Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve by Newmark

This venue exceeded our expectations ! Wow! Elegant luxury, attentive but not intrusive, friendly staff. Excellent honeymoon venue. 3-hour Game drives (optional) dawn and late afternoon. Each meal was a delight. For tourists wanting to tick off wildlife and see big herds, this is not the best option as the Karoo landscape doesn’t sustain big numbers of animals BUT for an amazing and dramatic landscape, tranquility and unrivalled hospitality we could not recommend better than Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve!

Amazing place, amazing landscape (must have for south african visitors) amazing game drives, amazing and very friendly service and people, very good communication before with the management, one of the best winelist in the country - small but fine, fresh and good food.

The location is magnificent. The food was good. This place has so much potential but it is not really being looked at properly. The communication about the code of the entrance gate could be much better. The room, bathroom and dining room in the manor house could use a renovation. The bed creaked with every movement. The suite is smaller than in the pictures. The air conditioning regularly started to make a lot of noise that could not really be helped. The shower door does not close. The shower is also not very clean. The kitchen staff is your single point of contact. The manager didn't show up until we left on the 4th day. All in all, there is a lot of room for improvement in management. For example, one evening there was a problem with the wine. The manager had taken the key of the wine supply that meant that the key had to be picked up with a car (15 minutes). The website states that this lodge is familyrun but the owner lives in Cape Town.

We had two nights booked but decided to leave after one. We were in the Courtyard Manor Suite which although very nice in itself is not at the main Lodge. This meant our ranger (Sulemain) who was very helpful and had to come and pick us up for game drives and we had to go straight into breakfast and dinner after the drive without the opportunity to clean up which for us is not ideal. Not being in the main Lodge also meant we did not have access to the swimming pool which would have been ideal in 37C heat! This was the fifth game reserve on our trip to the Eastern Cape and probably one too many as we had already seen all the mammals and surprisingly there was not that much bird life. Compared to other lodges we had been to the food was mediocre, no choice bush cooking and these days we expect better. The scenery is absolutely spectacular but the terrain is very rough and the Land Rover being used was by no means in the best of conditions. We also suffered from a lack of service with nobody based in the Courtyard Manor at any time and we felt somewhat isolated hence our decision to move on. We got the feeling this property may be struggling and cannot recommend it.

I was traveling with my husband and teenage children, so an expensive stay - we booked for one night and I was so grateful we hadn’t booked for longer. We were basically dumped in a house, allocated two rooms in the house and another family was staying in another two rooms. We could help ourselves to the included drinks in the kitchen. This was not the main lodge it seems and dinner and breakfast were a drive away at the actual main lodge. We were brought lunch (such as it was), carefully counted out to be one portion per person. There were no staff at the house so we had no service at all. Most uncomfortable bed I have ever slept in, and it creaked so badly we woke up every time we moved. Got the definite impression this was someone’s holiday home and the lodge was maximising revenue by using this for guests too. Not that we felt like guests. On our only morning there, we tried to drive to breakfast but weren’t sure about the water crossing in the car so gave up and left without eating. Again, no one around to ask or assist. Even the spectacular location isn’t enough to make up for this bizarre experience. At these prices, there are many better options.

Unbelievable experience; everything from the game drives, accommodation, staff, food, remoteness. Covers an extensive area; obvious animals are their top priority. Fortunate to see the most animals over 4 days. Big thanks to Solomon!

Amazing food. Great setting. Wonderful staff. Knowledgeable game guides. Saw a plethora of animals. Rested in serene surroundings. Add to your itinerary as you won’t be disappointed. A pleasant change from over priced over visited Kruger

The location of the actual main Lodge is in the valley of the game park. There are a few of what looked like fairly large rooms in the lodge itself, but we stayed in the 2 ‘pods’ located about an hours game vehicle drive a away. Our friends stayed in Pod 1 and we were in Pod 2 - about 20 minutes further on from the lodge. Both pods have very different views, Pod 2 although further away had the better view. The Pods themselves were amazing, comfortable, very remote and you feel so isolated. Each Pod has a small kitchenette with microwave and 2 gas rings and a fridge. The shower had lots of hot water and the small deck outside provided amazing views. We had a braai pit fully equipped with logs, matches and firelighters, a separate outside lounge/comfy seating area, and a wood fire outdoor spa. An Electric fence protected us from any unwanted visitors. The downside was the food…the ‘evening dinners’ provided for us to warm up as well the lunches were simply awful and very basic…such a let down with the accommodation being so awesome. No choices of food and the portions were small. More imagination could have gone into to the food preparation. If I went again I would take my own food to prepare and braai. the

We have wanted to stay at the Mount Camdeboo pods for a while, but booking has been difficult through their booking agents. This time we managed to get three nights at the loss and were excited. We have lived in SA a long time, so had no issue lighting fires, cooking on flames, lighting hurricane lamps and keeping the hog tub fire going. The pods are lovely and well equipped and designed. It's such a rare treat to be outside in total isolation with just the sound of animals. BUT, the food is abysmal. We had breakfast at the lodge after the mor ing game druve, and that was okay. But the lunch and dinner that was pre-cooked and taken up to the pods was just dreadful. I dont eat meat, so I was given a small piece of fish each evening. Even microwaving it resulted in overcooked fish as it was fully cooked already. Mynother options were stuffed vegetable (which is so unimaginative and i dont know why cooks think vegetarians like spinach stuffed into another veg). My husband got cheap, fatty and no eye cuts of meat like oxtail and lamb neck. Difficult to eat with limited light and our foreign friends simply hated these two meals. On the last night the cook produced two anorexic chicken drumsticks and a small handful of diced vegetables, no starch. Dry, unappetising, tasteless. And there was no GM in sight, no one asked for feedback. Not a great experience