Travel Review: South Africa Safari Honeymoon, Drakensberg Mountain Range, Sabi Sands, Local Cuisine

Towards the end of our trip, we had a travel day from Dulini Lodge in Sabi Sands game reserve to our hotel in the Drakensberg Mountain Range, which took us about 8 hours end to end and was not a particularly fun day. The route from Durban to to the hotel was not a particularly easy drive, and that we were doing it in the dark & rain was less than desirable.  We might have reworked this leg of our trip if we were to do it again.

The hotel in the Drakensberg Mountain Range was not quite what we were expecting. While it was a beautiful property, had excellent staff, and some of the best food we had in the entire country, the room itself had the feeling of a basement rather than a high end hotel room. It did not feel like luxury compared to some of the other places we had stayed and the environment felt like one we should be in if we were 50 years older than we are. While the food was great, it wasn’t ideal to be on such a tight schedule, we would have preferred some flexibility to enjoy the mountain region, which is really why we were there.

Lastly, although we made adjustments to bring down cost through the planning process which led to more driving time, I think it ended up with more time in the car than we would have liked. Given the high petrol costs, I don’t know how much money it saved and we would have preferred the time at a destination.