal viewing than we anticipated and we got to see a “green” Kalahari with all of the rain they’ve had recently.

  • CM
    Costas Meghir
    traveler

    Tswalu was excellent and a fabulous surprise, both on the lodge and the game-viewing front and a paradise on earth. The desert wilderness was unique.

  • RC
    Ramona Cilliers
    employee

    One of the most unique experiences in South Africa, breathtaking scenery and landscape, indulgent accommodation and total flexibility on activities… a true safari to your tune!

  • JF
    Jahel Fabris
    traveler

    Tswalu Motse is one of the best places we’ve ever been to, in terms of field guiding, facilities and the wildlife conservation project. The field guiding was excellent, the facilities and food really good and the landscape breathtaking.

  • WB
    William Bill Legge
    traveler

    We journeyed on to the Kalahari via Campbell where we visited John Bartletts church built in 1825. Judith was a Bartlett before we were married so we found it very interesting. The directions to Motse Lodge were great and the telephone system to meet a guide on the way in worked very well. They are a very efficient slick outfit which was obvious throughout our stay. The whole staff were good at their jobs I couldn't fault anything about our stay nor the way we were looked after. It is a fascinating area and we saw several first’s. The Meerkat experience was wonderful as were all the game drives. This was the first time we had our own private ranger and tracker to look after us. Their knowledge and communication skills were exceptional. The lodges are very well appointed and food was top class. I would recommend it to anyone.

  • IE
    Ian Ellis
    traveler

    Memorable for many reasons – all very good. Within an hour of touching down we had seen a lion kill a warthog, the first kill we had ever seen in Africa. Impressive and gruesome at the same time. Our ranger, Christo, was superb, very knowledgeable and fully engaging the children and ourselves. We actually managed to see buffalo here as well (always my favourite but very hard to find) but another highlight was being able to sit in close proximity to meerkats, an experience which we all loved. I think the thing about Tswalu was that it felt like an authentic African experience with fantastic clear skies, thousands of acres of wilderness and Christo and his tracker displaying true tracking skills to help us find game. The tracking itself was enjoyable, for example one day we spent 3 hours tracking a mother, her two cubs and male lion and although we narrowed it right down to the mountain side that they were on but could not find them we still had a really interesting “hunt”. All of the staff at Tswalu were fantastic!

DB
David Beever
traveler

Tswalu was very different but also very good. It was a bit colder there and the rooms are not quite as good (when compared to Singita Ebony and Royal Malewane). The reserve is of course huge and so the game tracking was more difficult but still very enjoyable. We saw a pangolin for the first time which was great but the meerkats stole the show there – really amazing.

IC
Ian Carroll
traveler

Welcome at Tswalu with refreshing towel and drink, lodge is modern but very African themed. Individual lodge was impressive and the dining experience was very good. Staff were very friendly, happy to help and make your stay as special as possible. The dining room staff were great and organised a separate lamp-lit dinner looking out over the grasslands much to our surprise and appreciation. We were given the opportunity to invite our guide and tracker to dine with us, which we all took up; this was a great inclusion and another way for us to express our thanks for their efforts. Our guide Rudi and tracker David were great; their tracking skills especially on pangolin were amazing and had to be seen to be believed. They certainly worked very hard to ensure that we observed all of the major wildlife species on offer at Tswalu. We saw black-maned Kalahari lions, a pride of lions consisting of two dominant males and three females conducting a stalk on zebra (we had to leave due to nightfall before hunt concluded) white and black rhino, two pangolin including a juvenile, two aardvark, a caracal (only the second one seen by our guide in four years at Tswalu), two different groups of cheetah – one pair up close on their kill and a female with four cubs at a distance. Zebra – two species – wildebeest, giraffe, impala, springbuck, kudu, nyala and steenbok, Meerkats (up close), jackals, bat-eared foxes, Cape Fox and a variety of birds. We are really happy we experienced Tswalu. It has spectacular scenery, being surrounded by mountains and those red sand dunes especially at sunset is incredible. Seeing rarer wildlife such as pangolin, aardvark, black rhino and caracal is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

LC
Liam Coppinger
traveler

Tswalu is an incredible place, they did all the big things and small things exceptionally well, we really liked having private safari tour which gave us flexibility of how long to stay at sightings, how long we could stay out, and allowed us to build up a relationship with both tracker and guide. Lodge, food, Malori star bed, and staff were all incredible.

IC
Iain Campbell
traveler

It was amazing, sightings less frequent and not as close up but it truly felt wild and the luxury at camp was amazing.

KR
Keith Robson
traveler

Tswalu was the highlight of our trip. We recommend it highly, and would love to return. We had no problem filling the five days that we spent there. We were fortunate to be assigned Warren Stuart, the chief field guide. Having a land rover to ourselves was a real treat. The informality of a small lodge, and the flexibility of meals and on game drives is a real selling point. But the main point of Tswalu is the vast Kalahari. You really felt that you were out in the middle of nowhere, with no roads, farms, or cell towers to remind you of urban living. We saw three kills on our visit, which was a bit unusual but quite thrilling. Plus, a leopard came into the camp and killed a nyala just behind our room, which was also very exciting. We enjoyed that feeling of tracking the animals and felt that we were truly having a wilderness experience. The only animals they don’t have at Tswalu are elephants, buffalo, and hippo, but we saw them at Pumba.