Giant's Castle Game Reserve Hotels

Giant's Castle.: Un-organised and over-priced.

Giant's Castle Camp has fantastic potential. The facilities are set up as self-catering chalets with a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. Bedrooms have a fire-place and TV. Some of the chalets have a nice view of the valluy / mountain. It has a restaurant / bar where meals can be bought, and a small curio / snack shop.

BUT - it is TERRIBLY un-organised and (hence, in my opinion) over-priced. I have stayed there twice. Within 2 years, the price for a night's stay has doubled 3 times, and the service degraded very badly. The last time I was there, I had arranged for late arrival as it is a 5 hr drive from Johannesburg, and was met with a locked gate and no watch-man. So I had to walk up a road, in the dark and pouring rain, until I could get a number for a night-watch. Once I got hold of the night-watch, we were in 30mins later (just before midnight), but they had lost our booking and ended up giving us an inferior room.

As it is a launch base for hiking in the Giant's Castle area, they are also supposed to keep a safety log of people leaving for hikes. Both times I have done this, they were unable to find my log entry on arrival (hence would not have known if we had gotten lost in the mountains). Notwithstanding the poor service, we were still made to pay the full accomodation and "overnight hiking fee".

It is a pity that the resort is degrading. It is an awesome outpost in the Drakensberg. Being it further from Johannesburg than the northern parts of the mountain, it is less frequented by tourists. But the service has just become too poor, and I will not return. I will also not recommend that you do.