Oceana Beach and Wildlife Reserve

From the moment you arrive at the gate and Wilson receives/greets you till the moment you leave; the level of service is just beyond anything we've ever experienced!! Not to even mention the food, every meal was out of this world. We can't recommend Oceana enough.

Trevor and his staff at Oceana were wonderful. They met our family of 17 at the gate and transferred us to 2 land cruisers to finish the last stretch (about 5 minutes drive from the gate). We were greeted by staff with welcome drinks at the bar and provided paperwork to sign and get our room keys. Then an array of wraps and quiche for a late lunch knowing we’d be hungry upon arrival. With 17 people we used most of the rooms at the resort. We had 6 older teens using the Private Villa House which was perfect, 3 lodge rooms for 2 couples and a pair of young boys and 2 ocean suites for the grandparents and a couple with a young child. There were a few other guests during our 2 night stay but we were given the large dining room to ourselves for all our meals. The 3 lodge suites have a common area (there was a slight musty smell from the carpet) and could hear the furniture moving around when preparing for meals. The rooms were cleaned daily with turn down service and lovely welcome and bedtime notes from management. The staff was quite lovely including Zet and Kayla on the game drives and Max coordinating the food and schedule. Food was good and the views were spectacular. We went on 2 game drives (late morning and afternoon) with lots of animal sightings. The giraffe and zebra come to the watering hole you can view from most room balconies and the lodge. We used the pool a little but it’s not really for kids to swim (making pool towels available near the pool would be helpful, we had to ask). The pool is 2 levels and there is no where to sit near the larger upper level - we didn’t mind as the kids also could use the plunge pool at the villa and we didn’t have much time for sitting by the pool. The staff arranged for a luncheon on the beach which was delightful. We braved the long, hot walk from the beach platform (where we were dropped off and ate lunch) to the Indian Ocean - about a 10 minute walk over large dunes and hot sand - definitely not for everyone but we appreciated the opportunity to swim in the ocean - waves were large but manageable for our teens. The beach lunch was lovely! All in all we had a wonderful stay - Oceana is beautiful and different than a big 5 African safari. But the views are unbelievable and it was a nice place to recharge on our South African trip. Thanks for taking such good care of the 17 of us and for everything!

This place is really terrible. Do not come here. I timed how long it took them to bring our dinner tonight. And it took one hour and a quarter. You cannot order side dishes. The food will not fill you up. There is no ability to choose the type of meal you want and it’s unbelievably slow. We had to leave in the end before our desert came. I don’t know what they’re doing in the kitchen, or what the waitresses are doing, but they’re definitely not trying to make this a five star hotel. The service is like one star. Nothing in the room works. We paid top dollar for the private 3 bed house. Of course, none of the TVs work, there is no cutlery in any of the drawers in the kitchen. It’s all formover function. You can’t get to the beach on foot. It’s a 10 min drive followed by a 15 min walk. The pool is tiny. The beer in the fridges is not cold. Everyone here is fast asleep. Save your money. Stay at home.