Marakele National Park, South Africa

Marataba

Price per night from$1,503.27

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (ZAR28,486.96), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Canvas masterpiece

Setting

Boho Limpopo

Marataba is set at the foot of the Waterberg mountains and seamlessly blends contemporary design with natural materials in an area that abounds with wildlife. The romantic open-plan and luxurious suites allow the sights, sounds and smells of the magnificent Marakele National Park to flood in. Each suite has its own viewing deck from which you can survey the plains and the meandering river below.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of wine and romantic evening turn-down service; Smiths staying three nights or more also get 50 per cent off the Treehouse experience

Facilities

Photos Marataba facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Twelve suites.

Check–Out

Noon.

Prices

Double rooms from £1369.23 (ZAR32,760), including tax at 15 per cent.

More details

Rates include all meals, maxibar, soft drinks, select house wines, spirits and beers, two game drives per day, Matla Mamba Airstrip transfers and some safari activities. Rates exclude park and landing fees, an impact levy and conservation contribution.

At the hotel

Rooms have air-con, under-floor heating, roll-top baths, outdoor showers and private decks. The main lodge has a library.

Our favourite rooms

The suites nearest the river are best for wildlife.

Poolside

The pool is surrounded by sunloungers and lush gardens.

Spa

Indulge in a variety of treatments in the privacy of your suite, all using Kalahari products.

Packing tips

Malaria pills are unnecessary, but insect repellent is still a good idea. A zoom lens is essential for the best wildlife photos.

Also

Limpopo's Marakele National Park is malaria free.

Children

Children over six are welcome.

Food and Drink

Photos Marataba food and drink

Top Table

On the verandah or in the boma.

Dress Code

Savannah style.

Hotel restaurant

Lunch is normally served on the verandah 12.30pm–2pm. Dinner is served at 7.30pm in the elegant dining room, on the verandah, or in the boma under the stars. The menu is dominated by African flavours.

Hotel bar

The bar has a relaxed atmosphere. All drinks are included in the cost of the room.

Last orders

The bar closes when the last guest leaves.

Room service

A room service menu is available at all times.

Location

Photos Marataba location
Address
Marataba
Marataba Private Reserve Greater Marakele National Park Western Limpopo
Hoopdal
0380
South Africa

Planes

Charter flights can be arranged from Johannesburg to the Marakele airstrip.

Automobiles

Cars can be hired at Johannesburg’s Tambo International Airport; the journey takes just over four hours on the R21, N1 and N4. Newly refurbished roads mean you won’t need a 4x4, but make sure you leave plenty of time to get to your lodge: there’s no driving in the park after 6pm.

Worth getting out of bed for

The dramatic Marakele National Park encompasses plains, dense bushveld, mountains and rivers. There is a very good chance of seeing the Big Five: lion, leopard, Cape buffalo, black rhino and elephant. The park is also home to a multitude of other animal species including rare antelope such as roan, sable and mountain reedbuck. This malaria-free wilderness also has the world's largest breeding colony of the endangered Cape vulture. Birdlife within the park is prolific with more than 400 species having been recorded.

Reviews

Photos Marataba reviews

Anonymous review

The pilot turned to me: ‘Yes, if I switch this screen on it gives us a weather radar. Black indicates no significant weather, blue the beginnings of cloud cover and red means a high chance of hail and intense electrical storms.’ He switches it on and the screen remains a monotonous black. No JFK Jr worries there then. On goes my iPod (Something for the Weekend Vol 2 if you insist on the details). Mr Smith is happy surveying the beginnings of the Low Velt (where many of South Africa’s most popular bush experiences are located) with one eye on the radar. Mrs Smith is playing airhostess passing the drinks and snacks to a quiet German couple, their 11-year-old daughter in the row behind. The sky is clear and the irritation of a two-hour severe weather delay forgotten.

The radar screen suddenly becomes much more colourful and I yelp. The pilot is clearly regretting my cockpit spot in the co-pilot’s seat. He assures me that the light is a result of the more mountainous terrain of the stunning Waterbergs. The GPS indicates two minutes 30 seconds to the our dirt landing strip where the German family are due to be deposited but the next thing we know it goes completely dark. The pilot turns off the weather radar and I casually retrieve my diary to make sure there are no eclipses planned. No such luck…. The first peal of thunder resonates through the plane. One minute 10 seconds to the strip. Lightening strikes just beyond the right wing. Then there is an enormous fork directly ahead. Forget Sébastian Tellier through my headphones, I can’t even hear myself think any more – hail, rain, whatever is pelting down on us. 35 seconds to the strip says the GPS.

