Cheetah Plains

We use Cheetah Plains when a party wants the Sabi Sand without sharing any of it. There are three villas, Karula, Mapogo and Mvula, each with four suites, and each is booked for one party at a time. Your villa comes with its own private chef, guide, tracker and butler, and a solar-powered electric game vehicle. That vehicle matters more than it sounds. With no engine running you can sit with a leopard in near silence.

The day runs to your clock. Your guide and tracker read the overnight tracks and decide where to go, and the afternoon drive leaves when you are ready. One evening a sommelier opens the villa's 300-bottle cellar for a private tasting, wine, whisky or gin, by the pool or at the boma.

For a family with children, ask for Mvula. Two of its suites interconnect, there is a Junior Rangers programme, and a babysitter is on duty from breakfast. Karula has wide, flat access throughout and suits grandparents who would rather not deal with steps.

On The Garden Route & Sabi Sand you come here straight from Leopard Creek. A Cessna Caravan makes the short hop north to the Arathusa strip, and before landing your pilot makes a low pass to clear whatever is grazing on the runway: impala usually, sometimes buffalo or elephant. Your vehicle is waiting at the end of it.

Good to know

• Each villa is booked whole, for up to eight guests. Over the festive season (20 December to 4 January) a villa takes a minimum of six.
• Set up for families: interconnecting suites, Junior Rangers and a babysitter at Mvula.
• Malaria area. Take your doctor's advice on prophylaxis before you travel.
• Game viewing is good all year; the dry winter months, roughly May to September, thin the bush and make sightings easier.

Country: South Africa