Dramatically set into a cliff face overlooking spectacular Leopard Rock, &Beyond Phinda Rock Lodge is an architectural delight, combining Malian influences with pueblo panache. Its six suites are seemingly suspended over the deep valley below, providing breath-taking views. Each romantic suite, constructed from contoured stone and adobe, boasts an earthy, soft grey palette and solid wooden shutters and doors, which open onto a private plunge pool and viewing deck. Featuring spacious ensuite bathrooms, the suites also offer outdoor showers, providing some of the most scenic al fresco bathing on the African continent.

Decorated in hues of oatmeal, grey and stone, the lodge’s intimate and glamorous guest areas offer the perfect vantage point for viewing the reserve’s abundant birdlife in the surrounding trees, and the wildlife roaming the bush below. Immense French doors open onto an extended outdoor veranda, the perfect setting for al fresco meals, while a rooftop terrace provides a romantic venue for dining beneath the stars. Striking, fiery sunsets set the scene for bush banquets in bush clearings. Here, guests are treated like treasured family members and time is shared with fellow safari adventurers, who soon become friends.