Villa Thandawena | The Royal Thanda Club

Open over the reserve.

Villa Thandawena is the flagship Royal Residence of The Royal Thanda Club at Thanda Safari: five en-suite suites for ten guests across 1,087 square metres, where ancient stone and textured leather meet glass and steel beneath a floating butterfly roof, on the southern foothills of the Great African Rift Valley.

Thanda Residences are a serviced residential collection held by a small membership, where ownership comes by invitation. Each Royal Residence is positioned for absolute privacy and far-reaching elevated views within the 16,500 hectare Thanda Safari, a multi award winning Big Five private game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

A raised timber walkway crosses the entrance water court, between stone walls and sculptural screenwork, to a front door that opens straight onto the view.

From the first step the residence reads as a set of pavilions in ancient stone, glass and steel beneath a floating butterfly roof, held low against its ridge with the reserve on every side.

The Royal Thanda Club is a private association of forty-four members, each with full-title ownership of land inside one of Africa's most protected wildernesses.

Rising from within Thanda Safari is the start of the Great Rift Valley, dating back over 130 million years. A land as ancient as the rolling hills King Shaka once walked, where our human ancestors lived for over 200,000 years in the neighbouring Lebombo caves, a site of international archaeological significance.