Singita Sweni Lodge

Singita Sweni was fabulous! So glad we stayed here. It’s charming & lovely & not as big as the others, which added to its charm & personal warmth. Rooms were beautifully decorated & we felt like we were at one with the outdoors … in a luxurious way! It’s on...

Singita Sweni was fabulous! So glad we stayed here. It’s charming & lovely & not as big as the others, which added to its charm & personal warmth. Rooms were beautifully decorated & we felt like we were at one with the outdoors … in a luxurious way! It’s on a river & while the views are not sweeping like some of the other lodges we felt like we were in the tree tops and had a good view of the river & a good view of the hippos & crocs hanging out in there. The staff at Sweni was also wonderful . Lovely lovely people always ready to help & to make your stay perfect. At night they gave us hot water bottles to snuggle up to on the chilly evenings. They made up outdoor beds on the terrace for an added adventure! Very fun! To sleep out there & to listen to the hippos was a very special treat. Our guides were Wess & Christoph… they were amazing! So fun, thoughtful & smart. We really liked them. Wess drove that Range Rover around going into nooks and crannies to get the best view of the animals. Those drives were an adventure in themselves & Wess was a great driver! Christoph was so sweet and caring… he remembered everything we liked from day to day from the hot water bottles to our drink preferences . This was the trip of a lifetime & we are so grateful we were able to do this & so happy we stayed in the Singita Lodges.

This is the only safari lodge to which we have returned. Sweni was even more spectacular than we recalled. Thank you to the unbeatable guiding team of Wes and Christof!! And to lodge manager Dave for setting a tone of the perfect balance of warmth and elegance. Beautiful, peaceful, perfect...

This is the only safari lodge to which we have returned. Sweni was even more spectacular than we recalled. Thank you to the unbeatable guiding team of Wes and Christof!! And to lodge manager Dave for setting a tone of the perfect balance of warmth and elegance. Beautiful, peaceful, perfect location- and wonderful cuisine. Sweni is perfect.

I could not have imagined a better introduction to safari than Sweni Lodge. Beautiful location right on the river with extremely knowledgeable staff from the game drives to the wine to the food and property. This place is a gem. I will forever be grateful for my time at Sweni....

I could not have imagined a better introduction to safari than Sweni Lodge. Beautiful location right on the river with extremely knowledgeable staff from the game drives to the wine to the food and property. This place is a gem. I will forever be grateful for my time at Sweni. Special shout out to our guide and tracker Sean and Given. Wow! I hope I am lucky enough to return one day.

My wife and I just visited this lodge as part of our South African safari. We had a wonderful time. The people were great: friendly, attentive and warm. The facilities are top notch as is the food. The setting on the river makes for interesting viewing. The game drives were...

My wife and I just visited this lodge as part of our South African safari. We had a wonderful time. The people were great: friendly, attentive and warm. The facilities are top notch as is the food. The setting on the river makes for interesting viewing. The game drives were outstanding with plenty to see and a lot of diversity. Our guide and tracker were great! I would highly recommend this lodge. It’s in keeping with the Singita brand.

If I really have to describe our experience I would have to write an essay. Everything was perfect our arrival, spectacular room, the custom-made menus, the beautiful nature and setting, and the fantastic game drive. A special thanks to JP le Roux who went out of his way to ensure...

If I really have to describe our experience I would have to write an essay. Everything was perfect our arrival, spectacular room, the custom-made menus, the beautiful nature and setting, and the fantastic game drive. A special thanks to JP le Roux who went out of his way to ensure that we experience the best of what the Kruger National Park has to offer. What a Remarkable experience, property and team! THANK YOU

My husband and I went to Singita Sweni on our honeymoon in May 2018, and we have not stopped talking about it ever since. Many people who I spoke to prior to our honeymoon recommended going to a Singita Sabi Sands property. We decided to the Singita Stay 6 -...

