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Please see Drakensberg for other available Drakensberg hostels and accommodations.
Please see Drakensberg for other available Drakensberg hostels and accommodations.
The Hostelz.com Review
Amphitheatre Backpackers Lodge is deservedly popular, as it offers a generous array of facilities at moderate rates. The friendly, helpful staff are always ready with helpful suggestions regarding activities. They lend maps and trail descriptions to guests with their own vehicles and are helpful in suggesting tours, although it is necessary to allow sufficient time to travel to and from the attractions due to distance. The hostel appeals to a wide range of age groups and families.
The Location
The hostel occupies a large gated compound in an open, rural setting about twenty-one kilometers north of Bergville just off Highway R74. It is easy to find, because there is a large sign beside the highway. There is ample secure parking on the property. There are supermarkets in Bergville offering a wide range of groceries, although good wholemeal bread is difficult to find.
The hostel is a good choice for travelers without their own transportation -- the Baz backpackers’ bus stops at the hostel, transportation to and from Bergville and Harrismith can be arranged, and the hostel has its own tour company offering day trips to various attractive hiking destinations in the Drakensberg range and into Lesotho, all of which are quite a long drive away. Even those drivers with their own vehicles are advised to consider taking a tour, especially where mountain safety and rough roads are at issue. Discounts are available to guests participating in more than one tour over a period of a few days.
Rooms and Bathrooms
There is a large range of sleeping accommodation, including multi-bed, singe-sex dorms in a separate building; doubles, most of which have private bathrooms; self-contained self-catering apartments; and tent camping on a large open grassy area. The dorms room are not usually locked, and there are no lockers, but management will store valuables in the office safe in the reception area or in a store room.
There are adequate shared, mixed-sex bathrooms adjacent to the dormitory block, but some of the showers in the main building are not always hot in the morning. The showers next to the open air swimming pool are, however, much better in this respect. All shared bathrooms are mixed-sex, and there is space to change in the shower area, hooks for clothes, and soap dishes.
Common Spaces
There is a reasonably well equipped kitchen, but there is no microwave oven and only two gas rings. Lighting in the cooking area is very poor. Other common spaces are more generous -- bright, spacious, and well-appointed. There is a huge dining room with large illustrated displays on the walls showing the great variety of tours, hikes, and other attractions available, where meals can be ordered.
They also have an atmospheric, well-stocked bar; a “braai” (barbecue) area; an impressive open air swimming pool; a sauna; a jacuzzi; a games room with pool table and a comfortable upstairs lounge, which has a library with books and a large array of tourist literature; a book exchange; a pay-as-you-go internet computer; a television; and a telephone, which guests can use to make moderately priced calls within South Africa. Smoking is not permitted in enclosed spaces, and the presence of smokers in other areas will not disturb nonsmokers.
There is sometimes recorded music in the common area, but it is not unreasonably loud and cannot be heard from within the sleeping accommodation. The facilities certainly offer scope for possible partying, but when we visited guests were mostly just chatting, exchanging stories over a meal or a drink, reading, or watching television.
Summary
Despite the long drive to see the nearest tourist attractions, the spacious, well-equipped facilities make this a good place to relax. This is the only South African location in our experience which is not plagued by a very noisy bird, the hadeda ibis, which can be very disturbing early in the morning all over South Africa. The tours offered by the hostel are good value and are one of the best reasons for staying here.
The Location
The hostel occupies a large gated compound in an open, rural setting about twenty-one kilometers north of Bergville just off Highway R74. It is easy to find, because there is a large sign beside the highway. There is ample secure parking on the property. There are supermarkets in Bergville offering a wide range of groceries, although good wholemeal bread is difficult to find.
The hostel is a good choice for travelers without their own transportation -- the Baz backpackers’ bus stops at the hostel, transportation to and from Bergville and Harrismith can be arranged, and the hostel has its own tour company offering day trips to various attractive hiking destinations in the Drakensberg range and into Lesotho, all of which are quite a long drive away. Even those drivers with their own vehicles are advised to consider taking a tour, especially where mountain safety and rough roads are at issue. Discounts are available to guests participating in more than one tour over a period of a few days.
