Simbavati Amani

Spent New Years at Simbavati Amani with our family group of 6. We had a fantastic time. Our guide, JV, was very knowledgeable, a great spotter and had a great sense of humour. You are lucky to get him as your guide if you stay here. Mama Kate was our chef during our stay. She is a wonderful cook and went out of her way to make gluten free options for our daughter with celiac disease. When guests are relaxing or meditating at the pool, it would be more enjoyable if staff is not enthusiastically busy doing stocktaking at the bar next to the pool, or catching up on the phone or TikTok posts for 1,5 hours. We paid a fair amount for our stay and were rather unpleasantly surprised with 4 named envelopes in our room on our last day in which we could put our tips. It made ‘optional tipping’ feel obligatory and uncomfortable, and makes us wonder if the staff is paid a living wage or if they actually need tips to make a living…

We have celebrated my 60 th birthday at the lodge. It was an amazing experience. The food was next level, thank you Kate! Raphael, Sipho and Ishmael - job well done. JV you are a 5 - star rating guide. Thank you to all the house keepers for always smiling and loving our 2 babies!

Our absolute favorite - up, close and personal. Guests feel like family members invited to stay. Warm and professional service with lots of attention and laughter from Sipho, the butler, and Tebogo, the cook. Outstandingly knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide Charlie making you appreciate not only the Big5 and wild dogs but also the trees, insects, birds and how it all fits together. Couldn’t have been better, left heartbroken and in tears after 3 nights

What a wonderful place! The whole staff so gentle: the buttler Sipho, the cook Tebogo, the guide Lioné and the managers Zana and Grant. The hotel is perfect to do the game drives! Thank you so much! I intend to visit them again with my whole family in a near future.

A wonderful place to experience the African safari in an exclusive and familiar lodge. Game drives in the morning and in the afternoon. The Big 5 and much more. Private Water pools attracting kudus, impalas, zebras, baboons, elephants, professional, passionate and kind staff.

We stayed at Amani for four nights and had an outstanding experience. It is smaller and more intimate when compared to other safari resorts/lodges/camps. The service from Tando, Ismael and Kate was exemplary and the food was great: our dietary requirement requests were fulfilled perfectly. The attention to detail and the fact there are only four rooms meant that we got to know the staff well and were treated superbly. Pre-dinner drinks, coffees in the bush, sundowners whilst on safari drives. The lodge itself is well appointed and the rooms are spacious and have great views: Amani overlooks a well-used watering hole...spotting wildlife drinking there is commonplace but always surprising. Our safari guide JV made our safari drives in the morning, at dawn, and in the afternoon, at dusk exciting with a great depth of knowledge of the both the animals and the area: we saw everything and more. It was a privilege to watch him tracking big cats and always with a It's hard to compare with other lodges and camps but I would highly recommend Simbavati Amani especially for families or family groups.