My husband and I went to Singita Sweni on our honeymoon in May 2018, and we have not stopped talking about it ever since. Many people who I spoke to prior to our honeymoon recommended going to a Singita Sabi Sands property. We decided to the Singita Stay 6 - Pay 5 promotion, and stayed at both Kruger and Sabi Sands. We are SO happy that we decided to do this, as we preferred Sweni and Kruger. Every aspect of our stay was top notch. The lodge was just renovated and so thoughtfully decorated. We thought of it as a five star glass treehouse perched above a river. There must be 2x the amount of employees at the lodge than guests, and you feel like everyone is catering to you at all times (but never intrusive). Food was delicious and the menu changes every day. But the highlight of the trip was our safaris. A huge thank you to both Collen (our guide) and Given (our tracker) for giving us a once in a lifetime experience. Collen and Given are so passionate about what they do, and want to provide their guests with the best experience. For us, this included off-roading to see a Lioness and her three cubs up close, and multiple encounters with the Shish pride. The landscape of Singita's property in the Kruger is breathtaking, and you cannot go five minutes without having an amazing sighting (this was the one big difference we saw to Sabi Sands as we had long stretches without sightings). I cannot speak highly enough about this property, and cannot wait to come back!

Singita Sweni (and the Singita operators) are the benchmark for Safari excellence and perfection. From their attention to detail, their knowledge of where the big 5 and more animals are at and the exclusivity of their 16,000 acre property insures an uncrowded game trek. Our guide Quentin knew the animals...

Singita Sweni (and the Singita operators) are the benchmark for Safari excellence and perfection. From their attention to detail, their knowledge of where the big 5 and more animals are at and the exclusivity of their 16,000 acre property insures an uncrowded game trek. Our guide Quentin knew the animals and their personalities and our tracker Howie could spot them from near and far. We spent over 7 hours (split from morning and afternoon) on the drives with breaks for coffee and drinks and luxury snacks in the bush. The rooms were perfect and looked directly over the Sweni river where we were woken up by snorting hippo families, a lazy alligator and others sharing the stream. Dinner, lunch and breakfast was presented with the expertise and delight of a European Michelin restaurant. This safari was simply life changing and our very best vacation in 36 years being married. Look no further, Singita runs a 6 star quality experience.

My wife and I spent five amazing days split between Sweni and Ebony (3 days and 2 days respectively). Every aspect of our visit we exceptionally well executed by the staff of both lodges. I had very high expectations for this trip given the strong reputation for Singita quality and...