Rooms and Bathrooms
There is a large range of sleeping accommodation, including multi-bed, singe-sex dorms in a separate building; doubles, most of which have private bathrooms; self-contained self-catering apartments; and tent camping on a large open grassy area. The dorms room are not usually locked, and there are no lockers, but management will store valuables in the office safe in the reception area or in a store room.
There are adequate shared, mixed-sex bathrooms adjacent to the dormitory block, but some of the showers in the main building are not always hot in the morning. The showers next to the open air swimming pool are, however, much better in this respect. All shared bathrooms are mixed-sex, and there is space to change in the shower area, hooks for clothes, and soap dishes.
Common Spaces
There is a reasonably well equipped kitchen, but there is no microwave oven and only two gas rings. Lighting in the cooking area is very poor. Other common spaces are more generous -- bright, spacious, and well-appointed. There is a huge dining room with large illustrated displays on the walls showing the great variety of tours, hikes, and other attractions available, where meals can be ordered.
They also have an atmospheric, well-stocked bar; a “braai” (barbecue) area; an impressive open air swimming pool; a sauna; a jacuzzi; a games room with pool table and a comfortable upstairs lounge, which has a library with books and a large array of tourist literature; a book exchange; a pay-as-you-go internet computer; a television; and a telephone, which guests can use to make moderately priced calls within South Africa. Smoking is not permitted in enclosed spaces, and the presence of smokers in other areas will not disturb nonsmokers.
There is sometimes recorded music in the common area, but it is not unreasonably loud and cannot be heard from within the sleeping accommodation. The facilities certainly offer scope for possible partying, but when we visited guests were mostly just chatting, exchanging stories over a meal or a drink, reading, or watching television.
Summary
Despite the long drive to see the nearest tourist attractions, the spacious, well-equipped facilities make this a good place to relax. This is the only South African location in our experience which is not plagued by a very noisy bird, the hadeda ibis, which can be very disturbing early in the morning all over South Africa. The tours offered by the hostel are good value and are one of the best reasons for staying here.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
April 2010
Their Description
Amphitheatre Backpackers Lodge Details
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Location/Contact| Address | Pocolane Nature Reserve, Oliviershoek Pass, Drakensberg (Northern Drakensberg), KwaZulu Natal, South Africa |
| Location | Northern Drakensberg Mountains,21 km North of Bergville on the R74 |
| Website | www.amphibackpackers.co.za |
| Telephone | +27364386106 |
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
Not too bad!!!!!! Spent a few days there and my observations are this: Ilse and Linda are great people and try their level best to accommodate all the travelers as best they can. The food is horrendous! Rooms are not clean at all. It is a very rustic lodge and a great vibe with the right crowd but the music is VERY loud and interferes with the silent beauty of the Berg. The guided tours are expensive considering you can do these by yourself (if you don't mind the 2 hour drive to basecamp). Huge potential for improvement if only a few competent people can be incorporated to aid these two very energetic and creative women. I would go back again ... with my own food. — Anonymous , South African (2011-11-10) Beautiful place, Horrible service We stayed for only one night (22/10/2011), and it was enough to understand that although it was a beautiful place, the management had awful standards of service. The woman at the reception was very nervous (and weird-acting) and we waited for ages to get the keys to our room. But more troubling is how they would tell you whatever is needed to make you pay more. When we first called they said they only have double rooms for R550 or so, only when we said "no thanks", they said: "oh, just a second, I just see that we also have a room in R360." More troubling yet, the receptionist praised a hike on top of the amphitheatre mountains, claimed we couldn't do it ourselves, and stressed us to join their organized trip (claiming "there are only a few places left and we must hurry) for R500 pp!!! She certainly would not give us any information to help us go there by ourselves. Eventually, we managed to get there in our own car and paid only R60 pp (entrance fee). We met the organized group in the path. It was a beautiful hike, not at all complicated as the receptionist claimed. There were quite a few independent hikers there, all of them without any guides, including some retired people and kids. This was also the only backpackers in SA (out of ~15 we stayed in) that had no free supply of drinking water. I would never give my money to these manipulative people again. — Doron , Israel (2011-10-29) Great location, very bad service!, agressive attitude of the owner. We went to this place on the advice of one of our friends. In the time we have been they were reconstructing the main building.
