Maliba Lodge, Lesotho – a romantic and honeymoon getaway

By Roxanne Reid
Lesotho is an inspiring destination full of soaring mountains and rushing waterfalls. I love it for its scenery and people, its fascinating history (think Moshoeshoe’s visionary leadership) and its Basotho culture (think ponies, blankets and conical hats). Now there’s another reason: a romantic and honeymoon getaway at Maliba Lodge, Lesotho.

​If Lesotho is the Kingdom in the Sky, then Maliba Lodge is a Destination in the Sky because it snuggles among the mountains of the Ts’ehlanyane National Park in the north of the country, where altitudes reach over 3000m. Maliba Mountain Lodge is the only five-star lodge in Lesotho, and the sister three-star self-catering Maliba River Lodge just down the road is also inside the park.

When you think about Lesotho accommodation or lodges in Lesotho, you may not realise that Maliba Mountain Lodge presents a wonderful opportunity for honeymooners and anyone hankering after a romantic getaway from South Africa, especially from Gauteng or the Free State. Clarens – a popular romantic destination in its own right – is just 30km from the Lesotho border at Caledonspoort, and from the border to Maliba took us only 45 minutes to drive. Maliba is 4.5 hours away from Johannesburg.

So read on, all you romantics, and find out why you should visit.

To get to Maliba via Caledonspoort and Butha Buthe, you’ll drive through village after sprawling village. Once you enter the gate into the Ts’ehlanyane National Park, though, it’s all pristine and unspoilt nature where you can drench your senses in mountain views and look forward to activities like pony trekking, hiking, birding and relaxing.

The main area
Walk across a bridge over a pool to reach the lodge’s main reception areas, where you’ll find two comfy lounges, a secret balcony upstairs, tables set under umbrellas on the patio for breakfast and lunch, a walkway to a wooden deck with a fire pit that’s perfect for sundowners with a view. 

Throw in a few stone sculptures, some truly creative wooden sculptures, highly polished tables made of tree trunks and paintings of Basotho scenes, and you have a setting fit for a queen. ​

The mountain chalets
But perhaps the most beautiful part of the lodge is your mountain chalet. Styled on the traditional Basotho hut – a rondavel of stone walls with a thatched roof – it has been reinvented and given a modern twist with a dressed stone wall inside, a thatch roof that isn’t perfectly circular and conical but gently wavy to echo the mountains beyond.

​You’ll find two cosy armchairs around a fireplace stacked with wood for cold winters’ nights. Even when we visited in November, the air was cool at this altitude. Built-in couches, a romantic four-poster bed, two double glass doors to the patio with its sun loungers, and carved double doors to the bathroom all add to its distinctive style. 

​From the patio you can walk down wooden steps to a private deck below the chalet for a wraparound view of grassed hills, che-che trees and the river below. Reed screens between the huts give privacy, as if they’re separate homesteads – a touch that’s especially appealing to anyone looking for an exclusive romantic getaway or honeymoon destination. 

Note: I was a guest of Maliba Mountain Lodge for two nights, but was given free rein to write what I chose. I paid for all travel costs, meals and drinks.

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