We spent the last two days of our 6-day visit to the Kruger area in the luxurious Umkumbe Lodge. When we arrived we had the wonderful experience of looking out on the stunning Sabie River right in front of the place where 2 elephants were walking around feeding. Our room was the beautifully appointed Rhino Room with a wonderful bed with mosquito netting, comfortable furniture, good lighting, a beautiful deck and huge bathroom with an outdoor shower. We enjoyed the buffet meals and always found things to our liking. We were a little surprised to find some salads, and meat marinades to be be more sweet than we are used to. Lemonade and iced tea put out in the afternoon was way too sweet for us. However, there is coffee and tea available near the Living Room at all times and we enjoyed that. The honor bar was also an easy option. Another surprise to us (first-time Private Lodge goers) were the morning tea/coffee breaks on the AM drives and the "sundowners" provided for the evening game drives. These breaks were at least 30 minutes, and at times we felt it was too long when we were not seeing that many animals anyways. The trackers only do the night games drives, not the mornings. Coming back during the evening ones, it is dark and the tracker uses a search light to scare up smaller animals to see. We saw hare and once a serval cat scurrying by. Although the guides are on radio with each other advising where to look, we did not see any lions over 4 drives. We did see a leopard on both days, many elephants, giraffes, Kudus, a rhino with horn removed, a submerged hippo, tawny eagles and a few trees with vultures waiting. However, the kill (possibly lion) that they were waiting to finish off was in the neighboring property and the private Lodges all respect each others' property lines. It is good for breeding the animals, but not so good for tourists!! Our guide was rather young and needed more training. He did not present much information on his own and so the 7 of us in the open-sided vehicle for 4 drives rode around in silence for long periods. He and the guide told us to ask any questions we had--but, if you don't know much about something you don't even know where to begin asking questions. It was a missed opportunity for all of us. Yes, we were there only 2 days, but we had paid for safari. This guide met us on arrival and showed us to our room, gave us a property tour, and told us the various Lodge protocols. I thought he was the manager as he had never told me he would be our guide for the whole stay! Umkumbe is one of the smaller Lodges and has a lot going for it. It is quiet with no TVs or anything to do at night but read and watch the stars. That is not a complaint!! The other guests were friendly, but of course you get to know best the ones assigned to your same OSV for each drive. The sundowners and tea/coffee breaks in the morning foster that. There didn't seem to be a manager around anywhere. The property is fenced but they ask you to not move around at night and to have one of the Guides escort you to your room after the dinner.…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.