Hippo Hollow Country Estate is an excellent choice for travellers visiting Hazyview, offering a romantic environment alongside many helpful amenities designed to enhance your stay.
As your “home away from home,” the hotel rooms offer air conditioning, and getting online is easy, with free internet access available.
Guests have access to a concierge, sun umbrellas, and beach chairs while staying at Hippo Hollow Country Estate Hotel. In addition, Hippo Hollow Country Estate Hotel offers a pool and a lounge, which will help make your Hazyview trip additionally gratifying. And, as an added convenience, there is free parking available to guests.
If you like sushi restaurants, Hippo Hollow is conveniently located near Kuka Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge.
Plus, during your trip, don't forget to check out a historic site, such as Shangana Cultural Village.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Family
Classic
Languages Spoken
English, Afrikaans, Zulu
Location
R40 Mainroad, Hazyview 1242 South Africa
Hippo Hollow Country Estate
1,468 reviews
Getting there
Car recommended
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
Excellently run and all-round beautiful location right on a river where you can expect regular visits by hippo's and see elephants just across the stream in the adjacent Elephant Whispers conservation centre. Hippo Hollow is at the heart of everything: close to Kruger Park and several of its entrances with a great gastronomy and entertainment infrastructure always nearby, The team at Hippo Hollow was amazing, It was a great choice considering the needs of an adult traveling with a 6-year-old boy. As with all the locations we visited around Kruger Park, wildlife starts on your doorstep, the transition into safari mode is seamless.
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Date of stay: March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Cristel Jonker, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 13 Jul 2020
Dear Derek-B-Richards Thank you kindly for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. I remember you and your son, it was such a pleasure hosting you and I miss our chats in the morning. Thank you once again for your kind word, we appreciate it very much and hope to see you again in the near future.
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Very convenient for Kruger National park as it is only 15mins drive and the outside restaurant area is lovely near a river where you can sometimes spot hippos if you are lucky. You can see elephants in the distance from the nearby sanctuary. Lovely place to sit and relax as it is very peaceful.
From the outside the cottage style rooms look lovely but inside found them to be too dark. The breakfast and dinner buffets were really nice as well as the a la carte menu dishes.
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Date of stay: January 2020
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Zandile Thabethe, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 24 Feb 2020
Dear emeraldxx, Thank you for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. We are delighted that you found our location, the ambience and our restaurant above your expectations. It was such a pleasure having you here. I am disappointed that you found the rooms too dark, we will investigate. We hope to see you again in the near future.
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We spent two nights at this lodge as part of our tour. The grounds are attractive, with Egyptian geese and peacocks, but disappointingly no hippos for the duration of our stay, our Kruger safari made up for this with several sightings. The room is adequate for the short amount of time we spent there, although it was a little dark. Wi-fi was excellent, we successfully skyped the UK. A tranquil half day spent by both pools with loungers, hammocks and shady spots refreshed us for the two trips to the park, just around 10 minute drive. There was plenty to please most people during buffet mealtimes, although I think that vegetarians might struggle if they attended the Shangaan evening festival in the grounds, This entertaining evening allowed the more adventurous to try out bushmeat and mopane worms. Service varied in the restaurants but the staff were very friendly and overall it was a pleasant stay.
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Date of stay: November 2019
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Room Tip:Better off with an upper floor, as room can be overlooked if you are on the ground floor
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Felicia-HH, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 20 Jan 2020
Dear i_love_me_hols (love your username) Thank you for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. I am delighted that you enjoyed our location, the animals, your room, the food and our service. We loved having you here with us. Thank you for your mention on the dark rooms, we will investigate. We hope to see you again in the near future and hopefully we will deserve a 5 star review from you.
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We went to the Estate to have lunch at the restaurant and were very pleasantly suprised by the attentive staff and great service we were given. The food was very good. The setting close to the river is excellent and we were entertained with sightings of monitor lizards/leguaans on the lawns whilst having our lunch.
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Date of stay: March 2020
Service
Room Tip:We only went for a lunch so am not sure about the accomodation side
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Cristel Jonker, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 14 Mar 2020
JohnWheelwright Thank you very much for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. We are delighted that you enjoyed our restaurant and that you found our service, location and food above your expectations. We are very fortunate to be located in such an extraordinary setting. We hope we have the honour of hosting you for lunch again very soon.
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We went as part of a group and had a very good experience at Hippo Hollow.
Our room was nice, with a huge shower, a safe, lots of space, a little patio that was not far from the small swimming pool. The bed was comfortable, everything worked, and the whole complex was very well cared for.
The lobby area was open, and that's where you could access wifi; it's available in the restaurant/bar area too.
All of the food were had at the restaurant was buffet style and there was good variety and it was pretty high quality. One night we had braai and it was excellent. The bar was small but pretty well stocked and there were barstools for that good ol' experience. Breakfasts were good, with hot and cold items available
The only animals we saw on there property were giant yellow and black caterpillars (and I do mean GIANT), a peahen, and elephants in the distance - oh, and birds.
One night while there, we paid extra to see a dance show where the dancers dressed like warriors stomped to drums. It was a very energetic and athletic show. They picked a couple of audience members to join them and dance; that was entertaining.
The main pool was really nice and pretty big. The smaller pool was not cleaned nearly as often but was still pretty nice.
I liked Hippo Hollow and would recommend it.
