Aquila Private Game Reserve

Recent Reviews: 1085

• User:Ubi S

  Trip type: Business

  Good value. But the rangers are rude,upnoxiuos and will be mentioned a at. Next fgasa meeting the next

  12 Apr 2026

  The lodge is good and staff at the lodge tos are top quality BUT as a tour guide bringing millions under the acorn flag to then you would think that the ranger were frienkdy. We as tour guides always help outguest of the ugku noisy tracks.when help people get out off vehicles game rangers get ruids and speak words like: ma Se Poes,pointing fingers at us and calling say us cultural guides are wubggad.i do trips to game drives at other parts such ktight.the head ranger shout at more this not Kruger.Well no it's not as bright is 10000niliion tymes better noAll I can say it's a bad reserr,mAss tourism where visitors sk. As a tourim trip leader this is the poorest way first game reserve in Africa. No rabgerywill call me that was a guide when he was in nappies when I was a guide .I will reported to fgasa, deadz,thetaand dep of bnzt.Worst game reserve in africa

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• User:oransome

  Trip type: Couples

  Good place for seeing some animals

  28 Mar 2026

  Ok. This is a game reserve and not a safari. But, guided by the wonderful Agent, we did an evening and a morning game drive. Saw 4 of the big 5. Cougars are too elusive. Plus Elands, hippos, in and out of the water.All told a good effort / cost / reward ratioPretty decent food too. Nice enough bar. Cottage was nice enough too. Very friendly staff.Shop smart - rates vary massively.

• User:tpbel

  Trip type: Couples

  Mixed feelings

  22 Mar 2026

  If you want a good hotel in the countryside with reasonable buffet food, good drinks and a pool, then fine. If you want the African safari experience then this isn’t it. However, what they do here for conservation and protection of the animals is second to none, so if you can settle for supporting this important work, maybe you can ignore seeing the same individual animals on every game drive. I’m glad I went there but I don’t need to go again. I hope this isn’t too negative - if you’ve never seen African animals in the ‘wild’ before then this is a great introduction. The guides are certainly very knowledgeable (Nigel and Randall) and we learned a lot.

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• User:Desmond S

  Trip type: Couples

  Lovely place to stay

  21 Mar 2026

  We had a great time at aquila. We stayed 3 nights from the 3/3 to the 6/3/26We had a lovely room with a pool and Safari view. The room was well kept and clean. We had morning and evening safari’s all of which were a great experience (the only animal we didn’t see was the leopard)As we stayed 3 nights we could also do the horse riding and quad bike experience, which we done my wife done both I done the quads with her,absolutely brilliant The food was nice with a great variety, the breakfast especially nice.The pool was great the spa and bar nice to. We loved everything about the place. The staff were great the wardens great to.I would definitely recommend this place to others

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• User:Zoe A

  Trip type: Couples

  Loved it here, 10/10 recommend!

  17 Mar 2026

  Absolutely stunning location, beautiful grounds and the pool was fantastic with a swim up bar. We stayed in a cottage and it's was perfect, nicely furnished, comfy bed and great views on the back of the reserve where we could sometimes see giraffes from our seating area. If you stay overnight you get an AM and PM game drive, AM is best for seeing hippos as they are out of the water, and lions as they are fed in the morning so usually not off roaming yet. Across 4 game drives we were able to see everything other than the leopard. It's was really amazing too see. For the people saying the animals are fed, the guides were thorough with explaining they had 10 drought seasons in a row where they didn't get enough rainfall. The animals started to die and so they made the decision to supplement thier food whilst vegetation regrows. They expect to be back to normal if they can get another good 3 seasons. The lions are separate as they are rescue lions from a caged environment that don't have the ability to hunt for themselves enough to survive. Again, they are supplementing so that they survive, whilst allowing them to hunt naturally for around 40% of thier diet so they can build on the instincts they lost in captivity. Our guide explained that as Thier instincts return and they get better at hunting, they are reducing down the supplemented feed with the hope they can return to the true wild. The other animals are definitely not fed like a zoo or normal safari park as you can't always find the animals on drives, it's just luck of the draw. We thought it was a fantastic reserve and all the animals were thriving. Food was fairly good for an included service, better than most ove had with plenty of choice. Only slight moan is that considering you pay for your drinks, it's quite hard to flag your waiter down to actually order unless your a group buying alcohol. We mostly went upstairs to the bar ourselves to order rather than waiting around. You can add to your room, or pay on the spot. The spa was fantastic and really well priced, we enjoyed some treatments in our free time and used the facilities for free as we had paid for treatments. All staff were really friendly. It was my birthday whilst there and the ladies bought out a cake and sang happy birthday which was so sweet! We contacted Aquila outside of our booking to book thier transport from Cape Town. It's about 3 hours, not 2 just to settle everyone's expectations but the drive was split with a stop break for coffee and food if you wanted it. Our driver Craig was friendly and efficient, it's a good service too book if your here without transport. All in all we loved our stay here and would 100% recommend if your short on time and can't get to Kruger like we were. It really did have a luxury feel whilst maintaining what the reserve is supposed to be.

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