Black Rhino Game Lodge

Sun City, South Africa

Boma
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Lounge area
Lounge area
Bedroom suite
Boma
Boma
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Bedroom suite
Lounge area
Lounge area
Bedroom suite
Boma

The hotel

It may feel a million miles from anywhere, sitting at the foot of an old volcanic crater and hidden among Tamboti trees, but this Pilanesberg National Park pad is actually just a few hours’ drive from Jo’burg and 33km from the fun of Sun City. Its location makes it the ideal lodge for families, first-time safari seekers, and those wanting to mix game drives with Sun City’s attractions. Its handy setting doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on the safari experience though, with this malaria-free game reserve home to the famous Big Five and other photo album-favourites, and Black Rhino Game Lodge overlooking a popular wildlife-attracting waterhole.

Amenities

  • Bar
  • Safari
  • Laundry Service
  • Restaurant

Where is it

The reserve is located in a private concession within Pilanesberg National Park.

Hotel information

20 suites. All with a private patio, air-conditioning, TV, tea/coffee-making facilities, mini-bar, and an open plan bathroom with a closed toilet, separate bath and shower as well as an outdoor shower.

Full Board includes: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Twice daily game-drives.

Restaurant with open plan lounge and dining areas. Bar. Boma area. 2 swimming pools. Viewing deck. Daily game-drives. Guided bush walks*. Bird watching.

* Denotes local charge. 

Rating summary

  • Location Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Sleep Quality Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Rooms Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Service Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Value Image of the Tripadvisor rating
  • Cleanliness Image of the Tripadvisor rating

Traveller rating

  • Excellent (343)
  • Very good (156)
  • Average (24)
  • Poor (18)
  • Terrible (6)
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Run down.

Feb 7, 2021 pmswanepoel Johannesburg, South Africa

Stayed 1 night/2 days. Yea not great. Run down, understaffed. Maintenance of various things lacking: pool was green and slimy (at first thought it was because of the rain but then saw other pools that were very clean), grass uncut, decking broken/damaged, dining tables looking quite rickety, Aircon in one unit not working, doors to rooms a… Read more
Stayed 1 night/2 days. Yea not great. Run down, understaffed. Maintenance of various things lacking: pool was green and slimy (at first thought it was because of the rain but then saw other pools that were very clean), grass uncut, decking broken/damaged, dining tables looking quite rickety, Aircon in one unit not working, doors to rooms a struggle to open once unlocked. Only sachet coffee in the rooms, and only decaf🤷‍♂️ General lack of maintenance. Not taken care of. A fair amount of noticeable litter around too. Staff friendly enough, but not trained that well it seems. 2 waiters running around at breakfast trying to help a full dining room. Service generally quite poor for what you pay. Our table was inside right near the kitchen and coffee station (staff shouting across the room generally making a noise) when there was ample space outside, and it had stopped raining. We asked to be moved but basically had to move the furniture ourselves as there seemed to be too few staff to help. Only buffet food available -it was ok rather than good. Whether or not buffet style food should be served during a pandemic is a question. We saw into the kitchen at one point and it seems the wearing of masks is optional -but guests are told on very uncertain terms about the absolute necessity of wearing them. Things don’t make sense. They claim no turn-down service because of COVID but will pack the game vehicles to capacity. Photos on the website are not a good representation of reality. Common area very dark -again, nothing like the photos on their site. Within 5 seconds of getting out of our vehicle after a long drive to get there it was demanded that we immediately hand over a form of identification. Normally one might wait to welcome guests into the reception area at least before making demands of any sort. The demeanor of the person welcoming us was also not what it should be, at one point telling us to ‘make it snappy’ -seriously. Never saw/met anyone who seemed to be in charge or running the place, so not really possible to talk to anyone about anything at the time. Only good thing I could say is that the rooms are nice. Won’t be back. Sorry guys, too run down, not good enough, very little attention to detail -or even the big picture aspects. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Not worth the money

Dec 17, 2020 HermienOden Johannesburg, South Africa

Everything was clean and neat and staff were very friendly but facilities were tired and worn and not the standard you expect for the price you pay. In the rooms- sheets, pillows, towels and matras are completely worn through. Furniture looks tired and there's not a feeling of final touches rounding the room off or a slight touch of finesse- like… Read more
Everything was clean and neat and staff were very friendly but facilities were tired and worn and not the standard you expect for the price you pay. In the rooms- sheets, pillows, towels and matras are completely worn through. Furniture looks tired and there's not a feeling of final touches rounding the room off or a slight touch of finesse- like a skew lamp in the corner or our water that didn't work early morning. Our view from the room was again unkempt. The room was very far from the restaurant/lounge area and it was a pitch black walk after sunset with only a weak torch attached to your room key. The food was completely average, not bad and definitely enough but again not worth the price. We couldn't find the dinner spot as it was in the boma for the night without anyone informing us. In the lounge/bar/restaurant area, the bathrooms were quite terrible. Early morning it was still dirty and untidy, it also didn't have any towels to dry your hands. Unfortunately just needs extra touches if you are expecting your guests to pay that amount of money. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating A bush break deserved

