Botlierskop Private Game Reserve

The accommodation provides great value for money, stunning location with easy access to Mossel Bay, excellent customer service, outstanding facilities, and comfortable, spacious rooms with beautiful decor and amenities.

We stayed in the tented lodges for one night with full board. All the staff were very welcoming and attentive. The accommodation was beautiful, looking over a river and the grounds. We woke up to views of giraffes making their way over the hill. We did 2 game drives, both were amazing! Our guide Austin was very knowledgable and went above and beyond to make sure we had an incredible experience with all of the animals. His experience and calm demeanour made us feel very safe and comfortable even when our route home got blocked by the elephants! The food was delicious and there was plenty of options for all dietary requirements. The service was impeccable and we can’t wait to come back soon!

This is a hard review to balance. I wasn’t sure whether to go 2, 3 or 4 stars to be honest, but here we go: We stayed here for 3 nights to see some wildlife, & we saw lions, cheetah, elephants, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, wilderbeest & lots of other stuff too. The guides are great & you get a 6am drive & one at 3pm. It’s a fenced reserve so you know that eg. they have 5 elephants, 5 hippo & 4 giraffe somewhere….so it’s not like a full safari & you know things are “somewhere”, but still. We saw everything & it was all good, pics were great. The food & drink there is excellent and the lodge is in a beautiful spot on a river. All that is what we went for & what we got, very good - so that’s why 4 stars. Here comes the bad bits: we booked an Exec tented lodge with jacuzzi, supposedly the best rooms they have. It was dirty. It had stained carpets, the windows were filthy & clearly hadn’t been cleaned in a long time….& the jacuzzi filter was full of black mould. A proper health hazard, & I was frankly appalled by the danger of it. I have to say “management” handled this incredibly badly when it was pointed out: •“It’s fixed now” (it wasn’t…) •“We’ve got new parts coming next week” (great, thanks for that…) •“You’re clearly super, super picky” (errrr, more like we don’t want to end up in hospital?) Add this to a pile of bricks you had to drive around at the entrance and you get the impression there’s a massive lack of any attention to detail? This could be fantastic if there was anyone who cared about the guest experience & made sure some of the tiny basics were done (like salt in the salt cellars on the restaurant tables, hot water in the lodge toilets, & soap in the soap dispensers, that kind of thing….). As a side issue, if guests are paying £1000 a night, are you really so bothered they might steal some shower gel worth £3-4 that you need to attach it to the wall? It’s more than a bit “small time”? The problem when you get an issue like the jacuzzi filters is you start to see everything else that they haven’t focussed on too, which shouldn’t be the case if you have any eye for detail around the property? Did we have a good time - yes Did we get some money back - yes Did we have any faith Management were on top of things & had their eye on the ball - no If you’re after a quick fix safari game view this is ok, but it would be much better all round if they were actually bothered a bit more?