Tshukudu Bush Lodge

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Tshukudu Bush Lodge | Sun City, North West Province | Virgin Atlantic Holidays

Sun City, North West Province

5 stars

You’ll feel like you have Pilanesberg National Park all to yourself when you stay at Tshukudu Bush Lodge. The only lodge in the reserve, it has just ten chalets and suites, and sits secluded at the foot of the Pilanesberg mountains, letting you gaze down over vast plains and a wildlife-enticing waterhole. The "Big Five" aren’t the only ones with a water feature here – your Tshukudu Suite has a private plunge pool and the lodge features a stunning rock pool. Adding a unique personal touch, the lodge’s Field Guides don’t just take you on game-drives, they also share local legends as you dine together at a boma out in the African bush.

Amenities

Honeymoon
Safari
Bar
Restaurant
Swimming Pool

Explore the local area

Situated on a hill slope, in the malaria free Pilanesberg National Park, only a 2 hour 30 minute drive from Johannesburg.

Hotel Information

Room Information
Room Upgrade Information

6 luxury chalets and 4 luxury suites, all individually decorated, and all with a fully-stocked mini-bar, tea/coffee-making facilities and safe. There are no radios, telephones or TVs.

Luxury Chalets offer a private balcony overlooking the savannah/waterhole, open plan lounge and bedroom with 1 queen-size bed, sleeping maximum 2 adults.

All Inclusive: all meals including high tea, selected local beverages, and twice daily game-drives.

Hotel details

Facilities

Dining Room & Lounge where breakfast is served and a 5-course dinner menu. Bush boma dinners. Rock plunge pool with bar service. The Deck with 80 degree views of the Pilanesberg. Bush walks. Twice daily game-drives. Bird watching. Complimentary WiFi access.

Additional Information

* Denotes local charge.

Please note: children under 11 years are not permitted at Tshukudu Bush Lodge.

Please note: there are 132 steps to the lodge.

Trip advisor rating

4.8/5

402 reviews

Location
Sleep Quality
Rooms
Service
Value
Cleanliness

Excellent

90%

Very Good

Average

Poor

Terrible

“Fabulous place and guides for a short safari”

Dec 02, 2025Quest12173856935

Pilansberg is great for a short safari experience. It's easily accessible, pretty compact, but large enough to to have a fantastic array of game, and a beautiful combination of mountains, plains and lakes. Tshukudu is a fabulous base, being inside the park, giving the opportunity to start your game drives as the sun is coming up and get out again late afternoon until it's dark. The lodge also has beautiful views over a largish plain, backed by hills, with a waterhole, so you can just keep on game watching right from your balcony! The service at the lodge is excellent and the food and wines,etc. plentiful and good quality. Special mention to our guide Jafari; he was excellent. Very knowledgeable about the bush, the animals, birds, flowers and a whole lot more. He was considerate on the drives and has a great knack of getting you to a good viewing point when one of the big 5 make an appearance. His colleague JR, we heard is equally knowledgeable and skilled,he was certainly super enthusiastic and obviously commited to the park when we spoke to him. The rooms are comfortable, spacious and have everything you might need. The balconies over looking the plain are sublime. The lodges will though need updating soon.. The thatched rooves are past their best and bathrooms dated and whilst the bath/shower with plain and game view is a great idea, be careful getting in and out. Yes, you need not just to be able to get up and down the 130+ steps to the lodge, but to be able to do it several times a day and get in and out of the shower successfully!

“A faultless safari experience”

Nov 30, 2025Alan M

Tshukudu provided us with a faultless experience. The location and construction of the lodge provides an idyllic setting overlooking a busy watering hole. The villas are immaculate and equipped with every amenity we could ask for. The catering was excellent and the staff unfailingly polite and obliging. The highlights were the game drives and we could not have asked for a better guide than Jann-Rick (JR to everyone). Having spent his whole life in and around the park he provided us with answers to all our questions and just the right amount of interesting information about the park and its wildlife. We understand that there is an element of luck in what animals you are going to see, but we got very, very lucky! We cannot recommend this lodge highly enough.

“Anniversary Stay Cancelled After Confirmed Booking”

Nov 24, 2025ThriftyTravelBug

We booked Tshukudu Bush Lodge in mid-March 2025 for a special wedding anniversary stay in mid-March 2026. After thorough research, we chose it specifically for its unique hilltop location in the heart of Pilanesberg National Park and its exclusivity, with a maximum capacity of just 20 guests, making it perfect for an intimate romantic getaway. After receiving confirmation, we promptly booked our flights and rental car, confident everything was set. At the end of November 2025, with just little over three months before our stay, we received an email saying they could no longer accommodate us due to unforeseen circumstances. Their proposed ‘alternative solution’? A transfer to Bakubung Bush Lodge, an affiliated property under Legacy Hotels with about 100 rooms and capacity for roughly 200 guests — hardly the exclusive experience we were looking forward to. Upon calling the lodge, we were informed that Tshukudu will be closed for extensive renovations from January 11 to May 31, 2026 — covering our entire booking period. Given how long such major renovations must take to plan, it is very difficult to believe that this decision was only made recently. Yet we were only notified now, despite having a confirmed reservation since March 2025. This abrupt cancellation on such short notice has forced us to scramble for a comparable alternative while dealing with non-refundable travel expenses. For a high-end lodge under Legacy Hotels, this level of poor communication and disregard for confirmed bookings shows a complete lack of professionalism and customer care. It has completely ruined the excitement for our anniversary celebration and caused a great deal of frustration and disappointment. Extensive renovations that shut a property for months are not last-minute decisions — and yet that’s exactly how they were communicated to us. This lodge clearly cannot be relied on to honour confirmed stays. I strongly recommend booking somewhere more dependable in the park. We booked Tshukudu Bush Lodge in mid-March 2025 for our wedding anniversary in mid-March 2026, after thorough research. We selected it for its unique hilltop location in the heart of Pilanesberg National Park and exclusivity—limited to just 20 guests—ideal for an intimate romantic getaway. With confirmation in hand, we booked flights and a rental car, feeling secure. At the end of November 2025, just over three months before our stay, we received an email saying they could no longer accommodate us due to unforeseen circumstances. Their proposed ‘alternative solution’? A transfer to Bakubung Bush Lodge, an affiliated property under Legacy Hotels with about 100 rooms and capacity for roughly 200 guests — hardly the exclusive experience we were looking forward to. When calling the lodge, we were informed that Tshukudu will be closed for extensive renovations from January 11 to May 31, 2026 — covering our entire booking period. Such major work requires months of planning, making it hard to believe this decision was recent—yet we weren't notified until now, despite our confirmed booking since March 2025. This short-notice cancellation has us scrambling for alternatives amid non-refundable travel costs. For a premium lodge under Legacy Hotels, this displays shocking poor communication, unprofessionalism, and disregard for guests. It has ruined our anniversary excitement, sparking immense frustration and disappointment. Extensive renovations aren't last-minute decisions, but that's how they were communicated to us. This lodge cannot be trusted to honour confirmed bookings. I strongly recommend choosing a more reliable option in the park.

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Some of the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. However, ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed on this website. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. Please see our booking conditions for information, or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: https://www.atol.org/about-atol/atol-certificates.

This product offers you combinations of a hotel and flights at an inclusive price. This product enjoys the protection of the Package Travel, Package Travel and Linked Arrangements Regulations 2018.

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