A Malaria-Free Family Safari in South Africa's Eastern Cape: Our Stay at Founders Lodge
Our private railcar (aka carriage) at Founders Lodge by Mantis
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written by Morgan
Benton was the first one out to the vehicle every morning when Juvan pulled up ready for our morning game drives. New camera around his neck, lens cap already off, asking Juvan what the light was going to do before the sun had come up. My husband bought that camera specifically for this trip, and by the end of the week he'd turned into a real photographer.
That's the thing about a good safari. It gives everybody in the family something, and it's rarely the thing you predicted.
We'd been dreaming about an African safari for years. We honestly thought it would be something we do once the kids are out of the house. However, we finally decided why wait? And we finally did it, all five of us. Our girls, Rae and Joy, are thirteen and eleven, and our son Jed is eight, and I'd spent a lot of quiet worry wondering whether a trip like this would actually work with kids that age. It worked. Even though people told us eight was too young. They were wrong. It's about an hour outside Port Elizabeth, in a malaria-free part of the country, and it turned into one of the best things we've ever done together.
If you've got kids and you've been putting off a safari because it feels too big, too far, or too risky, this is the post I wish someone had written for me.
Getting there is closer and easier than you think
We landed in Johannesburg on May 19th. The next morning we flew down to Gqeberha, which most people still call Port Elizabeth (including me since I cannot pronounce the other word), on the southern coast of the Eastern Cape. We had Founders set up our transfer from the PLZ airport to the lodge ahead of time, and they simply charged it to our room, which meant no scrambling for a ride or haggling over a fare after a long travel day. If you book, ask them to arrange the transfer. It's one less thing.
Sit with that for a second. One easy domestic flight, one arranged drive, and we were checking in. No malaria pills for the kids. No yellow fever vaccines needed or special medical clearance. No lying awake wondering what we'd do if someone spiked a fever in the bush. The Eastern Cape is malaria-free, and for a family that takes a giant category of worry right off the table.
We stayed at Founders Lodge by Mantis an Accor Property, which sits right alongside the Shamwari Game Reserve. So we got the intimacy of a small lodge and access to real Big Five country, without the crowds you get at the big-name camps.
We arrived on the 20th and did not want to leave on the 24th.
Why Founders worked so well for our family
Founders is small, and that's the whole appeal. There's no sprawling resort, no lobby full of strangers, no feeling like you're one booking among hundreds. What you get instead is a team that knows your kids by the second morning.
Craig and Glynnis run the place, and I've stayed in a lot of hotels in my life. These two are the best managers we've ever had, and I don't say that lightly. They knew which of my kids needed a minute before a game drive and which one was going to sprint to the vehicle. The whole place felt like being hosted by the most capable friends you've ever had.
One of the staff used to come to our carriage and make the kids a hot chocolate they still talk about. I've tried to recreate it at home and I can't get it right, not even close, and at this point I've decided that's how it should be. Some things are supposed to belong to one place. My kids will remember that hot chocolate long after they've forgotten half the animals.
Chanel (the lodge photographer), Glynnis (co-manager), and Juvan (our guide) with us the last day! Craig had went to run an errand and we didn't get to take a picture with him!
That kind of care is what makes a place worth it. Founders Lodge was worth it.
Where you actually sleep: two great options for families
This is the part I would've wanted spelled out before booking, so let me lay it out.
There are several rooms at the main lodge that sit side by side, each with its own exterior door. They don't connect on the inside, which sounds like a tiny thing and turns out to be everything when you're traveling with kids. However, if you ask about rooms right next to each other, you can walk out and be together in seconds, and you can still shut an exterior door that leads to the two side by side rooms if you need two rooms like we did and have real privacy at night and it’s as close to connecting as you can get.
Exterior doors that can be open or closed leading to 2 rooms at the main lodge’s rooms!
