Esiweni Luxury Safari Lodge

The safari experience has changed in many ways since Hemingway’s day. For one thing, you’re here to photograph the wildlife, not bring it home. Perhaps most important, from the perspective of a lover of high-end hospitality, is that safari lodges are only getting more and more luxurious. Esiweni Luxury Safari Lodge is a case in point. Its setting, in the Nambiti private game reserve, is stunning, varied, wild, and chock full of animals. And back at the lodge, the living is easy indeed: it’s a Relais & Châteaux hotel owned by a French couple for whom “savoir vivre” is serious business. That doesn’t mean their lodge looks like a French chateau. Esiweni combines contemporary construction and design with native materials and craftsmanship. With just five suites, it’s an intimate experience — at capacity, that’s a mere ten guests. Private terraces offer spectacular views, and the heated floors and luxurious bathrooms place physical comfort front and center. Esiweni’s restaurant, where a South African chef, trained in London, combines Parisian traditions with local flavors, is a particular delight. And of course there’s more to experience than life at the lodge — you’ll want to leave plenty of time for sunrise and sunset excursions in an open-air 4x4 with an experienced ranger.