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Date of stay: October 2022
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We went to Hippo Hollow during the day to see if we could book a table for that evening. Not only did they book us in, they showed us around (and we got to watch some Elephants across the river) and then convinced us to join them for their entertainment (traditional dancing) and buffet. We arrived later, not knowing quite what to expect. The entertainment was great and the food was excellent - I think possibly the best meal we had all trip. Would definitely come back again!
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Date of stay: March 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Cristel Jonker, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 13 Jul 2020
Dear Kristinaamanda Thank you for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. We are happy to hear that you enjoyed your evening with us at Shangaan River Club, we were honoured to host to. Thank you for all the compliments and we hope to see you again in the near future.
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On a recent trip to South Africa, this was the location is was most looking forward to staying as this was our base for expolring Kruger National park, owing to its proximity to the Phabeni Gate for the park.
This is a vast estate and yet all feels very private. The staff are superb, with a great restautant serving a wide array of dishes and on 2 of the nights having themes, one of which was a South African braai night (BBQ). PLus there is the added attraction of the river where hippos and crocodile do tend to come out at nightfall, and there is an elephant sanctuary next door adding to the wildlife mix.
The lodges themselves are well appointed, in a traditional style. The stone floored shower in particular caught my eye.
A superb place to stay, highlly reccomended
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Anri Hayward, Marketing at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 25 Sept 2023
Good day Andrew, Thank you for your lovely review. We appreciate the positive feedback and will share it with the teams. We hope you enjoy the remainder of your trip in South Africa and hope to see you visit again in the future.
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We were booked into Hippo Hollow for three nights during our visit to the Krugar National Park, however due to over booking we were transferred to the sister hotel next door. We were still allowed to used the facilities at Hippo Hollow and attended a Sheergan tribal evening and sat next to the river which runs through the site. I would recommend this hotel for its stunning location .
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Date of stay: March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Cristel Jonker, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 13 Jul 2020
Dear rodoldroyd Thank you for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. We are happy to hear that you enjoyed your stay with us and that you found the Shangaan River Club above your expectations. I apologies for the inconvenience regarding the overbooking, but I trust that our sister hotel gave you extra special attention. We hope to see you again in the near future.
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Here for 2 nights with a large group as part of a longer touring trip round SA. Hippo hollow is a really unique, and in many ways magical place to stay. The river runs right through the property and eating dinner and breakfast in front of it is wonderful. But I think the quality of accommodation is disappointing– the rooms are a little tired, although they are meant to have a rustic feel I think this strays into them not being particularly well maintained and the design and quality of the rooms in the hotel part varies enormously. Initially I was given a dark and dingy room on the ground floor in front of the swimming pool which had no privacy at all. And No working safe, no working ceiling fan and no working TV. The rooms are clean but are obviously never checked for maintenance issues between guests. The room also had a really funny smell and the towels smelt musty and damp. Eventually I was moved to an upstairs room because they could not sort out the TV issue, which was much better, and begs the question, why didn’t they just allocate me that empty room in the first place,I ate dinner one night downstairs in the restaurant - service was typically slow, as is the case across all of South Africa and my halloumi salad wasn’t very nice and did not arrive the same time as my soup which is what I asked for. The staff here are very helpful, appealing, accommodating cheerful, as is the case across or South Africa. The resort is described as a luxury country estate. I don’t think it could be described as luxury at all but it is unique and that makes it charming
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Date of stay: December 2022Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:Try and avoid a downstairs hotel room, the ones upstairs are much nicer, much more spacious and...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Close to Kruger National Park, Hippo Hollow is a lovely get-away. Expansive property beautifully landscaped and located on the banks of the Sabie River. Hippos regularly seen in and around the river (or so I've been told- did not actually see any) .Rooms are Africa-authentic, many with thatched roofs, but with all amenities. Just a beautiful place to lounge at, after a day of game drives.
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Date of stay: March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Cristel Jonker, General Manager at Hippo Hollow Country Estate
Responded 13 Jul 2020
Dear kathrynjohn Thank you for taking the time to review us, we appreciate it very much. I am delighted to hear that you enjoyed our location, our property, the landscape, our location, your room and your overall stay. We loved having you here! We hope to see you again in the near future and we will have a stern chat to the hippos. :)
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Dear Clairey,
Thank you for your question regarding the animals. We have Elephants across from our River and also Hippos in the River so the River Chalets will be the most suitable for animal sightings from the comfort of your room. Hippo Hollow is allocated 15-20 min from the nearest gate to the Kruger National Park. You can either do guided safari's or you can do a Self drive in Kruger where you can decide yourself how long you would like to spend there. We are looking forward in hosting you.
You can book via the hotel or independently if you know the companies. Safari prices are very reasonable at around 1200rand (£70)for a half day (till noon) and 1600rand (£95) for full day (till 3.00pm). The animals are most active in the mornings so we opted to do 3 half days. I can recommend a company called Elephant Herd (they have a website) as they only take around half a dozen people in the jeep and the guide was excellent. Some companies have their jeeps packed like sardines so be careful who you book with.
We were there the end of July. There were no nets and we didn’t need any anti- malaria meds. However it was winter. So I’m not 100% sure about the summer months.
There are more places to choose from in the Hazyview area.
PRICE RANGE
R 1,593 - R 3,052 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
hippo hollow country estate hotel hazyview, hippo hollow country estate hazyview
LOCATION
South AfricaMpumalangaHazyview
NUMBER OF ROOMS
91
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect average nightly room rates, including taxes and fees that are fixed, known to our partners, and due at time of booking. Please see our partners for more details.
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