Dec 15, 2020 716trudis Centurion, South Africa

We decided to treat our staff for a weekend away as it has been a long hard year. I would like to thank all the staff at Black Rhino for making our year end superb. A special thanks to Olivier, Karabo and Thabo for going the extra mile and nothing I asked was too much effort. Precious you too were always ready with a smile. In actual fact all… Read more
We decided to treat our staff for a weekend away as it has been a long hard year. I would like to thank all the staff at Black Rhino for making our year end superb. A special thanks to Olivier, Karabo and Thabo for going the extra mile and nothing I asked was too much effort. Precious you too were always ready with a smile. In actual fact all staff on every shift were amazing. The rooms were very comfortable, clean and spacious. Thanks RJ for the very interesting game drives. It was amazing to see so many elephants and even though sometimes a little too close for comfort. Thank you for your patience with some amazing photo opportunities. You have a fantastic knowledge of the bush. The à la carte lunches were amazing, unfortunately I am not a huge fan of Buffets dinners or breakfasts. Once again thanks to all. Read less
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Amazing spot

Nov 30, 2020 LizV377 Johannesburg, South Africa

My husband and I spent the weekend at Black Rhino Lodge. We had an amazing time, food was excellent, location great, rooms very comfortable and game drives spectacular. The staff were very friendly and our ranger, Kobus, was great, we had some very special sightings. A fantastic get away weekend
Image of the Tripadvisor rating Lovely People, Rooms are a bit worn

Nov 23, 2020 Karishma P London, United Kingdom

This was our first trip post COVID lockdown and we were very excited to have our first local holiday after relocating to South Africa last November. At the same time, I was also extremely apprehensive about hygiene and risk of infection. For these reasons, I chose the Black Rhino Game lodge as it had limited rooms, they are individual cabins and… Read more
This was our first trip post COVID lockdown and we were very excited to have our first local holiday after relocating to South Africa last November. At the same time, I was also extremely apprehensive about hygiene and risk of infection. For these reasons, I chose the Black Rhino Game lodge as it had limited rooms, they are individual cabins and well spaced out. The staff at the lodge and at the restaurant were lovely and helpful. All our problems ended up being with the room. We had room 23. The air conditioning just wasn't working powerfully enough. I'm not sure if it was a problem with the AC unit or the size of the room, but the room, just wasn't cooling. The first night, I did not sleep at all because of the heat. The windows were just sliding panels with no wire mesh, so keeping them open was not an option. We asked someone to take a look at it, but they said they could not find anything wrong. The second night, we moved the furniture a bit, I laid a towel down on the sofa and slept on the sofa, so as to be directly under the ac. At least with that, I was able to sleep a few hours. The sinks and the shower took very very long to drain. Having dirty water splash back on your legs when you shower isn't how I'd choose to clean myself. They tried to do something and managed to fix the sink a bit, but we had to run the shower on 1/3 the water force and keep shutting it off to allow the water to drain, multiple times. No signage: Our room was quite far from the lodge and there are multiple pathways, while the torchlights were helpful, we kept losing our way in the pre dawn and late night darkness. Tiny arrows with room numbers would really really help. Given covid situation, room service was restricted to once a day with no turn down service to minimise contact and we were ok with that. All meals were pre plated, except for the cold part of the breakfast buffet, which was again, understandable. We enjoyed most of our meals, except one risotto that had beautiful mushrooms in it, but turned out really salty. Our multiple previous experiences of game parks in Kenya and Kruger have given us high expectations. For the price, I expected better quality and standards, I'm not sure how much they have had to compromise to accommodate hygiene practices and government regulations, but it fell short of our expectations a bit. The location is lovely, loads of birds and wildlife come to the watering hole near the restaurant. The staff, does try their best. We had great sightings of rhinos and lions and cubs. Given their location, they take you into Pilanesberg during the morning safari through a private route, but in the evening, they drive you around the Black Rhino reserve itself. Do not miss the morning safari, the 2 parks have a very different feel to them, so make sure you experience both. There's plenty of wildlife within the black rhino reserve, so you shouldn't miss much. We self drove into Pilanesberg after checking out and loved that experience too. Just note that the restaurant within Pilanesberg at the old court has closed down. Read less