Tswalu Kalahari Reserve

Klein JAN REVIEW Guests staying in Tswalu are invited to dine at Klein JAN. You do not have a choice when to dine, you are simply informed the night that the restaurant is ready for you. Experience The owners of Tswalu have invested very significantly in this restaurant and the themed approach. It clearly was a passion project, and commendation for such a brave undertaking. We were not overly familiar with the food of KJ, with the exception of France, but had seen from his PR that the thematic experience is as much about the journey and sight and senses as it is about the food. This is the case at KJ at Tswalu. However, without taking any of the excitement away from those who do like these types of experiences, it also felt a little bit like a theme park and perhaps is not targeted at all clientele. Food If taking in to consideration the location of the restaurant and probably the more than insurmountable challenges that the food sourcing and Chef must have, the food was very pleasant. The restaurant, an impressive design, and overall, the service quite agreeable. However, because of the thematic approach, everyone receives the same food at roughly the same time, there is no à la carte and, therefore, even if you are not in the mood to have certain courses, there really is no real choice. As such, the evening was far too long and we would have preferred to have left earlier and skipped some of the courses. Also, because of the thematic approach of the entire evening, guests were invited to on occasions to join a staff member to have a course explained, as one large group, the food, or cheeses. It felt it had changed from being a bespoke experience to a coach party which lost some of the authenticity and exclusivity if it had been done on a couple by couple basis. In addition, some of the staff clearly felt that they were serving in the best restaurant in the world and were slightly on the arrogant, opinionated side. If the meal is included within your room rate because you have booked for a certain number of nights, then do go and have the meal, but do so with your eyes open; and if there is any option to have à la carte or choose the food separately, then please do so. If, however, you have a choice, I would not suggest that you attend. That is not to critique the beautiful design, incredible architecture and investment that the family have made in Klein JAN, or the passion and enthusiasm applied by the Chefs to achieve something which would be very difficult in the location, but more that if you separate the 'theme' you probably would not choose the restaurant.

Thank you to everyone at Tswalu who made our trip so memorable. The attention to detail by the staff was incredible. Thank you to our host Tumi, our chef Sibu, and our incredible guide Matt and tracker T. You could feel that each staff member truly loved the reserve, whether it was through their interactions with guests or their dedication to conservation. The game drives were unbelievable - it is quickly obvious that you are on the largest reserve in South Africa. We went hours without seeing other cars. We saw all of the animals we hoped to see, including a live cheetah kill and newborn lion cubs. We hope to be back!

Tswalu - the name still sends shivers of excitement down my spine. Arriving at Fireblade and being cared for by Grace and Mpho was a real treat - they are both wonderful, and the food and wine were exquisite. We spent seven magical, incredible days at The Motse where the food and drink were outstanding, both in the lodge and atop the sand dunes! The guidance from Vuyani and tracking by Jackson were phenomenal, and the quality of the sightings was exceptional. We observed the meerkats from the Rockstars' first appearance of the day, before they warmed up and set off to forage, and we returned another evening as they went back to their burrow for the night. We followed cheetahs on a successful hunt, wild dogs returning to their playful pups, experienced the roar of lions, saw rhinos, and encountered an abundance of plains game, porcupines, bat-eared foxes, cape foxes, Damara mole-rats, and so much more. We learned a great deal about the incredible landscape and also abut the animal behaviour. Klein Jan was mind-blowing, but it's something you have to experience for yourself! You will certainly not be disappointed. We would love to return one day.

We didn't know what to expect when we booked our stay at Tswalu. A couple we met in Montana highly recommended it, they wanted to stay at Loapi, but it was not yet available. We booked Loapi at Tswalu and absolutely loved it! Our guide Ivan, tracker DT, butler Mo and chef Ridwaan were the BEST! The wildlife was incredible! Lions, zebras, giraffe, kudu, rhino, warthog and wild dogs! The wild dog puppies that left their den when we were there was amazing to see! Ivan and DT were extremely knowledgeable about the wildlife and so much fun! We really enjoyed the horseback ride, which was a very different adventure. And the Klein Jan restaurant was such an experience! I can't say anything more about Klein Jan because I don't want to spoil the surprise... Our last evening dinner with Ivan, DT, Mo and Ridwaan was a blast! Thank you everyone at Tswalu for such an amazing experience!

I normally don't write reviews, but we had such a good time at Tswalu that we had to thank the team. The experience starts at the Fireblade Lounge at Johannesburg airport where you're greeted by the friendliest staff (despite we landed at 6am), a la carte menus and beautiful facilities. And an hour later as we landed at Tswalu airstrip, we knew we're in for something special as the plane touched the distinctive Kalahari red sand. We stayed at the two-bedroom Laopi lodge for three nights and it was spectacular - beautiful architecture and thoughtful designs. We came as a family of four and we had such a good time chilling in the common area between game drives and post meals. Each Laopi lodge comes with your own chef and butler which was amazing, and we rotated having our meals in our "formal" indoor dining room and outside. What really made an impression for us was our guide Sips our guide who is super experienced and has been at Tswalu for years. His passion for Tswalu is infectious, and our two game drives every day (in our private vehicle!) was always an adventure. We appreciated how much he wanted to make sure we had a fantastic experience, including him checking on us regularly during the game drives and also constantly trying to go above and beyond, such as organizing a surprise bush breakfast that the team put together on our second last day. Definitely an experience to have a delicious hot breakfast next to a water hole seeing curious kudus and impalas looking at us! He also brought us to his favorite spot one evening for a sundowner on top of the sand dunes with a majestic view during sunset as we sip on our G&Ts. Definitely something we'll remember for a long time to come. Before coming to Tswalu, we read reviews about setting expectations on the wildlife we see here, but we were nothing but awed by the game we saw during our stay. While Tswalu doesn't have elephant or crocodiles, we saw tons of giraffes, more rhinos than we could count (with their horns intact - which we later understood from Sips how rare it is and part of Oppenheimer family's conscious sustainability efforts, and was later confirmed when we were at Sabi Sands for our subsequent stay and all rhinos horns were cut off), Kalahari lions and their babies, and elusive species that we were lucky to see such as meerkats, oryx, pangolin etc. We loved Tswalu and can't wait to be back again.