Disaster averted and so begins the next adventure – we have to do a fly-by over the dirt air strip to clear the elephants and zebras. You can’t help but fall in love with this part of Africa: the landscape that dreams (and wildlife documentaries) are made of. We are all stretching our legs, when the pilot gathers this Mr and Mrs Smith together: ‘Guys, that wasn’t just a bit of drizzle that we went through as you may have noticed, so we’re not going to be able to land where we need to in order to get you to your camp. I’ve called ahead to where the German couple are staying and they’ve agreed to look after you until your lodge can send a vehicle to collect you.’ We agreed this is definitely a time to go with the flow.

Feeling energised from a rather unexpected flying experience, both of us are taken aback by the beauty and majesty of this unexpected place, the silent splendour of the peaks of the Waterberg mountains. As we went through the second set of electrified gates we at last knew the name of where we were headed: Marataba. With images of Robin Williams’s Jumanji running through our minds we began to slowly pick up titbits of information. The camp is on private land bought by a Dutch philanthropist some 30 years previously and is comprised of a meagre 23,000 hectares, and supports only one camp. As we wend our way across dry riverbed, spotting impala, zebra and giraffe, we began to relax – fortune seems to be smiling on us after all.

As we round a turn in the road and through trees so dry they look like they have never seen water, we fleetingly catch our first glimpse of Marataba. It is drawn with modern lines, yet matches the landscape by using stone clearly drawn off this land. Pulling up to the entrance and parking under the shade of a hardwood awning we are greeted by the manager proffering a local fruit drink concoction that immediately soothes the aches and pains of heading into the unknown.

We are guided down the hallway and into a vast open-plan dining room decked out in such an elegant style that it could be ready for an interiors shoot. Just-so lighting and urbane stylings befitting an exclusive French ski chalet. To the left is the sitting room, furnished with huge chocolate-coloured leather sofas and a discreet library. Both rooms face a huge, uninterrupted glass wall overlooking a kraal below with the magnificent mountains rising above. Praise be, that our fellow travellers from the fatherland had such great taste.

‘Well it looks like you’re going to have to spend the night with us Mr & Mrs Smith. It seems that not only have problems been caused with the airstrip after that storm but also the roads.’ ‘Oh no, what a disaster’ we beam back, completely overjoyed at stumbling across such a beautiful place. We are shown into our room, termed one of their family areas. Comprised of two tent/cottage hybrids, elegantly sculpted into the side of a hill, replete with view to die for and a high wall enclosing the two, creating a tiny community. As we open the screen doors which are on sliders rather than those fiddly zips), we truly know we’ve hit the jackpot.

A freestanding bath of dark-brown stone and a stand-alone no-curtain shower form a stylish wet room, located behind a screen of wire filigree bejewelled with ruby-like stones. The bed itself is an incalculable mass of softness, dark greens, soft woody brown combined with cooling and immaculate white sheets topped off with an air-conditioning unit above (quite a significant luxury in a tented camp). The whole experience being garnished by an ice-cold bottle of champagne. By now any animal-spotting has been well and truly gazumped. We’re starting to like our safari lifestyle just like this, thanks.

After a hot soak in the bath watching the sunset (among other things, ahem), this pleased-with-themselves pair radio for a guide to guide us back to the candle-dotted gardens in front of the main building. It is like something out of a forgotten era, two fires on either side of the garden burning in shallow metal cauldrons. The gentle chirp of the crickets is occasionally interrupted by the deep resonance of lions in the distance.

The only two mistakes we made? Not to book Marataba in the first place. Oh, and maybe the plane option. When this outpost of Hunter’s boutique-hotel hideaways, is so close to Johannesburg, a two-hour drive, you can hire a driver for less than the cost of the flight, it really makes more sense. How do we know all this? That’s right, we’ve planned a trip back.

This luxury tented safari lodge was reviewed by Matthew Williamson

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Price per night from $1,503.27