Boskoppie Lion & Tiger Reserve

Lion tour was awesome. Staff was great!

It was a very unusual experience. We booked as it was at the right place for our trip. We felt transported back into 1970, with the bar and deck where nothing worked but it was lovely to sit there and look at the view. Food was average. Then we had to walk to our room. It is an astonishing experience having to walk right next to tigers and lions to get to our room. Rather unnerving but so fantastic getting so close to these beautiful animals. The lions roar kept us awake, but that is not a bad thing. Strange but lovely experience. Every tourist should stay here.

It was rather run down and the rooms lacked attention to detail.

The place has a lot of potential but needs attention. One would expect a lot better for the price. I assume the lions and tigers (which are beautiful by the way) are supposed to be justification for the poor standard of the establishment.

The chalets are ill equipped, very basic and needs to be upgraded. All 3 matresses in our unit were just about impossible to sleep on. The first night the electricity supply of all untis tripped for no apparent reason and eventually an electrician was called to repair, which took about 2 hours. When the lights came on there was no water pressure as the pressure pump was on the problematic circuit which was disconnected. Around 8pm loadshedding kicked in and they started a generator which was placed right in front of the chalets for the convenience of the bar only. The generator does not supply electricity to the chalets but is disturbing with the loud engine noise at your front door. 1 of our 3 units had no hot water the following morning as the geyser gave up and our guests were moved to another unit.

The staff were very friendly. This could not overcome the terrible state of the facilities.

The conditions of the lodge do not match the photos at all. Everything is very run down. The pool was filthy and littered with dirt, branches, and dead lizards. The “restaurant” smelled like tobacco smoke and sadness. We ordered pizzas for our kids, figuring it was the safest we could hope for: no luck, the pizzas were undercooked even though it took nearly 30 minutes for them to make. After one bite my 5-yo and 7-yo daughters said “this is disgusting!” The accommodations were dusty and dark. I won’t say they hadn’t been cleaned - it was very rustic, however. The biggest problem, though, was that the door to the room would not lock. I raised to the attention of the lodge manager, but they were unable to fix it. “We’ll have to call a technician for that.” Because of all this, we elected not to stay the night and packed up our kids and bags after about 2 hours at the place. I asked for a refund, but the lodge said Booking.com does not permit refunds. Booking.com - if this is true, please refund me my money!

Staff were friendly, knowledgeable and unobtrusive. The ambience at night when the lions start up is unbeatable.

The food served onsite was not good...really not good..