Two children stand at the edge of an infinity pool on a timber deck at sunset, looking out over the bush and a distant waterhole under an orange sky

South Africa  ·  Nambiti

Ndaka Safari Lodge

A fully catered, properly child-friendly lodge in the Big 5 private reserve at Nambiti, where nobody minds if lunch runs long.

Ndaka Safari Lodge is a fully catered, properly child-friendly lodge in a Big 5 private game reserve at Nambiti, and it has one of the better lines in the business: you cannot choose your family, but you can choose Ndaka, and it is more or less the same thing. Having travelled with our own family, we understand the sentiment entirely.

The idea is a relaxed home away from home, the sort of place where nobody minds if lunch runs long. Picture a light lunch on the deck, the sounds of the African bush doing what the bush does around you, and a peaceful view dotted with game passing through at its own speed. It is a vista that does not require anyone to be quiet or hold still, which for anyone travelling with children is a genuine relief.

A cheetah lying in dry golden grass, head turned back over its shoulder, lit by low sun
Cheetah, low sun
Nambiti delivers the Big 5, and Ndaka delivers the escape from the hustle and bustle, which is a rather harder thing to organise.

Nambiti delivers the Big 5, and Ndaka delivers the escape from the hustle and bustle, which is a rather harder thing to organise. The combination is one we would happily hand to any family that has spent too long rushing from one thing to the next.

01

Around the lodge

Three children in aprons and oven gloves at a stone counter, with two chefs beside a domed wood-fired oven
Cooking lesson at the wood-fired oven
A guide in a green fleece lifts a laughing toddler into the air at a bush coffee stop, flasks and cups on a table behind
Coffee stop, with a small passenger
Seven guides in grey shirts and khaki shorts clown for the camera on a gravel drive under the trees
The guiding team

02

Out in the bush

A guest on a game-drive vehicle photographs the sunset over the bush on her phone, spare wheel in the foreground
Sundown, from the vehicle
A boy in a grey bobble hat bites into a rusk, holding an enamel mug, tall dry grass behind him
Rusk, mug, bobble hat
Five spa therapists in black tunics cheer and wave in a treatment room painted with large bird murals
The spa team

Ndaka Safari Lodge

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