Simbavati Hilltop Lodge

Great facility. Outstanding customer service. Excellent food. Tremendous safari guide and tracker. The view from the tent overlooking the River watching the hippopotamus play is amazing. Not only this the safari focus on finding the animals, but was also very informative!

This has been one of the best vacations. The service is incredible, Aubrey is outstanding and memorizes your orders. The food is delicious, everything is perfect. The resort is beautiful and luxurious. You can see the big 5 right from your lodge window! Golden and Nkosi are incredibly knowledgeable and make every game drive memorable. 10/10 recommending to anyone wanting to see the big 5 and wanting to have the best vacation of their life

The journey to Hilltop Lodge from Eastgate Airport, took us about 90 Minutes and en route our driver pointed out a number of animals. We received a warm welcome. Our tent number 2 had a good view over the river and we saw elephants and hippos from our room, as well as hearing other animals. The rooms are very well appointed and have plenty of space. The bed has a good view and is very comfortable. There was always plenty of hot water. The room was kept spotlessly clean. and the electric blanket was on when we returned after dinner. The food was excellent, every second evening we had a barbecue at the boma when we were joined by our driver and tracker an enjoyable experience. All of the twice daily drives were very good. Nicholas our driver and Perfect our tracker worked well together to ensure we not only saw all of the big 5, but also wild dogs , hyenas and lots of birds. What was also impressive was their concern for the wildlife. We enjoyed the sun downers on the evening drive and coffee each morning. Overall this was an unforgetable experience.

Amazing experience and would highly recommend. From arrival to departure and every second in between it was awesome. Greeted by the beautiful and nice manager, enjoyed spa treatments with Charity (where everyone in our party did something), Ngosi and Golden were awesome trackers and drivers/guides. Daniel was our butler and kept us happy at every meal. We saw everything we came to see and more. Our second trip to Africa, but these accommodations could not be beat. Elephants so close to the rooms you could touch, and the food was 5-star all around. Thanks to everyone who made our trip a great experience.

HillTop is on the Top of their game. The facility is impeccibly clean, staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. The Guide, tracker and butler make a great team and the star of it all are the wonderful animals. Was a magnificent experience.

We deliberated on the scoring for the Hilltop Lodge, as the accommodation, food and service were 5 star however our safari experience itself was sadly 3 star. We visited in February during the rainy season and it was certainly stormy and very wet. We fully appreciate that this makes game viewing more challenging but having been in Sabi Sabi the previous year at exactly the same time, we can compare the experience. The Hilltop Lodge commands amazing views over the dam and the floodplain and all the individual tented rooms and common areas enjoy this view. There is an impressive infinity pool that leads the eye into the tree canopy, unfortunately due to the weather we did not get to use it. The individual tented rooms are well proportioned with an emperor size bed, it is an authentic under canvas experience when the wind blows. Unusually, the room is separate from the bathroom with an outside shower separating the two, whilst I am sure delightful in fine weather when you get up in the middle of the night in a thunderstorm, it is less fun padding across wet boards to get to the toilet. Each room has a plunge pool and well stocked mini bar. At night the night watchman escorts you to and from your room and certainly if you are in room 8 (furthest from the common areas) it gives an impromptu ‘night safari’, we saw hyenas, civet and waterbuck on the way to and from our room. If you are staying in room 8 it is best to ensure that you have everything with you when you leave the room as it is a fair walk along the walkways if you have forgotten something. You will certainly not go hungry at the lodge and will enjoy good quality food with appropriate portion size given the number of mealtime opportunities. Lunch is a choice of main courses and a sorbet and for dinner it is either a 3 course a la carte selection or buffet style boma (every second night). For boma nights, you sit with your guide and those in the vehicle and enjoy BBQ, salads and veg. Hearing other guests’ requests, the culinary team seem highly capable to deal with the various dietary requirements that guests have nowadays. Having sampled Eggs Benedict at every location on this trip, Tact and his culinary team, were up there in the premier league. You are assigned a ‘butler’ who serves you all your meals and drinks when you arrive at the lodge and he ensures you are well fed and watered (thanks, Daniel!). The team at the lodge love providing surprises when you head out on safari or come back (I won’t say more to spoil the surprise!). So the safari, why was the experience not as good as contemporary comparisons, the vehicles are great and the ponchos provided keep out the worst of the rain. Having been on numerous safaris, we understand there are good days and bad days, however our guide several times referred to ‘we are going on a boring safari’; ‘I hope you enjoy seeing trees and rocks’, etc and ＞60% of the sightings, including the big cats, if not more were made by the gu