Thonga Beach Lodge

The Ocean and Forest View Rooms are available in either a double or twin configuration, and feature a spacious bedroom with neutral colours and a small and comfy seating area. The room’s double doors open out onto your private deck with outdoor seating. This creates a bright and airy space for you to relax and unwind in. The private deck is also the perfect spot for taking in the spectacular scenery, whether your room is facing the shimmering ocean or luscious forest.

The modern en-suite bathrooms are large and stylish, with a generously-sized double vanity. The rooms have a natural feel with authentic woven walls and a thatch roof that helps maintain a pleasant temperature; fans are also provided.

The Deluxe Ocean View Suite is similar to the ocean view rooms, but with a plush king-size bed and larger private deck, complete with comfy sun loungers and a refreshing plunge pool. The large and comfortable bedroom shares the same natural design as the other suites, with woven walls and a thatch roof to maintain a pleasant climate. Air conditioning and fans are also provided to ensure you are as comfortable as possible.

The room is light and airy, with constant breathtaking beautiful views of the Indian Ocean that can be best enjoyed from the elevated position of your private deck. The suites include private en-suite bathrooms with stylish interiors and modern fittings. Take a long and relaxing soak in your bathtub while listening to the soothing sounds of the ocean.

The Family Forest Room is ideal for small families or friends travelling together, with two spacious bedrooms, both with their own en-suite bathrooms and separate entrances. The main bedroom also has a bathtub and double vanity, whereas the second bedroom has a single vanity and shower only. The rooms are linked by a passageway, meaning that parents travelling with children are never far away; and a small open verandah also connects the two rooms.

To ensure a good night’s sleep, both rooms feature air-conditioning, overhead fans and mosquito nets. The main bedroom also features refreshments with a minibar and a tea and coffee station. The room is surrounded by rich greenery and plant life, offering a secluded and tranquil space to admire the natural beauty of the area and breathe in the incredible landscape.

The Deluxe Ocean View Family Room features 2 en-suite bedrooms with separate entrances, making it ideal for small families or friends travelling together. The main bedroom includes a king-size bed and the en-suite has a bathtub and double vanity, whereas the second bedroom features three-quarter beds and has a single vanity and shower only. This room is set far apart from the others, offering total privacy and seclusion so that guests can enjoy each other’s company and the stunning Indian Ocean views in peace. Set atop the ridge, the room’s private deck overlooks the sandy beaches and endless sea, the view framed with snippets of the forest.

To ensure a good night’s sleep, both rooms feature air-conditioning, overhead fans and mosquito nets. The main bedroom also features a safe, hairdryer and refreshments via a minibar and a tea and coffee station.

Guests staying at Thonga Beach Lodge can look forward to three delicious meals each day, starting with a delicious breakfast buffet in the mornings, with hot food cooked to order. Lunch is also served as a buffet, presenting guests with a range of foods and allowing them to select their favourites. Different dietary needs are catered for and guests can enjoy dining outdoors on the deck, where giant milkwood trees offer pleasant shade and the panoramic views are the perfect backdrop to your meal.

Dinners are available in the evenings, consisting of a choice of 2 starters, 2 mains, an indulgent dessert and a rich cheeseboard. Children under the age of 12 are asked to eat earlier in the evening and vacate the dining area before 7 pm.

Explore the warm and pleasant waters of the Indian Ocean with scuba diving and snorkelling opportunities at Mabibi. The lodge’s professional diving team are trained to help guests of varying experience levels in venturing below the surface and discovering the phenomenal marine life that dwells there, including sharks, dolphins, manta rays and giant turtles.

For guests who do not wish to dive, the Open Ocean Experience offers a chance to explore the surf in front of the lodge and see dolphins and whales. Snorkelling takes place just a 5-minute walk from the lodge at the rock pools, and is included in the rate, whereas scuba diving is at an additional cost.

Enjoy a unique walk along the beaches, searching for both leatherback and loggerhead turtles, who have their nesting and hatching seasons from November to February. The turtles come to the shore, laying their eggs in carefully prepared nests. During this time, the turtles will lay around 100 eggs, but only 0.3% of their hatchlings will survive until adulthood, before returning to the same beach in 2 decades time. The guides take care to disrupt the turtles as little as possible, and data is collected before being passed on to the Ezemvelo Turtle Monitoring program.

Turtle tracking takes place 3 times a week, and this activity is seasonal and weather dependant.

Take a gentle drive along the shores of Lake Sibaya and search for hippos and crocodiles as the many different bird species soar above and fish in the still waters. As the sun lowers in the sky, the landscape will be transformed into a variegated masterpiece, reflected in the lake’s surface. Enjoy a refreshing beverage of your choice, while taking in this stunning view and listening to the sounds of the wilderness.

Take a trip to the local rural community of Mabibi and tour the school and clinic, meeting local people and learning about a different way of living. Visit a homestead and learn about the customs, culture and heritage of those who live there. Visitors can also choose to meet the local Sangoma, or witch doctor, and learn about their work, although this comes at an additional cost.

Enjoy a rejuvenating spa experience with massages and treatments in the comfort of the forest spa. Guests can allow themselves to become fully immersed in the natural world while a professional spa therapist pampers them with refreshing experiences designed to relax their whole body and mind.

Take a leisurely guided walk through the indigenous dune forest, and learn about the many different types of plants and wildlife that fill the land. The local guides will be able to teach you fascinating facts and the many plants and their uses, as well as where many bird types and animals can be found.

Thonga Beach Lodge is part of Isibindi Africa Lodges, founded by Brett and Paige Gehren who have both been working to conserve the wildlife and communities of South Africa’s protected wilderness for over 25 years. By working alongside community members, Isibindi Africa Lodges is working ‘to create a human fence between our wilderness areas and neighbouring communities so that the flow of benefits to these communities motivates them to protect these resources.’

By demonstrating the positive impacts of conservation with tangible results, neighbouring communities are motivated to assist in conservation efforts that will help protect the land, natural resources and wildlife. Guests are automatically helping to support a range of community projects when staying with Thonga Beach Lodge, which go on to empower people and improve their day-to-day lives.

In response to the lockdowns and travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Isibindi Foundation launched a huge feeding programme in the Mpembeni and Hluhluwe communities to support vulnerable homes with elderly/young children and low incomes. Food rations including potatoes, maize meal, beans and cooking oil were distributed to these homes to ensure that thousands of people would remain fed while the community funding raised by tourism was not available.

Masks and information sheets were handed out in Zulu, and working in partnership with the Mpembeni Trust the Isibindi Foundation established a mask-making project using lodge sheets for material. These masks were then given out to the community to help protect them from the virus.

Isibindi Africa Lodges is driven to use sustainable policies in the day-to-day running of their lodges. This includes giving guests reusable water bottles to help remove single-use plastics from their lodges, creating micro-economies in neighbouring communities to supply their lodges, investing in solar energy farms to receive power in a clean and renewable way, only serving seafood that has been ethically harvested, and recycling any unused food so that it does not go to waste.

The Isibindi Foundation supports the anti-poaching initiatives within the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park, and have donated large quantities of camping equipment, tyres for vehicles, tracking equipment, night-vision goggles and GPS equipment in order to help with the crucial work that the anti-poaching teams do.

The Isibindi Foundation is also working to support the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife HIP K9 Unit. K9 Units need a large amount of funding in order to train both dogs and their handlers to help reduce poaching and locate intruders in the national parks. Funding will help to expand the unit and train the dogs so that they can perform well in their role.