Then there's the Founders rail car aka carriage, and this was Jed's favorite thing about the whole trip. Founders has a restored railway carriage set a little apart from the main lodge, and staying in it feels like an adventure before you've even done anything. It has three bedrooms. Two of them sleep two, and the third is a single bed, which happened to be Jed's, and he was over the moon about having his own little room in a train. There's a real living area that gave us somewhere to spread out at the end of a long day. And the best part is the covered back porch, with a pool and a firepit area where we had dinner one night, just us, under the sky.
If you've got the right size family, ask about the rail car specifically. It's the kind of place kids never forget, and it gives you a private outdoor space a standard suite can't. This was truly an experience in and of itself and we highly recommend booking part of your stay there and then moving to the lodge for a different experience.
The heart of it: Juvan, our guide and Benton who is learning and is becoming an amazing photographer
Juvan, our game drive guide with our family!
We bought Benton a real camera for this trip. A proper one, with a proper lens, because he'd been wanting to learn and we had a feeling this was the place he'd do it.
We had no idea he'd end up with his own private photography teacher.
Juvan was our educator and guide, and he took Benton under his wing. He loved taking photos himself so he had a lot of insight into where to park the vehicle and lighting and was great at photography tips. He also offered guidance on how to wait for an animal to turn its head instead of firing off twenty frames of the back of it and how the early light and the late light are the only light that matters, and why you drag yourself up before dawn to catch it.
By the end of the week Benton was talking about composition. He was checking his shots and deleting the bad ones himself. He came home with a memory card full of photos he's genuinely proud of, and a skill that didn't vanish when the plane landed.
Some of the shots I'm proudest of are the birds. Juvan had an incredible eye and could name a bird almost the second it landed, and he taught Benton to spot them and wait for them. Benton came away with some stunning bird photos because of it. If someone in your family likes a challenge, birding on safari is a sneaky good one. It rewards patience and a quick eye, and a guide like Juvan turns it into a game.
Ask about Juvan when you book. A guide who connects with your family like that is the whole trip. However, I think all of the guides at Founders are amazing because this staff was incredible and I truly believe any of them would be great.
What we shot with, if you're curious
I get asked about gear constantly, so here's what we went with. Benton put together a whole page breaking down his exact camera setup including the specific body, lenses, and settings, see it here.
Benton's photography on his new camera blew me away, and the images he brought home are the ones we keep coming back to. That said, don't let anyone talk you out of the phone in your pocket. My iPhone 17 Pro Max held its own out there, even at distance, even in that gorgeous low light at the start and end of the day. If a full camera isn't in the budget, you're not going to miss the trip. You'll still come home with photos you love.
The one we had the most fun with was the Insta360. Watching it capture the whole family at once, all of us packed into the safari vehicle bouncing along together, is some of my favorite footage from the whole trip. There's nothing like seeing everyone in one frame, reacting to the same animal at the same moment. I'll admit the editing is a real learning curve. It's not point and shoot, and I'm still figuring it out. But the pure joy of that all-of-us-together footage is worth the wrestling match with the software. I also love the invisible selfie stick and Joy and Jed had fun playing with it on the pool deck which you can also see some footage of on our instagram and on @travelmorewithmorgan.
Trying our Insta360 on our evening drive with sunset views!
The one that surprised me most was my Ray-Ban Meta glasses. I ordered the Wayfarer style before the trip and they earned their spot right away. When an animal appears you don't always have time to lift a camera, and there were moments I just tapped the frame of my sunglasses and caught a photo or a video without looking away or fumbling for anything. Hands free, already on my face, no missed moment. For a mom who's also trying to keep three kids accounted for in an open vehicle, that was worth more than I expected.
Ray Ban Meta Glasses with Transition Lenses were perfect for game drives!
If you're packing for a safari with kids, my take is simple. Bring the good camera if you have one, trust your phone if you don't, get something that captures the whole family in the vehicle together, and keep a hands-free option on your face for the moments that won't wait.
