The next stop in our exciting 8 day tour with Access2Africa Safaris was changed to another hotel due to renovations. We are now staying at Anew Hotel Hluhluwe & Safaris in a small town called Hluhluwe (pronounced shloo-shloo-wee). This little town is about a 3 hour drive from Kloof and is in the Northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Hluhluwe is considered the hub of tourism because it is in between iSimangaliso Wetland Park and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and on the banks of Hluhluwe River. Beaches and the cultural heritage of the Zulu people draws people here.
stopping by Moses Mabhida Stadium
Leaving Makaranga Garden Lodge on the Wednesday morning, we made a few pit stops before heading to Anew Hotel. We stopped at Moses Mabhida Stadium, which hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There was also an adjoining museum that focused on South African history with lots of artwork and sculptures that were interesting to see. After stopping for lunch at Spur Steakhouse and at a fruit and vegetable market, we finally made it to our new home for the next 3 nights.
lunch at Spur Steakhouse
When we arrived, we noticed there were double automatic doors that opened apart for us which made it more easier to manage our luggage. We were lead to our room which followed a nice pathway outside around the back of the reception area. No elevator needed again which was fine by me. There was a small ramp to get into our room and again this room was pretty spacious and had a nice bright light and a ceiling fan. The 2 double beds were sufficient and nothing fancy or luxurious, but that was good enough for us. The bathroom and roll in shower was large and perfect for my needs.
spacious bathroom with roll in shower
The wifi did not work that well in our room but sitting outside in front of our room did make it a bit better. The signal was stronger if we sat in the dining room or near the reception desk. Even that was a hit or miss with the wifi. Guess we are on vacation and didn’t really need to use our wifi that bad. Good thing there was nightly entertainment for us to see. There was a live Zulu dance show every night. It was really interesting to watch and even got the guests to come join the dance. We only saw this the once as it was the same dance show each night.
nightly Zulu dance
The food at the dining room was quite good too. The choices were more bar/pub food here as there were burgers, sandwiches, wraps and wings. The wings and wrap that we had were pretty good. There was also a buffet room where there were lots of South African dishes, curries, meats, vegetables, salads and desserts to try. We both really enjoyed the buffet and the price was quite reasonable. My favorite was the curried stew. Right next door to our hotel was also a Boxer grocery store, KFC and a Wimpy’s burger place. We got to try some snacks at the grocery store that were exclusive to South Africa like some chocolate bars and some candies. Wimpy’s closed early so we missed out on trying a favorite for South Africans.
big dining area
The best part about staying at Anew Hotel Hluhluwe & Safaris is that it is quite close to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. This is also the home to the Big 5; which consists of elephants, rhinos, lions, buffaloes and leopards. Of the 3 times we visited, we saw only 4 of the Big 5 and didn’t get to see any lions. We did get a few enormous elephants walk right out in front of our wheelchair accessible van and just hang out near the road. There were also a bunch of zebras huddling around our van one of the days too. There were short spurts of rain a few times but our safaris were mostly during sunny times. This was definitely the highlight of our trip, we actually got to go on a real safari to see these animals out in their natural environment.
love getting up close to these animals
We really enjoyed our 3 night stay here and liked how close we were to a grocery store and a few restaurants. The staff were really friendly and the place was generally clean. Wifi, food and having more entertainment could slightly be improved but I would definitely stay here again.
great place
Thanks again to Durban Tourism, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, Umhlanga Tourism, Anew Hotel Hluhluwe & Safaris, Hluhluwe Game Reserve, Bayete Zulu Game Reserve, Leopard Corner Guest House, Makaranga Garden Lodge, St. Lucia Tours & Charters, uShaka Marine World, and Access2Africa Safaris for making this possible.
