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 (USD2,807.02), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
In the eastern corner of Botswana, adults-only Mashatu Euphorbia Villas brings a sustainable, all-about-the-animals ethos that perfectly pairs refined design with guaranteed game viewing. Each of the eight villas is shaped after the region's Mopane tree pods and interiors impress with calming tones and hand-carved furnishings. But the real sights are outside, where elevated terraces and private plunge pools come with views of wandering elephants and hunting cheetahs.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A bottle of champagne on arrival and 20 per cent off a couple’s full-body massage; stays of two nights or more also get a free pedicure with any spa booking
11am, and check-in is at 2pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £2518.72 ($3,200), including tax at 14 per cent.
More details
Rates include airport transfers to and from Limpopo Valley Airport or the Pont Drift Border, all meals and drinks (alcoholic and soft), two game drives a day (or one drive and one walk), an adventure activity a day and the conservation levy.
Also
Due to the uneven terrain that surrounds the villas, Mashatu Euphorbia Villas unfortunately isn’t suitable for those with limited mobility.
At the hotel
Viewing deck, living area with fireplace, boutique, free laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In villas: air-conditioning, mosquito nets and insect repellent, minibar, dried fruit and Biltong snacks, tea- and coffee-making kit, bathrobes and slippers, and Charlotte Rhys bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Thankfully the choice is made for us with just one type of villa, and they’re equally impressive, with all-natural interiors that complement their wilderness setting. Each villa has its own private deck, tricked out with a plunge pool, viewing area and outdoor dining area for suppers backtracked by the soothing sounds of the Majale River.
Poolside
Each of the eight villas has its own private plunge pool set against a backdrop of the Majale River and the reserve’s lush landscape.
Spa
The Game Reserve's Serokolo Spa will send their masseurs to your door, for traditional healing treatments using homemade oils from the region’s native plants to soothe out any remaining stress.
Packing tips
Binoculars and a zoom lens will help you to admire Mashatu’s residents in more detail.
Also
The hotel’s boutique is stocked with hand-woven baskets and locally made threads sourced from nearby creative collectives.
Children
You’ll have to leave little Smiths at home; this safari retreat is for over-16s only.
Sustainability efforts
Beyond the day-to-day Earth-kind runnings of Mashatu Euphorbia Villas, the hotel also works closely with Botswana’s residents to help support the local communities. Staff are hired exclusively from nearby areas, all the woven products you’ll spot around the hotel (which are also available to buy in the boutique) are bought from two local groups: the Tsatsi Le Eta Basketry Group and the Batlhani Women’s Group, who then receive 70 per cent of guest sales, and staff uniforms are made by local seamstresses in Motlhabaneng. Immersive cultural tours let guests engage with Botswana’s traditions and crafts, and 50 per cent of the funding from these tours is then invested back into the local community. 90 per cent of produce and supplies are sourced from within the country, and the land that Mashatu Euphorbia Villas sit on has been carefully preserved to protect the reserve’s wildlife and is unfenced to encourage free animal movement. Guests are also encouraged to opt for walking, cycling and horse-riding tours to minimise the impact of 4x4s on the wildlife and land.
Bag one of the tables in the boma, for starlit suppers.
Dress Code
Breezy cottons, sleeves and longs, will be your best friends in this balmy setting.
Hotel restaurant
The hotel’s restaurant is a relaxed affair, with timbered interiors that blend seamlessly into the surrounding viewing decks and looming euphorbia trees. Meals are prepared by local chefs, who bring Botswana’s traditional dishes to life using locally sourced ingredients, and there’s an outdoor boma, where fireside dining unfurls.
Hotel bar
Centred around a floating fireplace, the hotel bar is an indoor-outdoor space that doubles up as a home-like lounge for post-safari sips.
Mashatu Game Reserve
Northern Tuli Game Reserve
Tuli Block
Lentswe Le Moriti
Botswana
Mashatu Euphorbia Villas is set in the heart of the Mashatu Game Reserve, a 42,000 hectare wilderness area covering the eastern corner of Botswana.
Planes
Fly into either of Johannesburg’s international airports (OR Tambo and Lanseria). From the former, you'll have to take a 55-minute car transfer to Lanseria. Once you're in Lanseria, the hotel has a pre-arranged connecting flight to the Limpopo Valley Airfield (a private airstrip in the reserve) that leaves daily at 11.30am and takes an hour and 40 minutes; if you’re landing in Johannesburg later than this, you’ll have to arrange a separate connection, or you can book a private charter through the hotel for an additional charge. Once you’ve arrived at Limpopo Valley, your guides will be waiting to drive you 30 minutes to the hotel.
Automobiles
You’ll be whisked around by guides during your stay here, so a set of wheels won’t be necessary. If you’d rather go by road from Johannesburg, the hotel can arrange private car transfers for the six-and-a-half-hour drive. For those wanting to drive themselves, there’s parking at the Pont Drift Border as you enter Botswana. From there, a guide will collect you and drive you the last 30 minutes to Mashatu Euphorbia Villas.
Worth getting out of bed for
Everything’s about the animals here, and Mashatu’s rangers all have at least 14 years experience of taking guests around its expanse, so you can trust you’ll be in good hands. Game drives are the easiest way to spot roaming wildlife (lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and hyenas are frequently sighted); or you can ditch the 4x4 and scout for the reserve’s residents on foot, horseback or by bike, and avid- and aspiring-photographers can capture their shots in the sunken hide. Of culture interest, some of the area’s nearby villages are open to visitors keen to learn more about African weaving techniques and other craft traditions from their residents. Spa treatments can be waiting on your terrace once you’re back from a day in the reserve, and the viewing deck has plenty of plush seating for elephant-accompanied nightcaps.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this wildlife-watching hotel in the Mashatu Game Reserve and unpacked their cameras and camos, a full account of their safari break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Mashatu Euphorbia Villas in Botswana…
It won’t be long after you’ve driven up the rocky roads of Botswana’s Pont Drift region, and past the Limpopo River, that you’ll realise adults-only Mashatu Euphorbia Villas has created something really quite special. Set in the country’s eastern, privately owned Mashatu Game Reserve, that stretches 42,000 hectares, the hotel’s eight villas are at first tough to spot; but glance through the clifftop’s dense euphorbia trees, and their distinctive shapes emerge. Connected by floating walkways and cushioned viewing decks, each secluded space has been designed to resemble the native Mopane tree pods in homage to the plant’s ecological prowess. Inside, romantic, rarefied rooms bring the outdoors in and the addition of intimate plunge pools is set to make evening soaks an elephant-spotting affair. Brunches in the bush and daily game drives take you up close and personal with your patrolling neighbours, and every Mashatu guide at your side has years of experience, making sightings all the more memorable – and that’s before you’ve even made it back for bonfires in the boma and massage treatments by twilight.
