Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Umkumbe Safari Lodge is located in the Sabi Sand Wildtuin, considered by many to be the premier wildlife reserve in South Africa. Located on the banks of the seasonal Sand River, Umkumbe Safari Lodge is perfectly situated in one of the best Big Five game viewing destinations in Africa.
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
Romantic
Mid-range
Languages Spoken
Afrikaans
Location
4 Shaws Gate, Kruger National Park 1350 South Africa
We had a brilliant 3 nights at Umkumbe in Sabie Sands. It is an excellent location for wildlife and the accommodation, facilities and food for us were a perfect level of comfort in the bush without being pretentious. A great spot to be bring down a fww of the barriers we put between us and nature! The hospitality and friendliness of the all staff is on point. Our guide Tyron was awesome and we loved listening to, and asking questions of his extensive knowledge about this environment that he is so humbly passionate about. Our tracker Forward also had some amazing momemts of spotting creatures that would be impossible for us mere mortals! While staying here I was training for a marathon, so I was very appreciative of the functioning gym to train in, rather than risking my life beyond the electric fence. We will certainly be recommending Umkumbe to family and friends!
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Date of stay: August 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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 Sun Destinations, General Manager at Umkumbe Safari Lodge
Responded 16 Sept 2022
Hi There, Thank you for such a detailed summary of your stay with us. Our location is exceptional, especially when it comes to game viewing. Happy to hear that you enjoyed Tyron's guiding techniques, and the overall hospitality from our staff. Glad that someone made use of the gym...we hope the marathon goes well. Kind regards, The Sun Destinations Team
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The setting of Umkumbe Safari Lodge in on the Sand River in Sabi Sand Reserve, great for viewing wildlife from your room or any place on the lodge property. We stayed at Umkumbe Lodge two days and three nights; Wild Dog Room.
The service provided at the camp was exceptional. We had experienced an issue while enroute from Johannesburg to Nelspruit. Upon learning about our experience, the Umkumbe Lodge employees and owners were very helpful in assisting us; made the rest of our stay in Africa very pleasant. Their acts of kindness and willingness to help in itself is enough to give Umkumbe Lodge high marks.
In two days, we saw four of the “Big Five”: lion, rhino, leopard and elephant. We saw a family of elephants cross the Sand River from the patio of our room. We had two games drives each day, morning and evening. Both provided excellent game viewing. The morning game drive started at 6:00am, a little before sunup. The evening game drive started at 4:00pm and ended after dark. A spotlight was used by a tracker after dark to highlight animals, primarily predators. The guides, Shannon and Jade, and trackers, Moses and Joseph, were excellent at spotting animals and providing a vantage point by which to view the animals.
The room we stayed in, Wild Dog, was large and well appointed. The bathroom was large with a two-person tub and an enclosed outside shower. The front of the room had a large sliding glass door, with a patio, facing the Sand River. We really enjoyed the room.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served outdoors (both covered and uncovered spaces were used), largely in a buffet style. The food was good; enjoyed it.
Umkumbe Safari Lodge is definitely a place we would stay again.
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Date of stay: July 2021
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Choose a room with a view of Sand River
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 Sun Destinations , General Manager at Umkumbe Safari Lodge
Responded 03 Nov 2021
Hi there, Thank you so much for your wonderful and detailed feedback! We absolutely love that you thoroughly enjoyed your stay and we would love for you to visit Umkumbe Safari Lodge again! Sincerely, The Sun Destinations Team.
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it was our first time in South Africa, and first time on a safari so doing extensive research was crucial! we stumbled upon Umkumbe after figuring out Sabi Sands was our preferred private reserve, and boy did the lodge deliver! total transparency, Umkumbe was one of the lodges we could afford without paying an arms and legs for it. from checking in with Shannon our ranger, to the general staff - the whole experience was amazing, it was once in a lifetime! the lodge itself was clean and minimal bugs inside as I was assuming the worst. most importantly, bathroom was clean and the overall room space was good enough for 2 person. they even do turn down service which I did not expect at all! going on game drives were out of of this world as we spotted 3/5 of the big 5s. unfortunately lions were not in sight during our visits. I must highly recommend Umkumbe as a great lodge with 5 star hospitality on a pretty affordable price point!
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Date of stay: February 2020
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Room #1 - #3 if you are going to use the common rooms often. any rooms beyond that requires...
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.