Immediately at the arrival the owner had a wonderful story and photos about their daytrips to Lesotho and Amphitheatre. It was not possible to go their by yourself, as she said. It was one of the last days of our 6-weeks trip and although it was very expensive in our opinion we did make the booking for both trips. The first trip was to Lesotho. The trip was ok but definitely to expensive! (500 Rand pp; 50E pp) We expected much more of it because of the story she told us. So we canceled our daytrip to Amphitheatre for the next day as well as more people of our group. The owner of the backpackers became very aggressive and angry. "What was our problem?" The next day we went for a hike by ourselfs in the Royal Natal National Park. Very nice!! Unfortunately in the morning we had a totally flat battery of our car and we had to wait for 3 hours (in the meanwhile the owner made a lot of false promises, and quotes like "they are not a garage", "it was not HER problem") before a employee helped us. In a word: very bad service for their customers. They are very money minded!! We stayed in a private double room. The cleansed of the room was not very well. The overall facilities are ok. — Joris , Netherlands (2011-10-11) Great place, but go hiking by yourself! Excellent room (more of a cottage). The standard room has got a full equipped kitchen and a nice king size bed. The bar is cozy and they even have a sauna and jacuzzi. BUT: we were more than annoyed by their aggressive self-marketing of their tours. They give you the impression that you cannot do any hike by yourself in Royal Natal N.P. That's just nonsense. The park is beautiful and trails are marked well. As others said it before: just get yourself a map at the visitor's centre and enjoy the freedom of hiking! — Sebastian and Renja , Germany (2011-07-25) Nice place but bad people All they want is your money. the place is well located, quite nice, a little bit noisy. BUT avoid the excursions, they are UNSAFE. walking trip are bad, organised without enough guide and security equipment, be really careful. (we were 26 and 22 people complained for these unsecurity, it is not only my advice.) — Anonymous , french (2011-04-28) Very loud music and aggressive management We stayed three nights: on the first night (Saturday) the loud music stayed on until 3:30am; Sunday was quiet; and then Monday night was a "staff party". On Sunday morning there was vomit by the pool and fag ends and broken glass in it. We asked for the music to be turned down after 11pm on the Monday but the manager asked me "what my problem was"? As we left, we said we were going because it was too loud for us and the owners became extremely aggressive, basically ranting at me that I thought their place was a sh*thole even though they had spent millions of Rand on it. Actually the place is pretty good, with great facilities, although they do really push their expensive tours. Annoyingly, there is a campsite 2km away on the main road -- we wish we had stayed there. — Jane , British (2010-12-05) Not honest All they want is your money. They offer 3 trips for way to much money!
