Kedar Heritage Lodge, Conference Centre & Spa

Environment: The location offers a serene and picturesque ambience, ideal for relaxation. It's strategically situated for easy access to Pilanesberg Park and Sun City, enhancing the overall travel experience.

Review: Kedar Lodge – A Beautiful Disappointment It’s rare to visit a place where the potential is so tragically squandered. Kedar Lodge, with its rich history, beautiful grounds, and genuinely lovely staff, could and should be a gem in South Africa’s hospitality crown. Instead, what guests experience is a cold, disconnected, and poorly managed relic that’s being preserved more for its museum-like value than the comfort or satisfaction of paying guests. Let’s start with the good, because the people working here deserve recognition. The staff are, without exaggeration, exceptional. Warm, helpful, and visibly doing their best under strained conditions. It’s unfortunate that they are clearly working under management who appear more concerned about the preservation of colonial-era memorabilia than the basic needs of their employees—or their guests. The bathrooms are clean and modern, the rooms are decent, and the ambience of the estate itself is serene and picturesque. But that’s where the positives end. Now, the problems: • No Wi-Fi in the rooms. In 2025, this is unacceptable, especially for a lodge that positions itself as an upmarket escape. You’re effectively cut off unless you’re sitting in the cold lobby, huddled like the staff under blankets. • The lobby is freezing. Not just mildly chilly—bitterly cold. And while there’s a fireplace right there, staff are apparently forbidden from using it because it may “damage the Anglo-Boer War photographs.” That’s right: human beings, including guests and hardworking employees, are left to freeze to preserve century-old pictures. The management’s priorities are truly stunning. • Facilities are crumbling. No remote for the TV. Toasters that don’t work. And most disturbingly, a shower head that launched itself from the wall and struck my father on the head. The lack of attention to basic maintenance borders on negligence. • No phones in the rooms. So, when the shower exploded or anything else went wrong, we had to physically walk back to reception to ask for help (in the cold, again). Now let’s address the dishonesty. I was lied to by a so-called “manager” who dismissed my complaints and seemed more interested in covering up the cracks than fixing them. It’s infuriating to be treated like you’re the problem when you’re pointing out things that any reasonable guest would expect to be in working order. The truth is that Kedar Lodge could be magnificent—but instead, it’s a place where great staff are used as human shields to protect ownership and management from accountability. The infrastructure is neglected, guests are treated as afterthoughts, and any warmth comes solely from the people—not the facilities. Final verdict: Unless serious changes are made, Kedar Lodge is little more than a cold museum with beds. Stay for the history if you must—but don’t expect comfort, connectivity, or management that cares. A frustrating experience in a location that deserves far, far better.