Tanda Tula

Call Directions Website

Tanda Tula Intimate, wild, authentic safari camp in the Greater Kruger National Park Our interiors honour South Africa’s Tsonga people, the first custodians of this land.

Newly rearchitected Tanda Tula Safari Camp takes full advantage of its position on the Nhlaralumi River in South Africa’s Timbavati Private Nature Reserve to create intimate guest experiences across the breadth of the camp. We offer nine hybrid canvas and glass suites which open to an endlessly entertaining but incredibly peaceful bushveld setting. Modern luxuries ensure your every need is met. And, we’re energy efficient. Solar-powered. Water-wise. The Timbavati Private Nature Reserve is part of a connected wildlife area spanning over 2 million hectares. It’s also private conservation land. Which means fewer guests. Fewer vehicles. Less impact on the earth. It also means more intimate and up-close encounters with wildlife. Better conversations around the fire. More attention to your needs and enjoyment.

World Food Day, and the shortest way to explain how we cook out here is to say what does not happen.Nothing is flown in....
16/10/2026

World Food Day, and the shortest way to explain how we cook out here is to say what does not happen.

Nothing is flown in. What arrives comes from farms near us, most of them small and family run, and whatever we can grow, we grow.

The rest is timing. Breakfast goes out into a dry riverbed while the sand is still cool. Dinner waits for the light to go. A pan over coals does most of the work, and someone stands over it long enough to get it right.

Chef Ryan calls it honest food. True to where it comes from, and not pretending to be from anywhere else.

What would you want waiting for you at the end of a morning drive?

Top 10 Resorts in South Africa Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards 2026"We arrived as guests and left as family."...
06/10/2026

Top 10 Resorts in South Africa Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards 2026

"We arrived as guests and left as family."

There is no entry form for this one. Just people who sat around our fire, rode out with our guides at first light, and went home carrying a little of the Timbavati with them. Then, they chose to tell the world through one of the globe's most esteemed travel publications.

That is what moves us. Not so much the award as the memory behind the vote (although the award is pretty wonderful too!)

Tanda Tula means "to love the quiet", that special energy of this wilderness that calms the soul. Our team is the reason that quiet feels like home: the guides and trackers who read the bush like a letter from an old friend, the kitchen that wakes before the birds, the hosts and housekeepers whose names our guests write in their reviews. They are why people come back to us.

To everyone who voted, thank you. To our team, thank you. To our partners, thank you.

With love and gratitude, Don, Nina, Dale, Hayley, Formen and Ricky

World Animal Day, and here is the thing nobody tells you before a first safari.The list you arrive with is not the list ...
04/10/2026

World Animal Day, and here is the thing nobody tells you before a first safari.

The list you arrive with is not the list you leave with.

Almost everyone comes wanting cats. Then a pack of wild dogs turns up, sprawled across the sand like puppies, and someone explains how few of them are left, and you spend the rest of the week hoping they come back. Or an elephant walks down the road towards you inside his own cloud of dust, and nobody in the vehicle says a word.

Ask a guide what they would choose and you will not often hear leopard. You will hear whatever they have not seen for a while.

Which one caught you out?

30/09/2026

He stretched first. Shook the rain off. Then said his piece.

Lions do not roar the way films have taught us.
The real thing starts low in the chest and keeps going, call after call, fading out into a run of short grunts at the end. This one ran for almost a minute!

It is not aimed at us. It is a notice to every other lion in earshot. This ground is taken, and I am still standing on it.

Sound on.

Voting is open for the 2027 Safari Awards, and Tanda Tula Safari Camp is nominated in fourteen categories!The Safari Awa...
26/09/2026

Voting is open for the 2027 Safari Awards, and Tanda Tula Safari Camp is nominated in fourteen categories!

The Safari Awards have been running since 2007, and the categories cover the parts of a safari that are hard to fake: Best Safari Guiding Team, Best Walking Safari Experience, Best Safari Cuisine, Best Family Safari Experience, Best Community Focused Safari Property, and nine more besides.

If you have stayed with us, please rate only the categories you experienced yourself. That is what makes the result worth anything.

1. Open our page here: https://thesafariawards.com/vote/rate/tandatula?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=safari_awards_2027
2. Select the categories you know first-hand
3. Give each one a star rating, and add a line about your stay if you would like to
4. Submit

It takes about a minute.

Thank you, from all of us in the Timbavati 🧡

Almost nine years at Tanda Tula, and Chad had never seen a serval here.Then a couple of guides called one in this August...
15/09/2026

Almost nine years at Tanda Tula, and Chad had never seen a serval here.

Then a couple of guides called one in this August, and it did not run. One became two, and two became three: a mother and her two youngsters, entirely calm around the vehicles. What happened next is in the blog, and for a moment it had Chad fearing the worst.

There was good news on the young ones, too. The seven Sark Breakaway cubs are growing up fast, with another litter on the way, and four youngsters kept the hyena den on Nkhari busy all month.

And Nyeleti, missing since the end of June, turned up back in her old haunts. A couple of days later, both her cubs were seen with her. Chad still hasn't laid eyes on them himself.

Chad's August review is in the Wayfinder. Link in bio.

Most people book three nights. On paper that looks like plenty.But it takes the better part of a day simply to land. To ...
06/09/2026

Most people book three nights. On paper that looks like plenty.

But it takes the better part of a day simply to land. To stop reaching for a phone that has nothing to tell you, and to believe that nothing is being asked of you.

By the time that has worn off, most people are packing.

The fourth night is where it changes, because it is the first one with any room in it. Dale says that when the guides know you are staying at least four nights, they can pace themselves. Time to spend twenty minutes with a bird. Time to stop for no reason at all.

Some guests came recently for six nights with a single request, to see a honey badger. Chad smiled, because he knew they had the time. They found three.

This full piece is in the Wayfinder. Link in bio.

Spring out here is a date before it is anything else. The trees are still bare, the grass is long finished, and the rain...
01/09/2026

Spring out here is a date before it is anything else. The trees are still bare, the grass is long finished, and the rain is weeks off yet. Nothing changed this morning because a calendar said so.

It comes slowly. The days stretch a little further each week, the knobthorns will flower, the migrants will find their way back, and one morning you notice the green has started without telling anyone.

For now, this is what the first evening of it looked like. The first day of spring, closing.

Address

Timbavati Private Nature Reserve Province
Hoedspruit
1380

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00
Thursday 08:00 - 17:00
Friday 08:00 - 17:00
Saturday 08:00 - 17:00
Sunday 08:00 - 17:00

Telephone

+27157933191

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Tanda Tula posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Sponsored

Share

Category