Royal Malewane's Fresh Face

Royal Malewane Lodge Has Reopened After Its First Major Refurbishment in 25 Years

July 2026

3 min read

Royal Malewane Lodge, the eight-suite flagship of The Royal Portfolio in the Thornybush Private Nature Reserve, has reopened after a five-month structural renovation.

The lodge closed in mid-January 2026 for the work and should be welcoming guests again right about now. The scope was structural. New floors. New doorways. New walls. New decking. New thatching. Swimming pools resurfaced. The award-winning Royal Waters Spa stripped back and rebuilt. All eight suites taken down to their bones and put back together. And after 25 years without one, a new bush bar. (Twenty-five years. We have questions.)

This was the first major refurbishment since Liz Biden opened the property in 1999. The scale of the work tells you something about the intent. This was Liz Biden deciding that the property where The Royal Portfolio began deserved to feel new again.

What Stayed

Guests on a Royal Malewane game drive vehicle watching a bull elephant at close range in the Thornybush bush, with a tracker seated on the front. — Close encounters of the wild kind. The kind no renovation can touch.

The things that matter. Eight suites (six Luxury, two Royal) in the same configuration. A guiding team that ranks among the strongest in the Greater Kruger, working an unfenced concession that shares a boundary with Kruger National Park. The Royal Waters Spa. The dining. The game.

Because the boundary with Kruger is unfenced, wildlife moves freely between the reserve and the national park. The Big Five are resident, and the density of predators in this part of the reserve is among the highest anywhere. We've always loved the guiding here; more than two decades of accumulated bush knowledge doesn't come off a shelf.

The Royal Suites remain among the largest in the Greater Kruger, each with a private pool and a sala. The Luxury Suites are more contained but generous by any standard. All eight have been rebuilt with new interiors, and if the early photographs are anything to go by, Liz Biden has sharpened everything without losing the character that earned the lodge its reputation in the first place.

The Full Collection

Interior of a Royal Malewane suite with wicker chairs on a wooden deck overlooking a waterhole and bushveld, with a decanter of red wine on the coffee table. — New floors, same view.

While Malewane Lodge was closed, the rest of the collection kept running. Guests were redistributed across the other properties on the concession. The operation never stopped.

Farmstead is the one we recommend for families: three suites with a farmhouse warmth that works when children are involved. Waterside sits overlooking a waterhole, seven suites, and the kind of reliable comfort that makes it a strong choice for first-time visitors to the Greater Kruger. Masiya's Camp is the newest addition, opened in June 2025, with six tented suites at 230 square metres each. And then there are the three private villas, for guests who prefer their own space, their own pool, and their own schedule.

With Malewane Lodge back, the full collection is together for the first time since the closure. Four lodges, three villas, 24 suites on one concession. The Royal Portfolio's Greater Kruger offering has never been this deep.

Why It's Worth Noting Now

Private plunge pool with green and white diamond tiles and a freestanding green bathtub on a wooden deck, overlooking dense Lowveld bush in soft morning light. — The plunge pool got new tiles. The view stayed.

Freshly renovated lodges have a window of six to twelve months where everything is at its sharpest. The thatching is crisp. The floors don't creak yet. The pools are flawless. The bush bar hasn't acquired its first scratch. The staff are operating with the energy that comes from showing off something new. That window is open now.

And the bush bar, if early reports are accurate, has already become the favourite spot on property. Twenty-five years without one, and now guests are wondering how the lodge ever managed.

We think the refurbishment is the right call. Properties that coast on past glory eventually become monuments to what they used to be. Properties that reinvest become properties worth going back to.

Nina van Zyl

Travel Writer

"Dust on the boots. Soul in the wild."

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