As a Family Safari and Holiday specialist, I sometimes have the happy task of taking my children along to lodges to act as guinea-pigs. These are three of our favourites that we visited recently: Grootbos Nature Reserve, Hog Hollow Country Lodge and Cathedral Peak Hotel. I was accompanied by my two oldest children Emma (aged 9) & Mark (aged 6). I’ll focus on some favourite child-friendly safari lodges soon…

 Grootbos Nature Reserve, near Hermanus
Grootbos is one of a handful of places in the Western Cape which offers a fully inclusive experience. On arrival, you are met with a drink and after you’ve checked in, you are led to their activities room where they discuss the various excursions on offer. These include a nature drive on the reserve, a whale-watching and beach trip down to the caves at Die Kelders, horse-riding on the estate, visit to Green Futures (their gardening training college), guided milkwood forest walk, and a whale-watching boat trip out to Dyer island. Hermanus is called the capital of whale-watching and rightly so. During the season, you would be highly unlikely not to see whales in Walker Bay in front of the lodge.
You sign up for whatever activity takes your fancy and you often have a choice of times. This informal yet efficient approach sums up the style of Grootbos. We partook in most of the activities and had superb sightings of whales, both close-up (metres away) and also breaching and spouting. The nature drive was beautiful and I particularly enjoyed the horse-riding on the reserve. Children under 7 years take pony rides in the paddock, and children from 8 to 12 years must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Hardly a hardship for me!

Of particular note was the excellent food. Every meal was delicious and they offered a children’s menu with more straight forward dishes if your children prefer this.
The original lodge, now called Garden Lodge, is looking lovely and the garden was amazing – lush and full of colour. The main lodge is very warm and inviting in feel, and the cottages have been revamped to a more luxurious standard. Each cottage has one or two bedrooms and a sitting room. The sitting room is light and airy and decorated in a soft modern style. The sofa converts into two separate single beds so that even older children could be comfortably accommodated. There are also two bedroom cottages so children can have their own bedroom or families with 3 or 4 children can be accommodated together. These are more expensive of course.

Grootbos is very child friendly and each child is treated as an important guest in their own right. The children went off to feed the horses every morning and there was also a giant sand pit/play area next to the stables. With a high staff complement, Grootbos is often able to tailor their activities to suit your family. The whales, whether seen by boat or on land never fail to impress both children and parents alike. Children are encouraged to eat in the dining room earlier in the evening (6.30/7pm) and parents can either dine with them or have a baby-sitter and dine later. 

Hog Hollow Country Lodge, Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route
I liked Hog Hollow when I first started the business 12 years ago and I like it now. Hog Hollow is set on the edge of an indigenous forest in a private nature reserve with glorious views of the surrounding forests and mountains, not far from Plettenberg Bay. Recent changes are an enlarged reception area with a separate breakfast buffet area, two sitting areas and the new swimming pool on a lower deck, just that bit further away from the lodge for greater privacy. The new suites are beautifully decorated, but do not have the view over the valley, and I still like the original rooms. All rooms have fireplaces, music system, coffee / tea making facilities, but no TVs or telephone.  Dinner was excellent served around the communal table as always.There loads on offer for children in this part of the Garden Route and it’s not clogged with traffic, hustle and bustle. In addition to the superb beaches of Plettenberg Bay and the Tsitsikamma, there is Monkeyland primate sanctuary, the new Elephant Sanctuary, the Treetop Canopy adventure for older children and whale-watching and dolphin boat trips.Hog Hollow has put a lot of effort into catering for children and it’s a perfect place for families. A selection of children’s story books and African story CD were provided on arrival and the kids received milk and gingerbread cookies in the early evening which went down very well. Children under 9 years are not encouraged (rightly) for the main dinner but we had an above average kid’s meal at 6.30pm in the dining room. I wouldn’t recommend crawling or toddling children at Hog Hollow as the deck surround is not fully child-proof and there’s a long drop.

Cathedral Peak Hotel, Drakensberg Mountains, KwaZulu Natal
Cathedral Peak is a completely different style of hotel but well worth considering by families. Resort hotels have rather gone out of fashion in recent years but having stayed there with my small children, I think many families would enjoy Cathedral Peak especially if you enjoy walking and being in the Great Outdoors. Yes, it is more regimented than a small boutique lodge and yes, the dinner is usually an extensive buffet or carvery but my children still ask on a regular basis when we are going back to the Cathedral Peak. And we’ll go back next year. I’d recommend at least a 3 or 4 night stay.
Cathedral Park is a traditional mountain resort hotel high in the Drakensberg mountains. Everything is run like a well oiled machine with a range of guided activities and loads of sports on offer. There’s a choice of two or three guided walks each day or you can follow their written walks leaflets for shorter family walks. There’s also horse-riding (for beginners and intermediate). The sports facilities are extensive and well-maintained. A sports room hires out tennis rackets, badminton, golf clubs for the putt-putt, croquet bowls etc. There’s a climbing tower for older children, adventure playground for younger children, golf course and small Spa for parents. The hotel’s clientele is a mix of people just wanting to chill out in the mountains, families and keen walkers so there’s usually a few ready made playmates for your children. There’s a children’s dining room (ideally for toddlers and small children). This is open for breakfast and dinner and has toys and a TV. During school holidays, there are university students on duty to entertain the children during meal times and at some set times during the day. Older children (eg Emma’s age) tend to eat with their parents in the main dining room and then head off the kids dining room to play and watch a children’s movie before being collected at 9pm by their parents who have managed to score some precious time alone. Highly recommended.

For more Information & Travel ideas visit our main website at http://cedarberg-travel.com/

More and more game lodges are linking up with boutique Cape Town hotels to offer great free stays in Cape Town during the winter/spring months of May to September. Indeed its fair to say that you hardly need to pay for your stay in Cape Town if you are going on safari somewhere in South Africa!

Happily the winter months are also the best months for game-viewing in Southern Africa as this is the dry season when the game is forced to come to the rivers and waterholes to drink and when the sparser vegetation making game-viewing even more rewarding. Cape Town’s visitors are usually more summer-orientated even though winter usually offers plenty of warm sunny days (and roaring fires for the cooler evenings). So if you are keen to follow your safari with a few days in Cape Town, many game lodges in the Sabi Sands, the Kruger National Park and the Eastern Cape will offer 3 nights complimentary stay at a chosen partner’s hotel. These are not third rate places but some of the finest four and five star boutique hotels in Cape Town. Click on our website for further details.