To shop some of our gear click here!
So many babies
You want to know what made our kids gasp out loud? The babies. We saw so many, and every single one stopped the vehicle cold.
Mama and baby rhino at Founders Lodge on our evening game drive!
One morning we were parked with coffee in hand, the light still soft, everyone quiet and half awake, when a tiny baby giraffe came walking out behind its mother on those impossibly long, wobbly legs. We just sat there and watched it follow her. Nobody said much. It's hard to describe what a morning like that does to you, your coffee going cold in your hands because you can't look away.
A baby and mama giraffe!
Then, right on Founders property, we found the cutest baby rhino with its mom, the little one sticking close to her the whole time. That was one of those moments the whole family went quiet for.
One note for parents: morning drives are when a lot of this happens. The animals are active, the light is unreal, and the babies are out. It's worth the early wake-up, cold as it is, every time. I share more of what our actual day to day on safari looked like over on our Instagram, if you want to see the real parts of it.
The underground hide
The kids enjoying time watching for animals at the hide!
One of the coolest things we did wasn't a drive at all. Founders has a hide, an underground bunker you climb down into, and you sit there at eye level with the waterhole and wait. When the animals come up to drink, you're looking straight across at them, right at their level, quiet and close.
I can't tell you what that does to a kid. To be down in the ground, still and hushed, and have an animal walk up to the water a few feet from your face without any idea you're there. My kids talked about it for the rest of the trip. If Founders offers you time in the hide, take it. It's a completely different way to see the bush, and it's the kind of thing they'll remember for years.
The circle of life, the real version
On our very first game drive, the day we arrived, Juvan got a call on the radio. A lion had made a kill, and the young ones were eating. We drove over, and there they were, teenage lions doing exactly what lions do.
Juvan looked at what was left, cool as anything, and said, "well, there's Pumba." Then he turned to the kids and explained it. This is the circle of life, the actual working order of the bush. How everything out here has a purpose and a place, from the termite mounds up through the animals to the lions, and how all of it fits together and keeps the whole thing alive. That video is one of our favorites from the entire trip. My kids got a lesson in the first hour that no classroom back home could've given them.
The circle of life in live action. Teenage lions with their food their mom caught.
Then the bush drove the lesson all the way home, and this one was hard.
One day we watched a baby warthog with a hurt leg limping near its underground burrow. Its mother and the others had moved off into the distance, and this little one was struggling to keep up. Up the hill, a jackal sat watching the same thing we were watching. You could feel what was coming, and there's nothing to be done about it, because you don't interfere. The next day we heard it on the radio. The jackal had taken the limping baby warthog. The circle of life again, this time the hard part of it.
This jackal was the one waiting and watching other animals.
I'm not going to pretend my kids shrugged that off, or that I did. We talked about it a lot. But here's what stays with me. They learned that nature just is what it is, and that every animal out there, the jackal included, is somebody's survival. They understood it because they saw it with their own eyes. Jed, who fell hard for warthogs on this trip, felt that one especially. And he's a more thoughtful kid for it.
This is what a great guide gives you. Juvan didn't soften it and he didn't sensationalize it. He told the truth, at a level our kids could hold, and let the bush do the teaching.
The leopard we never saw
You don't always get all five, and the hunt for them turned out to be half the magic.
We stayed in that restored railway carriage, and it came with its own little adventure. The bathroom is a separate building a short walk from the car, more of a station house than a bathroom, which is charming right up until there's a leopard on the reserve.
Because there was. A leopard had come onto Founders property, and the guides and vet from Shamwari were tracking it. One day it was on the left side of our carriage. The next day it was on the right. We were, the whole time, a stone's throw from one of the most elusive predators in Africa.
We never saw it. Not once. The brush was too thick, and a leopard that doesn't want to be seen won't be seen. What we did get was that low, humming awareness that it was out there. Walking outside to the bathroom at night became an event, the whole family alert, checking with the team, moving carefully because a wild animal was genuinely close by.