Umkumbe has a discount hotel vibe without the reduced price. The rooms are small and have very poor lighting. The showers are small without any room to move around in. The walls are paper thin, you can hear everything your neighbours talk about beside you. The food isn’t great as it’s a buffet with limited choice. Most other lodges offer menu selection. We found the food was just enough to get by. You pay for your drinks, including bottled water and soft drinks. Most other lodges are all inclusive including alcohol. The wifi gets turned off in the evening (after 4pm Game Drive) another sign they are trying to save money. They stop too long for sundowners and coffee breaks on the Game Drives. Those stops add to the experience and are nice but most other lodges stop for 15-20 mins. We found Umkumbe’s lasted 25-30 mins and are therefore eating up a bigger portion of the Game Drive. You want to be out seeing the animals! Another disappointing thing about their drives is that they filled the vehicles to capacity. When you’re sitting in the middle it’s uncomfortable and hard to take photos. Most other lodges kept it so that it was one couple per row of 3 seats or if there was a large family, they could occupy an entire row of 3. Other lodges would have 4-6 people per vehicle where Umkumbe always had full capacity 10 (3 rows of 3 and one beside the driver). The other lodges could have easily sent out less vehicles and crammed everyone in together but they chose to send out more vehicles with less people so the experience was better. Lastly, Umkumbe only has a small property they’re allowed to drive their vehicles on (I believe it’s 1KM wide by 10KM deep). This is due to a dispute with one of the other owners on adjacent property in the Sabi Sand Reserve. So often we would see animals from a distance but it would be on the other lodges property so we weren’t allowed to go see them. So the property for game drives is very small compared to other lodges.
Some positives were the wildlife sightings from the veranda overlooking the reserve. This lodge was our best for leopard sightings which we really enjoyed. You could also hear the lions roaring from your room at night (again the walls are paper thin) which was cool. The staff were all really nice.
Overall, this place is more like a 3 star motel compared to a 5 star resort like some of the other lodges. The Sabi Sands Reserve has many other lodges that offer a more luxurious experience. We would not stay here again.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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.
Lets start with the positives : Ryan was a brilliant guide. Well informed and we enjoyed his corny sense of humour. Umkumbe has a small area that they can traverse, but we saw 4 of the Big 5 and heard the leopard calling (just refused to show itself). The staff were all lovely and very helpful.
Problems : Umkumbe is nowhere near the quality of other lodges in this area. Compared to other similar properties we have stayed in, this one has a mildly run down feel. It looks a bit tired. We could never get the right balance of hot and cold water in our open shower, my sisters room, did not have this problem. Wifi is only available for limited hours and cell phone network does not work very well at this location. Meals were mostly buffets - while breakfast was good with a fresh eggs counter, lunch and dinner were fairly middling.
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Date of stay: March 2021
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
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 Sun Destinations, General Manager at Umkumbe Safari Lodge
Responded 14 Feb 2022
Hi Karishma, Thank you very much for reaching out to us - please could you provide me with some further information so I am able to provide more accurate feedback; Did you book directly with Umkumbe Safari Lodge? As I am unable to find further information on our systems at Sun Destinations. Sincerely, The Sun Destinations Team.
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We loved our stay so much! There are reviews expecting 5* luxury but we did our research, knew what to expect and the lodge offers great value for money compared to more expensive lodges on offer.
Shannon our guide was excellent, you can tell how much she loves her job and she is super knowledgeable to answer all questions. The rest of the staff are all very friendly too and the site feels very safe. It’s a small site but we saw nearly everything we wanted to see and multiple times!
The pool was a great feature on a sunny day and the wifi worked well (although not on all day which would be an issue for some). The honesty bar worked well for us and meals were substantial so we didn’t miss snacks. Maybe room for some improvements to the menu.
The room was immaculate and also had a veranda which we could see elephants from.
All in all we had a great time and would recommend as long as you know what to expect.
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Date of stay: March 2022Trip 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.
Our group of 10 stayed at the Umkumbe lodge for 3 nights in September and the lodge was everything we hoped for. It's in an excellent location in the Sabie Sands Reserve which is visited by a wide variety of wildlife, and is on the river bank which offers even more opportunities for game viewing outside of the daily morning and afternoon game drives. The rooms are spacious with comfortable beds, a large sitting area, roomy bathrooms, and outdoor showers - the food was delicious - and the staff was always extremely helpful, friendly, and willing to go out of their way to make our visit a memorable one. Our guide, Shannon, and tracker, Forward, were superb and their obvious passion for what they do helped increase the excitement and enjoyment our group experienced every time we headed out for a sighting. Whether we were on an early morning game drive, relaxing by the pool, watching elephants cross the river from the deck, or enjoying a delicious fireside dinner, Umkumbe lodge met or exceeded our expectations in every way. Highly recommended.
