ENCOUNTERSAFRICA
7-Day Royal Malewane Safari

South Africa - Fly-in safari

7-Day Royal Malewane Safari

Duration
7 days
Countries
South Africa
Suited to
2-8 guests
Pricing
From USD 24,380

The journey

Updated on 23 August 2026

Royal Malewane's claim is simple and unmatched: no lodge in Africa carries more guiding qualifications per vehicle. The Royal Portfolio's flagship keeps master trackers on staff, men with thousands of hours of dangerous-game experience whose ability to read a story in sand borders on the unreasonable. In the Thornybush Private Nature Reserve, now fence-free with the Greater Kruger, that expertise translates into leopard found by track rather than radio, and walking encounters conducted with total calm. The lodge is Liz Biden's grand fantasy of colonial romance: eight suites under thatch with private pools, chandeliers over the dinner table, and a spa, the Waters of Royal Malewane, that ranks with any in the world. Six nights is the point. It buys unhurried days, a full-day Kruger excursion if you want one, walking mornings with the trackers, and the kitchen's slow rotation through what may be the best food in the South African bush. This is the safari for travellers who want the wild things wild and everything else polished to a high shine.

Your camps, day by day

Stay 1

Johannesburg to the Thornybush

Airlink lifts you out of Johannesburg and sets you down at Hoedspruit's Eastgate Airport 55 minutes later, half an hour from the lodge. Royal Malewane arrives like a set change: chandeliers under thatch, a butler with your name, a suite with its own pool. The afternoon drive starts the week the right way, trackers up front reading the road.

Stay 2

The Trackers' Craft

The morning drive is a masterclass: a single pugmark at the road edge becomes, an hour later, a leopard yawning in a marula, found without a word on the radio. Brunch stretches on the deck above the waterhole. The afternoon drive follows the buffalo herds toward water, and the night cap is taken around the boma fire.

Stay 3

On Foot with the Masters

Walking is where master trackers earn the title, and this morning you follow them into the bush on foot, approaching white rhino from downwind close enough to hear them graze. Nothing on a vehicle compares. The afternoon belongs to the spa or the pool before an evening drive that ends under a spotlit leopard, if the day runs to form.

Stay 4

Deeper into the Reserve

With the Thornybush fences down, the traverse runs wide, and today's drives push into the quieter blocks where cheetah favour the open clearings and wild dog pass through on their enormous circuits. Lunch is a surprise the kitchen has been planning, laid out in the riverbed with white linen and no other vehicle for miles.

Stay 5

Kruger Day, or a Slow One

Choose your day five: a full-day excursion into the Kruger National Park proper, picnic packed, for the big rivers and the long horizons, or a slow home day of a late drive, the Waters of Royal Malewane's signature African healing ritual, and an afternoon with a book by your own pool. Both end with the trackers taking you out at dusk.

Stay 6

The Last Full Chapter

The final full day closes the week's open stories, the leopard with the impala hoisted in the weeping boer-bean, the lion pride drifting back north, and adds one last walking hour if you want it. Dinner is the farewell performance: candles down the long table, the cellar open, and the staff choir sending you off properly.

Stay 7

Thornybush to Johannesburg

Coffee at dawn, a last unhurried breakfast watching the waterhole traffic, then the 30 minute transfer to Eastgate for the midday Airlink flight to Johannesburg, connecting cleanly to evening international departures. Six nights, one lodge, and a standard of guiding that resets what you will expect from every safari after it.

Safari highlights

  • Six nights at Royal Malewane, The Royal Portfolio's flagship
  • Africa's most qualified guiding and tracking team
  • Thornybush traverse open to the Greater Kruger
  • Walking safaris with master trackers
  • The celebrated Waters of Royal Malewane spa
  • Eight suites with private pools and butlers

What is included

Included

  • 6 nights accommodation, per person sharing
  • Return scheduled flights Johannesburg-Hoedspruit in economy class
  • Road transfers between Eastgate Airport and the lodge
  • All meals, house wines, local spirits, beers and soft drinks
  • Twice-daily game drives with a master tracker on the vehicle
  • Guided walking safaris
  • Thornybush conservation levies, government taxes and VAT
  • Laundry and emergency medical evacuation cover

Not included

  • International flights to and from Africa
  • Visas and entry permits
  • Comprehensive travel and medical insurance
  • Spa treatments at the Waters of Royal Malewane
  • Premium spirits, champagne and imported wines
  • Gratuities for guides, trackers and lodge staff
  • Items of a personal nature, curios and telephone calls

Frequently asked questions

How much does a 7-day Royal Malewane safari cost?

From USD 24,380 per person sharing, rising to about USD 25,680 in peak season. That covers six nights in a private-pool suite, all meals and house drinks, twice-daily game drives with a dedicated guide-and-tracker team, walking safaris, transfers and the return Johannesburg-Hoedspruit flights. Spa treatments and international flights to Africa are excluded.

What makes Royal Malewane's guiding special?

Qualifications, and the years behind them. The lodge has long employed the highest concentration of Master Trackers and Professional Field Guides in Africa, the top grades awarded in South Africa, some with over 25 years of dangerous-game experience. In practice it means leopard found from a single track, elephant read at thirty paces on foot, and interpretation that turns a drive into a tutorial you never wanted to end.

Where is Royal Malewane and how do you get there?

In the Thornybush Private Nature Reserve near Hoedspruit, on the western edge of the Greater Kruger. Scheduled Airlink flights from Johannesburg reach Eastgate Airport in about 55 minutes, and the lodge is roughly 30 minutes by road from there; both legs are included. Hoedspruit also connects directly to Cape Town, useful for a bush-and-city itinerary.

Is the Thornybush as good as the Sabi Sand?

Since the fences with the Timbavati and Greater Kruger came down, the Thornybush shares the same open system and the game moves freely. Leopard and lion viewing is excellent, cheetah do better here than in the Sabi Sand's thicker bush, and vehicle density is noticeably lower. What the Sabi Sand offers in fame, the Thornybush answers with space.

When is the best time to visit?

May to September, the dry winter, concentrates game at the waterholes, keeps the bush thin and the mornings cool, and is peak walking season. October to April brings green bush, impala lambs, migrant birds and afternoon storms, with rates at their gentlest in the deep summer. The guiding team keeps the standard identical all year.

Is Royal Malewane in a malaria area?

Yes, the Greater Kruger region is a low-risk malaria area, with transmission most likely between November and April. Most travel clinics recommend prophylaxis for that window. Suites are screened and air-conditioned, and repellent is everywhere you need it. A yellow fever certificate applies only if you arrive from a transmission-risk country.