I'll tell you exactly what was running through my head the whole time. That scene from 1923, the Yellowstone prequel, where Spencer Dutton is out in British Kenya hunting a leopard that keeps circling the safari camp at night. Brandon Sklenar, if you know, you know. I pictured it every single time we walked out in the dark, and I stand by that as a completely reasonable thing to think about while a real leopard moved from one side of our rail car to the other.
Part of me kept wishing it would just walk by once so we could see it. We came so close, and the not-seeing has stuck with me more than half the things we did see. If you ever needed one more reason to go back somewhere, a leopard you almost met is a very good one. We're already talking about it.
Front porch view of the most incredible creature, a rhino!
The Boma Braai that turned strangers into the best night of the week
One evening, Founders Lodge hosted a boma braai at the main lodge. A braai is a South African barbecue, but that undersells it completely. Picture an open-air fire, a long table, and the sky doing what the sky does out there when there are no city lights for miles. The only caveat was the weather didn’t allow us to do it in this beautiful area Founders typically hosts it at. We were moved inside to where breakfast typically was held but it was no less beautiful there.
We shared it with other guests, a couple from Cape Town who escaped to the bush while their kids finished school, a couple from Johannesburg who was test driving a new vehicle and took a holiday to the bush, and a couple from London who was on holiday escaping the historic heat wave in London, and by the end of the night it felt like we'd known them for years. This is the part of travel you can't book in advance. You just put people around a good meal and let it happen.
And the food. We tried kudu and springbok for the first time, both game meats we'd never had, along with a potato dish I keep meaning to track down the recipe for and so much more I'm still thinking about. Rich, smoky, unlike anything at home. My kids, who I promise are normal picky children, ate kudu and springbok at a table full of adults from three different places and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. If your children are hesitant eaters, there's something about a fireside table full of new friends that makes them braver than they are at home.
There was plenty of South African wine to choose from too, which was its own quiet education for the grownups. South Africa makes beautiful wine and doesn't get nearly enough credit for it, and drinking it right where it's made, next to the fire, is the way to learn.
South African Wines at the Boma Braii
The kids had their own discovery. There was a bright neon green drink poured out of a green can, and it turned out to be Sparletta Creme Soda, a Coca-Cola product you basically only find in Southern Africa. It's vanilla and bubblegum and completely, gloriously green, and I loved it as much as they did. If you go, try it once just to say you did. It's a little taste of South African childhood in a can.
Breakfast was its own small pleasure every morning, always at the lodge. There was a continental spread to graze on plus a menu of hot items you could order, so the early risers could pick at fruit and pastries while the rest of us waited on something cooked. There was always hot coffee, and fresh pressed juices and smoothies the kids inhaled. With kids and different appetites and different wake-up times, having all of it was exactly right.
And the room itself. Breakfast was in a space with huge glass doors and windows, and the morning light was perfect, pouring across the table while we planned the day. If you're the kind of traveler who notices light, and after this trip my whole family is, that room alone is worth lingering in.
A cheetah, and the coldest ride of our lives
On our last evening, we finally got one. A cheetah, lying down in the grass, calm as anything, letting us sit with it as the light went. After a week of the leopard playing ghost, there was something perfect about ending on a cat that let us stay a while. Benton got his shots. The rest of us just watched.
Cheetah spotted at Shamwari Game Reserve
That cheetah made Jed's whole trip. His two favorites of the entire week were the cheetah and, of all things, the warthogs. Everyone else was chasing the big cats, and Jed just wanted warthogs. He thought they were the funniest animal he'd ever seen, trotting off through the grass with their tails straight up like little antennas, and he had a point. If you've got young kids, wait and see which animal wins them over. It's rarely the one on the brochure.
The whole week ran a little like that, animals showing you exactly as much as they felt like showing. We found hippos, but only ever eyes and ears and the tops of their backs breaking the water. Never once out on land. My kids kept waiting for one to heave itself up onto the bank and it just never happened, and that became its own running joke by the end.