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Date of stay: September 2022
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
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 Sun Destinations, General Manager at Umkumbe Safari Lodge
Responded 03 Oct 2022
Hi There, Thank you so much for your glowing review about Umkumbe. Our location is key to game viewing success. Our guides and trackers are remarkable, and super passionate about what they do. Thank you again for recommending our lodge. Regards, The Sun Destinations Team
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We had the most amazing time at Umkumbe River Lodge. Right from the moment we arrived everyone made us feel so welcome. The lodge is so lovely, the rooms are fantastic and the pool, view and other guest areas are chilled and put you into relaxation mode from the minute you arrive. Sometimes we were also treated to animals along the river in front of the lodge. Our guides and trackers were AMAZING. They were so knowledgable, helpful and made the whole experience so fun. We were also lucky enough to see the Big 5 in the first 24 hours and we just couldn't wait for each drive. Our drives were so flexible and we could go off road and watch an animal for as long as the group wanted. Also, the guides make sure everything they do is ethical and will always put the animals welfare first which we loved. The chefs were great and the food was so fresh and tasty each day and the our room was organised twice a day to prepare the room for bed and the day time. I couldn't recommend Umkumbe enough, a MUST visit.
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Date of stay: March 2022
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
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 loved every minute of our experience at Umkumbe. The whole experience completely surpassed our expectations, our safari guide Ty was very knowledgeable and clearly passionate about his job. Forward was great as a tracker and really showed his experience spotting a chameleon in near pitch black and lions from a faint sound in the distance. We saw 4 of the big 5 with water buffalo escaping us, what we saw beyond the big 5 was really great including a rhino and its baby along with a cheetah, each drive had a ‘wow’ moment and seeing a leopard with its cub in such a natural environment was unforgettable. I really liked that it was a private reserve and gave us the opportunity to go on a bush walk and learn more about the local environment with Ty. We loved the food at Umkumbe and it really surprised us at the quality and quantity available given how remote you are. We stayed in the Rhino room and had good views of animals from our balcony, air conditioning worked well and the standard of accommodation was really high, the self service bar made it very easy and was reasonable. Everyone on the camp was really friendly, everyone said hello to you in the camp and always working to ensure it was at the best condition. We appreciated the private table on the last night for our honeymoon.
Would love to return, couldn’t recommend it enough since we have been back home.
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Date of stay: November 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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 Sun Destinations, General Manager at Umkumbe Safari Lodge
Responded 10 Jan 2024
Hi There, Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an amazing review our lodge. We're glad that both Ty and Forward managed to deliver such epic wildlife sightings. We're happy to hear that you saw 4 of the big 5, leopard cub AND a cheetah. Seeing rhinos thriving in the wild in their natural environment is always a good sign. We were so proud to share this sighting with you. Wildlife aside, we're also glad to hear that our homecooked fare was well received and that you loved our accommodation offerings. We would love to host you again! Kind Regards, The Sun Destinations Team
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We spent two nights at Umkube lodge and we had great fun. Umkumbe is a very relaxed lodge with average accommodation and food. Their is an honestly bar at the main lodge where guests help themselves to drinks. There is a very small pool where you can have a dip during the day but this can get quite busy. The rangers are great, very knowledgeable and professional. We had so much fun with Dani and Jade who really know their wildlife and look after their guests so well. The reserve is very small in size and doesn't have traversing rights with other reserves so your odds are less likely than neighboring reserves that you will have all the big 5 sightings here. We were still lucky enough to have an excellent cheetah sighting of an adult female cheetah and two cubs on a kill. Overall a great experience and very much enjoyed.
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Date of stay: December 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.
Different groups do share the vehicle if there are just 3/4 people in one jeep. I think it’s great because you get to interact and meet people from different places.
There are more places to choose from in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve area.
PRICE RANGE
R 10,125 - R 11,911 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
umkumbe safari hotel sabi sand game reserve
LOCATION
South AfricaKruger National ParkSabi Sand Game Reserve
NUMBER OF ROOMS
10
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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