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Chitwa lies in the northern Sabi Sand, best reached by charter flight to Arathusa Airstrip followed by a short game-drive transfer, or fly to Hoedspruit Eastgate Airport (HDS) — the nearest commercial airport — and transfer by road (roughly 2 hours); self-drivers must enter via the Gowrie Gate.
Six individually decorated Chitwa Suites, very spacious at 130–180 m², each opening onto a private lake-view timber deck with its own plunge pool, and each with a bathtub, indoor and outdoor showers, a fireplace, minibar and tea/coffee facilities (one extra bed possible for a child under 12). The pick for couples is any suite with the most direct view over the dam, a popular wildlife drinking spot, so you watch game from your deck. Families and friends take the two-bedroom Charlsy Suite (two interleading en-suite rooms joined by a lounge, with a shared lake-view pool deck), while the standout for total privacy is the exclusive-use Chitwa House, two en-suite bedrooms with a private butler, chef, dedicated ranger-and-tracker and its own safari vehicle.
Warm, home-style luxury dining, all meals included, from breakfast and lunch on the dining deck over the lake to boma dinners under the stars, with select drinks (soft drinks, in-room minibar and selected alcoholic beverages) included and premium/branded drinks extra, and dietary needs happily catered for. There is a rate exclusive of alcohol, for the non drinkers.
Neutral safari layers with a warm jacket and beanie for cold winter dawn drives in open vehicles (May–August), lighter clothing for hot summers, closed shoes for bush walks, a sun hat, sunscreen and binoculars, insect repellent and antimalarials, swimwear for the private plunge pool, and a good camera with a long lens for the leopards.
The Sabi Sand is arguably the world's best place to see leopard, and being a private reserve your ranger and Shangaan tracker can drive off-road and after dark, with a strict maximum of two vehicles per sighting for an unhurried, ethical experience. Ask for a suite facing directly over the dam so game comes to you. Don't miss the Dixie cultural village visit supporting the Chitwa Trust's education work, and note self-drivers must enter via the Gowrie Gate, or fly into a Sabi Sand airstrip (Arathusa) to skip the dirt roads. It's a genuinely warm, family-run alternative to the big-name Sabi Sand lodges.
Chitwa Chitwa sits within the Sabi Sand, the birthplace of sustainable wildlife tourism in southern Africa, where hunting was abolished decades ago and the reserve forms part of the Greater Kruger and the wider Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. The lodge takes a holistic, low-impact approach as a "guest in the home of the African bush," and its Chitwa Trust (established 2008) contributes to educational development in the neighbouring Dixie community, which guests can visit on a cultural excursion.
