Singita Lebombo LodgeEST. 2001

Singita Lebombo Lodge is a celebration of cutting-edge design in an African context where everything defers to nature.

This dramatic lodge, comprises 13 suites and one private-use villa that give guests a front row seat to the Kruger National Park with bold, contemporary open plan suites suspended above the N’Wanetsi River. The exclusive concession is a richly diverse habitat, teeming with game, beneath endless African skies.

The private villa is the most exciting extension of the lodge; set apart from the main lodge, it features two 2-bedroom suites, each with a private pool, that link together to create a spectacular exclusive-use four-bedroom offering with a stunning shared pool. Built low down on the river bank beneath mature trees, the private villa is fully staffed, has an open- plan kitchen and its own boma.

Bold and contemporary, sculptural and organic, the light-filled, ordered structures of the lodge seem almost dropped into the untamed terrain of Singita’s privately-leased concession.

Other highlights of the lodge include a roof terrace and wine studio (a multi-level retreat which boasts a library, multi-media room, wine studio and rooftop viewing area), an interactive kitchen, an espresso bar and help-yourself deli, and an additional 25-metre lap pool. All communal areas of the lodge have been pushed out to ensure that the outside bursts in, offering elegant, calm and meditative spaces immersed in a dramatic landscape of giant euphorbia trees.

The 13 loft-style suites and 4-bedroom villa, suspended above the N’wanetsi River, have an ethereal, light on the ground feel that resonates with the philosophy of Singita Lebombo Lodge to ‘touch the earth lightly’. The design of these light-filled structures, floating between river and sky, was inspired by the many eagles’ nests built into the cliff face of the river bank. Sophisticated and contemporary, the glass-walled suites are romantic hideaways leading outdoors onto elevated wooden viewing decks where guests may sleep out with nothing more than mosquito netting between them and the stars. Throughout the lodge, the imaginative use of glass, wood, steel, and layered fabrics in muted shades invites the surrounding landscape indoors.