Mhondoro Safari Lodge & Villa

Mhondoro's waterhole has a hide set underground at its edge, and the way to it is a 65-metre concrete tunnel from the main lodge. The lodge as it stands dates from 2015: a fire destroyed it in 2013, and it reopened two years later larger, with the tunnel, the hide and a private villa added. It is thatch on timber poles over walls of rust-red stone, with sheer curtains under clusters of beehive-shaped lamps. The hide is the same stone in a low box, with grass on its roof and water lilies at its feet. Around it is Welgevonden, once farmland and now a private reserve of plateaus and deep kloofs in the Waterberg mountains of Limpopo. Dinner is served on a terrace above the waterhole, and wild elephants come to drink at the saltwater pool, so a swim may have to wait its turn.

Recommended for families who want to take the children on safari, and for couples, who have a Honeymoon Suite and Luxury Pool Suites with their own plunge pools. Children from six go out on the game drives, under-sixes go on bumble drives, and there is child-minding at extra cost. The ten rooms include family suites that sleep four, and the villa takes six, with its own pool and gym. There is rhino tracking too, and bush walks for older guests. The cooking, modern African and European, was worked out with the chef Luke Dale Roberts, and most of what goes into it is grown on the lodge's own organic farm. Guests' reviews name the guides. From the reserve's Main Gate, the lodge drives guests the last hour in, through Big Five country, on what is a game drive in all but name.