Coming to the lodge I had very high expectations, it is a 5 star establishment after all.

Arriving: We were met by our ranger at the gate who gave us a prep talk on all the do's and don'ts. Our luggage was whiskey away in a different car whilst we had a leisury drive into the lodge. On drive to the lodge (which is a bit of distance from the Welgevondedn main gate) we saw some animals and quickly my enthusiasm grew.

Lodge welcome:
The welcome party was quite nice, we were met by the manager and the 'butlers' as they call them... basically they are waiters. They gave us refesher towels, whihc I assume an hour before they gave them to us were moist and warm. The color is also off-putting (Navy blue) which makes you wonder is the towel is clean or not? None the less, that was not a big issue as I chose not to use the towel. Welcome drinks were served, my only issue was that we had specified that in our party there were some people who do not take alcohol. So it was surprising to get champagne. Again, not a deal breaker - I just did not have the welcome drinks.

Rooms:
I guess decoration style will appeal to some and not to some. Personally, I thought it waws all lovely and beautiful really... well that was until I noticed that the floors are painted white???? That's sort of creepy. But the overall feeling of the suites was pleasant.... you have an outdoor and indoor shower, private 'toilet' room, a huge (thank you very much) bath which is semi outdoor, you can open the shutters and bang, you are taking a bath outside :).

The aircorn in the room, a single wall panel - left a lot to be desired. However they made up for that as my bed had an electric blanket. I don't know if this is standard as one of my friends bed did not have one. The beds are huge, 3/4 or double beds pushed together...

Room cleanliness is questionable. I think anyone with white floors should pay extra eattention to how the floor is cleaned. We spilled the bathsalts by mistake, and instead of replacing with fresh salts... The salt from the floor was picked up and put back into the bottle.

The fresh milk was not replenished??? Which is questionable?

Food:
This for me was a deal breaker, have made a decision not to return to the lodge based on this. I communicated clearly during the booking process that I am vegetarian, when I got to the lodge I reminded the welcome party again that I was infact vegetarian. My other friend only eats fish. So it was simple, for every meal - prepare 1 vegetarian meal, prepare one fish dish and the rest in our party eat anything. Did they get it right??? NO!!!
It was a strugle, for the 1st two nights I literally ate 4 baby potatoes as mains (that was a side dish for the rest of the normal people). I even asked for more potatoes to fill me up, did they ever come??? NO!!! On the last night they managed to do something.

General comments on food:
1. It is always cold. From their soups to their main dish - cold. The only actual hot meal I had was during the bush breakfast (which was a delight) when I asked the waiter to prepare some mushroom for me on the grill!!!
2. The waiters try to make up for the unpleasant food through good service, but even that does not make up for bad cooking.
3. The food was no where near 5 star standards... I can cook better than that and I don't even cook everyday. The only thing that everyone was enjoying was the deserts.
4. I gave up on asking for warm team, as in tea made from boiling water.

Game drive:
Again this depends purely on the game driver. Our ranger (Sebastian) lord bless him loves animals. This guy would probable kill another human being for an animal. Now the problem with a ranger like that is that he didn't want to get close to the animals because we were 'disturbing' their natural environment. All other rangers would get closer to the animals and Sebastian would stop a distant from them. At some points he drove away in a fit because way too many (maybe 4) vehicles were surrounding the animals.
He makes up for his strange attitude towards animals with his personality, he is a nice guy - knows animals very well. And tries very hard to please in other avenues. But I would never have him as a ranger in my game reserve if I had a choice.

Overall experience:
Not too pleased, never going back!

Beautiful scenery. Friendly but disorganized staff. Good food however two people from our party were vomiting?? Place is run down, dirty and totally unequipped to handle cold weather. We froze from the time we arrived to the time we left. Manager has left disgusting offensive note in the room requesting exorbitant staff tips rather than suggesting tipping for excellent service to individual staff. The lodge appeared under staffed (the lodge was full to capacity). Service was extremely slow often resulting in us going to look for staff to a service drinks and food. Massage was disappointing. Wiets really needs to raise his game and be around a lot more to attend to guest and manage his staff. Wiets, a dirty shirt worn to supper to greet the guests is unacceptable in a 5 star resort. Water in rooms not restocked daily. Fresh milk for coffee not restocked daily. Ranger Sabastian was a bit of a cowboy.

Perhaps the most beautiful accommodation I have experienced to date. The room is completely private, has a beautiful deck with plunge pool overlooking a cliff with a beautiful river below. The privacy and space is well worth the cost. Service and food was excellent. Would definitely go back. So if you want a Safari with absolute comfort and beauty then choose this one!

I have never been so happy as i was at Clifftop in December 2010. I travelled with my daughter and from the time we arrived we were treated like complete royals. Our room was absolutely fabulous, the food was scrumtous, the dining experience was out of this world and well our butler was there at our every beck and call. The game rangers (Werner) was so sweet and put up with alot of our giggles and had a few of his own.... Bradley, Dasha, Wiets and Paul were always there for us helped us in every way and made our stay ROYAL number ONE!!!!! I will definitly come back again and know that i will receice the same treatment. Good value for money and well done to CLIFFTOP, u guys ROCK!!!!!!!