MalaMala Tengile Collection: Understanding The Brand

If you booked Tengile River Lodge or Kirkman’s Kamp in the last few years, you booked &Beyond – that glorious company that loves me so much. Well, sad news, said no one, as &Beyond were given the boot. On 1 March 2026, both went back to the family who own the land, the Saads, and a month later the whole thing relaunched as the Tengile MalaMala Collection.

So that’s two reserves — Tengile, inside the Sabi Sand, and MalaMala next door — now sitting under one name. Six properties between them, 27km of the Sand River and an unfenced boundary to Kruger. What makes this article actually useful is explaining how it now works, as it’s all rather confusing. Go on their website, you might think, but if you do, it becomes even less clear, like it was written by the Zodiac Killer for a poetry competition.

Camps and lodges

First up, let’s take a look at the properties. Broadly speaking, a camp is historically tented, smaller and more rustic, and a lodge is larger, more luxurious and not awful. For the record there’s MalaMala Camp and Sable Camp on MalaMala and Kirkman’s Kamp, which is on the hill behind Tengile. That’s the last time I speak about camps; I swear I won’t cramp your style ever again.

The ones you’ll actually end up in are Tengile River Lodge (nine contemporary suites, plunge pools, river views), Rattray’s (eight suites, antiques, properly private) and Khensani River Lodge, which opens on 20 December 2026 with nine standalone units.

Land rules

The boundary is where you need a map to make sense of it.  Tengile and Kirkman’s can reach a small portion of MalaMala.  Lion Sands can traverse into Tengile, but not MalaMala, and Tengile can traverse into Lion Sands. And no one but MalaMala guests has access to the majority of MalaMala. Clear?  Good.

Both MalaMala and Londolozi (which is literally next door) run the same model.  They both have a range of properties on the same reserve, at wildly different price points, and they all share the same land and game viewing. That means the cheap bastards and sexy rich people see the same animals.  What you’re paying for is the room, the food, the service, facilities and privacy at camp. What you are not buying is a better leopard, as much as I will keep demanding one.

You can take this two ways. Some people don’t mind. Others, having paid several times what the family in the next vehicle paid, quietly fantasise about annihilating everyone and raining down a righteous vengeance the world has never seen. If you’re in the second camp, that’s a conversation for your therapist, not your travel agent. Not that I’ve worked out which camp I’m in. One for my next session.

Changes

In terms of the overall changes, at this stage, very little. There’s obviously a focus on merging standards and improving the total experience. And with &Beyond gone, that standardisation and ability to focus on the entire guest experience, completely seamlessly, all under a family-owned business. MalaMala has a reputation as one of the great game-viewing properties in Africa, which is the kind of claim I live to destroy. Sadly, they were correct and it was actually bloody brilliant.  So now, it comes onto the lodge and delivering something to match it.

Enter Khensani.

This is going to be the flagship on MalaMala. Whilst over at Rattray’s Lodge (side note: what a terrible name), I was given a hard-hat tour. It’s not opening until December, so I had to use this thing called “imagination” to really picture the finished article, but there was enough for me to understand that this is going to be an exceptional property, in a great location, on a brilliant concession. I imagine Singita and Londolozi are cacking their pants around about now.

Maybe even their own property, Tengile River Lodge, too. Khensani is higher-end, with access to more land, and I’d expect it to cannibalise some of Tengile’s business. I’m interested how they pair the two, because the lodges are too close to each other to warrant a combo stay for the mass majority of people. Still, when two of your lodges are going to be the best in South Africa, that’s not a bad place to find yourself.

If they can get the service and food at a high level (and a lot of ex-Singita people have moved), this might be the place to go in Greater Kruger. MalaMala has suffered from the lodges looking, what we experts call, a bit shit. All the negativity has been about the lodges, and that perception is going to change very quickly with this opening. Londolozi and Singita’s reign as Sabi Sand supreme is coming to an end.