440 rand per person just to go hiking (Tugela falls). we have done the trip ourselves -- we paid 100 rand, for 2 persons!! They lie to you. They say you need a guide (not true, just get a good map), a high clearance vehicle (they go with a minivan) and they charge way to much entrance fee. We were with a group of say 11 maybe, 3 of us didn't feel safe at all. It was raining, we wanted to cancel the trip, and to it the day after (beautiful weather then!!). The water was flowing of the mountain, everyone was soaking wet in less than 10 minutes time. First we had voted to go back. when we were turning the car the 'guide' suddenly saw the weather was clearing (yeah right, all fog, but that one little spot), so he gave a bit of false hope. everyone was so naive to follow. All but me and one other guy. So like I said, we went up the mountain (hike of 6 hours) to go and give it a 'try.' Sadly, giving it a try meant that 3 of us were left behind. The road was very slippery, very cold, fog, heavy rain (couldn't be worse). The three of us had to go back were we came from and had to wait for 5 hours in a little cabin until the rest of the group returned. We were charged 220 rand for sitting there stuck in the middle of nowhere. He didn't even apologize. The only thing you will hear is, do you need a lunch box, do you need do have dinner here tonight, do you want to go on this trip tomorrow (yes even when you're having breakfast they come to you to sign a form that you're going). The worst is you have to pay afterward, so a lot of people don't see the huge bill coming! They don't accept credit cards (sure, because they are frauds!!). If you want to spend a lot of money in just a couple of days, be sure to go there. — Not happy , Belgium (2010-11-19) Nice views, loud music, hygiene below average The music noise level seems to have gone up -- it is quite loud even on weekdays and very loud on weekends, where it goes on till 3 or 4 in the morning. The bathrooms are not cleaned daily. There is a shuttle to the park, but the return trip is already at 14:30, so you don't have a lot of time for the hikes. The food is ok, the communal buildings are nice, most of the staff are quite friendly. — Anonymous , Germany (2010-11-10) Excellent! Do it! And make sure you stay for at least 4 or 5 nights to pack in all the activities! — G , UK (2009-12-25) The location of this hostel is absolutely gorgeous, no fences or barbed wires, only endless views of the Drakensbergs. It is very quiet and safe. The stars at night time are just amazing as there are no disturbing lights of a town anywhere nearby. We stayed in deluxe double that was equipped with a complete kitchen. What we found annoying was that we had enquired several times in advance about their Lesotho trip without getting a reply and when we got there we had to find out that it wouldn't take place the day that we were there. The food is quite basic as well, but other than that this is a great place to stay if you love nature. If you are there, take a chance to visit Lesotho, a truely amazing country, as well as the Golden Gate National Park. — Judith & Jens , Germany (2007-05-20) This is an wonderful place. I would just add that the local staff are a tremendous resource. Sim is an excellent guide who knows the area incredibly well. Take the opportunity to learn from him and you won't regret it! Also, Xolani will take you to the Royal Natal National Park in the morning and back at night. Along the way you will find that he knows everyone in the area -- which lends a warm sense of the community. And the bar-man Solomon is on top of his game -- treats everyone right and sets the tone for lovely nights in the bar. — Maura (2007-02-25) Great day tours to Lesotho, top of Cathedral Peak, hikes to the Gorge. They know their game! Very, very friendly staff! Great bar! Bathrooms, bedrooms just fine! Incredible views! — Rafael (2006-12-26) This past July 2005, we stayed for three days in a self-catering chalet with mini kitchen and private bath--with an amazing thatched roof! Though our unit was self-catering, we ate dinner in the main dining room with the other guests and backpackers--the meals were awesome!!
The cold winter nights (July, lows of 2C or 32F were usual) were offset by the working asbestos heater in our unit. Nightly bonfires from the fields on the nearby mountainsides lit up theach night for a beautiful evening display.
That Staff was amazing--so friendly and accommodating--and the diversity of guests was great. We drove a rental car, but many of the backpackers got there from the Baz bus-they recommend it as an economical way to get around, though I always prefer a private car.
The day trip to Lesotho is beyond words. This is something eveyone should do at least once. The SA border crosssing at Monantsa Pass is breathtaking, and since the roads are not paved in that part of Lesotho, this is not something for the faint of heart. Our driver got us there safely (nine of us took the tour in the lodge's SUV), with a quick stop in Qwa-Qwa. The village, school and the sangoma will be permanent memories for me to reflect on for years to come.
I highly recommend this facility to anyone! — David King, United States (2005-12-29) Great place and a beautiful view! Go up early in the morning so that you don't have to wait at the bathrooms too long. And do at least one of the great trips they offer! — Luisa (2004-02-01) Very friendly staff. I was not prepared for the cold weather properly and they lent me one of their own jackets. Also, we did not plan do to any backpacking so we did not take a towel, and one of their staff members lent us one of his own. I also enjoyed rappelling from a nearby rock. — Jitka and Ron Stiles (2003-07-22)