It was a good haul out to find that cheetah. Founders sits on one side of Shamwari, so reaching the game means covering ground, and by the time we turned back the sun was gone and the temperature had dropped straight through the floor. Nobody tells you how cold the Eastern Cape gets in May once the sun is down and you're open to the air in the back of a vehicle. We were bundled under blankets, kids tucked in against us, teeth chattering, ready to get back to a nice dinner the whole way.
That freezing ride home is one of my favorite memories of the trip. A tip you can actually use: this is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Bring real layers, gloves, and hats for the early mornings and the drives back after dark. The middle of the day is glorious. The edges are bitter, and nobody warns you.
I put everything we actually packed, and what I'd change, in a separate post. If you want the full list before you go, read our safari packing guide here.
Know before you go: planning a malaria-free family safari
A few things I'd tell any family thinking about this:
Fly into Gqeberha, Port Elizabeth. It's a simple hop from Johannesburg or Cape Town, and a short drive to the reserve. This is a big part of why the region works for families. You're not spending a day of your trip in transit.
Choose malaria-free on purpose. The Eastern Cape gives you Big Five country without antimalarials, which matters enormously with young kids. It's the reason we finally felt okay saying yes.
Go small. A lodge like Founders means your children are known, your guide has time for them, and the trip bends to your family. Big camps can't do that the same way. Founders also is big on conservation efforts which was SO cool for our kids to see and learn about.
Ask who your guide will be. The most important person on a family safari is the educator in the vehicle with you. Juvan made our trip. Ask your planner to match you with someone who's great with kids, and if photography is a spark for someone in your family, say so before you arrive.
Bring a camera and let everyone use it. If anyone shows interest, a safari is the place it can turn into a real skill. Give them something to look through and a reason to get up before sunrise.
Use the laundry service, and pack lighter because of it. This was a bigger deal than it sounds. We were on the road for two weeks, and being able to send laundry up each morning and get it back clean and ready to repack changed how we packed for the entire trip. I did a lot of laundry and spent under $200 total on all of it. If you're stringing together multiple stops, this lets you carry half the clothes. Ask about it when you book.
There's a shop at the main lodge if you forget something. They carry cute souvenirs alongside the practical stuff, hats, gloves, jackets, and more. So if you underestimate how cold those morning and evening drives get, and you might, you're not stuck. I'd still pack your own layers first.
Give it enough nights. We had four at Founders and it was the right amount to settle in, get to know the team, and stop watching the clock. Three is the minimum. Don't try to do a safari in a day and a half.
What it cost, because I wish more people shared this. I booked our four nights on a nonrefundable rate, and the total came to $5,408.16 for our family in May. A safari is not a cheap trip and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But we thought it was an excellent value for what we got, and a big part of that was traveling in shoulder season. May rates are gentler than peak, and we stretched our budget even further by cashing in flight points to get there. If you're trying to make a trip like this happen, shoulder season plus points is how we did it. Watch your dates, because the rate really does move with the season.
The part I didn't expect
We went to South Africa to see animals. I came home with a husband who found a real love for photography, three kids who understand the world a little better, and a family that got closer around firepits and freezing game drives and one very good hot chocolate.
The world really is the best classroom. This time it taught us in the Eastern Cape, an hour outside Port Elizabeth, at a little lodge run by people who treated us like family.
Planning a South African safari and want a family that actually knows these lodges, guides, and reserves picking yours? That's exactly what I do at Travel More with Morgan. I can build you the malaria-free, kid-ready version of this trip from the ground up. Start here.
Photo by Chanel, the amazing photographer at Founders Lodge by Mantis!
For more stories from the road, follow along on our Porchlight Passport social media channels!
We paid our own way at Founders Lodge. Every opinion here is our honest, non-sponsored experience.
