Our tent was transported from Hemingway’s Africa into modern day Kruger Park. I am not a person that enjoys nature, but the luxury tent made it manageable for me. There is a good sized kitchen, which is fully stocked with pots and utensils. On the side of tent there is a braai area. On our first night we were sitting around the braai cooking dinner and a genet came up to try and share some food. Each morning we enjoyed coffee and rusks for breakfast on the porch.
On the last morning of our stay the riverbed was very busy. I saw more animals out there than on the entire 3 hour morning game drive that I had taken. While we were packing to leave monkeys were using our tent as a jungle gym.
I will definitely stay in Tamboti again. Orpan Gate is an epi-center for animal activity. Almost all of the animals we saw in Kruger were within a 10 km radius of Orpan.
If you want to see animals and get back to nature, definitely stay here!

We camped at Tamboti with friends for four nights.
The facilities are superb.
The braai had to work overtime every night as we passed the evening away delighting about the animals we had seen during our drives.
The tent windows are fitted with screens which you are instructed to leave closed during the day to stop inquisitive animals casing the joint with a view to breaking and entering whilst you are gone.
At night, however, we left the main screens down so that only the transparent mesh was between us and the outside world. The noise of the animals and the wind blowing in the trees will stay with us forever - or until our next visit.

This is the best place we have ever had the pleasure of staying !

We stayed at Tamboi for two nights....wished we booked for a longer stay! We stayed in the en-suite luxury tent (overlooking the river dry river bed) with a nice deck and braai area. We woke the first night with some honey badgers on the deck!
It is private and really gives you the feeling of living in the bush. We find the tents to be comfortable, even during the second night's storm! We had some visitors like monkeys and squirrels.
We found the shop at Orphen gate to be good and stocked with all the basic requirements that tourist might have.
We wanted a late night drive, but could not take it, as they need at least 4 people to go on a drive. That was a bit dissapointing.
A lovely experience and we will for sure return to this special place!

There are two types of tent available. One is with shared ablution facilities and the other has its own en-suite. I have stayed in both and recommend them highly. My choice is the en-suite tent which has a great deck and braai area. Most of the tents overlook the Timbavati river bed.

Location: One of the best. It is situated near Orpen gate which is centrally located and not as busy as the southern section. From Orpen there are many private game farms and rehabilitation centres within easy reach. Moholoholo wildlife rehabilitation centre is a must do. Private game reserves nearby include the Northern Sabi Sands, Timbavati and Kapama. One or two nights in one of their luxury camps will round off a perfect vacation.

Wildlife: The area around Orpen is well known for excellent sightings and simply by driving between Satara and Tamboti you may well get to see Lion, Leopard, Wild Dog, Rhino (black and white), Cheetah, Elephant, Nyala, Sable, Buffalo and a host of other species.

Tamboti is run by SANPARKS and is therefore in serious need of management. Do not expect any kind of service or pristine tents. The communal ablutions are normally kept very clean and the tents are serviced daily. Maintenance is hardly ever done so one may expect certain items to not work properly, broken steps and/or broken decking. Whilst some tents may have been renovated after the recent flooding you may still find certain tents in a state of semi decay, broken window blinds and mould/fungus growing on the canvas. Do not let this put you off. These are easily overlooked due to the location and in general the bedding is comfortable and clean (even if not the best quality).

If you take this tented camp for what it is and do not expect anything super luxurious then it is easy to have a great time.

You will need to shop for groceries outside the park as Kruger shops are notoriously expensive and the quality of meats, veggies etc is not that good. Tamboti is self catering and as such has a decent sized fridge in each tent for your groceries as well as cooking facilities. My suggestion is to buy wood and cook over an open fire in the evenings.

I love Tamboti tented camp and always look forward to going back there.