Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, South Africa

This is one of those properties that if you can't be happy here, you're just not going to be happy anywhere. The 'room' is in fact a mini-villa complete with gorgeous plunge pool, separate living room with fireplace and 'maxi-bar' as they call it that has every drink you could possibly want, and a huge bed and bathroom. The views over the bush were outstanding. We often awoke or came back to monkeys playing on our deck chairs and roof. Cape buffalo and impala roamed across the river. The staff was fantastic, especially our butler, Jabulani. And the food was as good as at the wonderful restaurants we had just left behind in Cape Town, served on the lovely deck overlooking the river.

I will say the game viewing is not nearly as good as in Botswana. There is an artificial vibe here, what with all the fences. We did see the Big Five, and I'm glad we went here first to get that out of the way before we went to Botswana, but we tended to catch fleeting glimpses of animals, and in small numbers, where as in Botswana you could get much closer and there were much larger numbers of everything. But our guide, Sedonea, was absolutely fantastic. He and our tracker were able to find leopard after a difficult search and then intercept them again twice. A highlight here were the white rhino, which we saw three or four times in small herds, including once quite close. Also a black mamba crossed the road, causing our big tough guide to panic a little and reverse the truck as fast as I've ever seen!

I had a lovely facial here at the spa, which is just fantastic after the days packed with safari drives. This definitely isn't 'roughing it'!

I can't see myself going back to Kruger just because I've experienced such better game viewing now, but for an almost guaranteed look at the Big Five and being fairly accessible, it's definitely worth it, and Lion Sands Ivory is definitely a worldclass property.