New rooms, new look, same wild backyard

There's a particular kind of holiday that parents of young children dream about: one where the kids are genuinely, wide-eyedly captivated, where the adults can actually relax, and where the experience feels special enough to stay with everyone long after the tan has faded. A family safari in the Klaserie ticks all of those boxes and then some, and at Baobab Ridge, it just got a fresh reason to move to the top of the list.

The family suite at Baobab Ridge has always occupied its own particular place in the lodge's character. Tucked furthest from the main building, wrapped in a generous verandah that looks out over the surrounding bush, it's been the home base for countless family adventures in the Klaserie. Now, after a thorough remodel, it's been given an entirely new look that manages to feel both fresh and completely at home in its surroundings.

A bright new approach

The new interior is built around clean whites that make the rooms feel bright and spacious, lifted by punches of turquoise and red that bring exactly the right amount of energy without tipping into anything garish. 

The curtains are softly floral, the kind of detail that makes a room feel considered and personal rather than assembled from a catalogue, and the bathrooms have been fully renewed with everything you'd want after a long morning in the African bush. It's a suite that has grown up without losing any of its warmth, and the result is a space that feels genuinely lovely to come back to at the end of a game drive.

The layout remains perfectly calibrated for family life. One bedroom has a double bed for the adults, the other has two single beds sized just right for children between six and twelve, and each has its own en-suite bathroom, which any parent will tell you is not a small thing. There's also a "pull-out" chair that converts into single bed in the main bedroom for an additional child. 

The wraparound verandah has seating for four, the lounge has a large sofa that tends to get thoroughly colonised by smaller guests, and there's a well-stocked fridge and tea and coffee station for the moments between adventures.

Why families keep coming back to Baobab Ridge

Baobab Ridge isn't a lodge that offers family safaris as a polite afterthought. It's a lodge that is genuinely, organically oriented towards families, and the reason for that is refreshingly simple: the owners have young daughters of their own, and most of the team are parents of small children too. 

The understanding of what families actually need, including the patience, the flexibility, the ability to turn a question from a curious eight-year-old into a ten-minute education that keeps everyone enthralled, runs through the lodge at every level. You feel it immediately, and so do the children.

The guides at Baobab Ridge are particularly good with younger guests. The Klaserie is a Big Five reserve, which means the headline sightings are there, but the guides have a knack for making the whole experience come alive beyond the obvious, talking through tracks in the sand, pointing out a dung beetle rolling its prize across the road with the same enthusiasm they'd bring to a lion sighting, and finding the precise moment to pull over and let a herd of elephant cross at their own pace while a vehicle full of children holds its collective breath. 

These are the moments that children remember for the rest of their lives, long after they've forgotten the name of the hotel on the beach holiday they took the same year.

The rhythms of a family day in the bush

The daily rhythm at Baobab Ridge suits families well. Morning game drives depart early, which sounds alarming until you discover that children who would normally require three alarms and considerable negotiation to leave the house are somehow entirely willing to leap out of bed at five-thirty when there's a game drive waiting. 

Breakfast follows on return, the mid-day hours are for swimming and lounging and watching the waterhole from the pool deck, and the afternoon drive goes out again as the light turns golden. Dinner, whether in the dining room or around the boma fire under a sky that seems to have rather more stars in it than it does at home, rounds out a day that most families find genuinely hard to improve upon.

The lodge's fenced main area means that younger guests can move around freely and safely between the suites and the main building, which matters more than it might seem when you're travelling with children who have their own ideas about pace and direction.

The Klaserie through a child's eyes

There's an argument to be made that children actually get more out of a bush safari than adults do, and it's not a difficult argument to win. Adults arrive with expectations shaped by years of wildlife documentaries and perhaps previous trips. 

Children arrive with nothing but open curiosity, and the Klaserie has a way of meeting that curiosity at every turn. The impala that the adults have stopped registering after the first day remains, to a nine-year-old, a source of genuine fascination. The hornbill that lands on the verandah railing is a personal visitation. The sound of lion calling in the dark, heard from the safety of a warm bed, is the best bedtime story ever told.

Baobab Ridge's freshly remodelled family suite is ready and waiting. The only thing left to do is book it.

To enquire about family availability or to find out more, contact Linda at res@baobabridge.com or on +27 73 926 4724.