My wife and I spent five amazing days split between Sweni and Ebony (3 days and 2 days respectively). Every aspect of our visit we exceptionally well executed by the staff of both lodges. I had very high expectations for this trip given the strong reputation for Singita quality and service. My expectations were fully met. The most memorable aspect of our visit was the team of people who work for Singita. The members of the Singita staff are without exception professional, kind and caring. We rarely had to ask for anything as the staff had already anticipated our needs. My wife and I were both struck by the genuine love the Singita staff showed for what they do. We never met any staff member at Singita who was anything less than excited to be there. No fake smiles anywhere on those properties; every staff member was clearly loving what they were doing. Their enthusiasm was infectious. If there is a ‘secret sauce’ for Singita, it is clearly their people: who they hire, how they train them, and the tools they provide them to ensure the customers are well taken care of. I would love to work at a place with such a great culture! The most important people for us, not surprisingly, were our guide and tracker for the twice daily game drives. After all, we went to Africa to see Africa. All the pampering and great food are secondary to the scenery and wildlife. Jacques (our guide) and Sunday (our tracker) at Sweni were amazing. They were both very genuine people who we loved being with, yet were at the same time two of the most knowledgeable and skilled people I have met. Yes, the trackers have radios that help them locate animals sighted by others, but most of the time Jacques and Sunday relied on their own skills to locate wildlife no one else had yet located. They showed us how to spot different animal footprints, how to use smells (both from the animals and from their kills), and how to use knowledge of animal behavior to track where they might be. We really felt part of the process which was wonderful. There was a sense of true accomplishment when we located animals ourselves. Oddly, one of our most memorable activities was tracking a lion which we never found. We tracked it right to the border of Mozambique to where it had gone through the border fence. But during the process, my wife and I learned quite a bit about animal behavior and how to track them. After 6 game drives with Jacques and Sunday, each lasting about 4 hours, we had spent about 24 hours with these two in the space of just three days. Given the chance, my wife and I would have happily spent another 3 days with them! They were simply wonderful hosts and guides in every way. We were convinced that we had just gotten lucky by getting these two assigned to us. No way all the guides could be this good. And then we transferred over to Ebony and were assigned Andreas (our guide) and Martin (our tracker) and were just as impressed with the both of them as well. So unless we were incredibly lucky, my guess is that all of the guides and trackers they Singita employs are equally fantastic. Since we stayed at both Sweni and Ebony, it is worth comparing the two. My bottom line recommendation is to do both. I do not think our trip would have been as good if we had only done one or the other. They are quite different both in terms of lodging and game drive experience. Sweni is a larger area which required the tracker and guide to really work hard to find the animals. Ebony is a bit more compact and the animals were generally much easier to find. Yet my wife and I both preferred the Sweni game drive experience. We felt we had accomplished something when we found an animal, whereas at Ebony it was almost like going to the zoo! Animals everywhere we looked! For us, the process of tracking the animals was as much fun as viewing them, and Sweni required more tracking. As for the lodging and food, we both thought Ebony was the clear winner. The rooms at Sweni were focused on form over function. They seemed to be too much ‘New York Chic’ rather than African Safari lodge. We felt like we were in a big city hotel room, with an admittedly amazing view of Africa though!! The Ebony lodge however had a true African Safari feel to it. It was more comfortable, useable and felt more like a home rather than a hotel room. We also felt the food at Ebony was a step above the food at Sweni both in terms of quality and variety. I still recommend staying at both lodges, however, because they complement each other perfectly. The only place where Singita did not fully meet my expectations was in the booking process. We decided to go directly with Singita for our booking and the process did not go well. I think they must outsource this function because the people who we initially worked with were clearly not of Singita quality. They were rather slow in responding and puzzlingly rather rude when we requested adding an additional day to our trip. I almost cancelled our trip based on the poor treatment from their booking team, fearing that that Singita had a poor customer service attitude based on our initial interactions. But we were then connected with a wonderful person named Linda who really took care of us, so we kept our booking (really glad we did!!). I recommend that Singita reconsider how they handle bookings done directly with them. Initial impressions are important, and our initial impression of Singita was not good due to their bookings team. Bottom line though is we loved our stay at Singita. We loved both locations we visited and thought they complemented each other well. The people were exceptional at both locations. If you can, definitely try to go to both Sweni/Lebombo and Ebony/Boulders. You will be very happy you did.

This was our second trip to Sweni, this time we did it properly and stayed for two weeks. The lodge has recently been refurbished and is now even better than before. The pool suite was absolutely amazing, definitely the room to go for if it is available. If you are...

This was our second trip to Sweni, this time we did it properly and stayed for two weeks. The lodge has recently been refurbished and is now even better than before. The pool suite was absolutely amazing, definitely the room to go for if it is available. If you are going on safari much of the experience should be about the wildlife. The lodge however did everything they could to make the experience amazing in between the drives. I wouldn't usually use the spa, but I hurt my shoulder and the massage helped sort it out, was a reasonable price too. Pack light they will wash your clothes every day for free. It allows me to take more camera gear which is always a good choice. So to conclude, great food (all the time), great rooms, great service, amazing wildlife and lots of nice extra touches. A trip of a lifetime.

This was our second visit to Sweni and our sixteenth safari, so the bar was set high. The re-vamp has been done beautifully, blending contemporary with tradition and the lodges superb and lacked nothing. Food has taken another giant step forward, with the kitchen sending out dishes that could have...

This was our second visit to Sweni and our sixteenth safari, so the bar was set high. The re-vamp has been done beautifully, blending contemporary with tradition and the lodges superb and lacked nothing. Food has taken another giant step forward, with the kitchen sending out dishes that could have come from any 5star restaurant. Service, as ever, was world class and the Singita brand is our very favourite.