African Hills Safari Lodge & Spa — a malaria-free Big Five safari in the Magaliesberg, less than an hour from Lanseria Airport and around ninety minutes from O.R. Tambo International, no charter flight required.
- July 29, 2026
- African Hills Media Team
- Blog
You’ve already done the hard part. Eleven hours from London, fifteen from New York, the long-haul flight that finally touches down at O.R. Tambo or Lanseria. The last thing you want now is a connecting flight, a charter plane, or a night in a city hotel before the safari even starts. So here’s where this trip starts to feel slightly complicated that it needs to be. Let’s uncomplicate it for you.
African Hills Safari Lodge & Spa sits in the Magaliesberg, on the malaria-free Plumari Private Reserve, within easy striking distance of both of Johannesburg’s airports. No internal flight, no puddle-jumper, no second day of your holiday lost to getting there. Let’s get you here.
Getting Here: Closer Than You Think
This is the part international guests are always surprised by. From touchdown to Big Five country:
- Lanseria Airport (HLA): under an hour by road.
- O.R. Tambo International (JNB): around ninety minutes by road.
- An airport shuttle can be arranged in advance, so you don't even need to rent a car.
- Bonus stop on the way: Maropeng and the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site sits roughly half an hour from the lodge, easy to fold into your first or last day.
Most malaria-free Big Five reserves in southern Africa ask you for a four-to-six-hour drive, or a small charter flight, before you so much as see an elephant. African Hills doesn’t. And once you know how easy the getting-here part is, let’s unpack what you’ve actually arrived into.
What Malaria-Free Really Means for Your Trip
A lot of South Africa’s best-known safari country sits inside malaria zones, the kind of detail that’s easy to miss on a mood board and impossible to miss once your travel clinic hands you the prescription. Booking a malaria-free safari changes that conversation before you’ve even packed:
- No antimalarials, and no pre-trip travel clinic appointment to fit into an already packed departure week.
- No side effects to plan game drives around.
- It's safe for the people a long-haul trip is hardest on: young children, grandparents, anyone pregnant, the relative who's nervous about Africa in general.
- One less thing on the international traveller's checklist that already includes visas, vaccinations and adapters.
Let’s talk about what makes this particular stretch of malaria-free bush worth crossing the world for.
The Plumari Story
African Hills sits within the 6,800-hectare Plumari Private Reserve, bushveld that has been rebuilt rather than simply preserved. Ancient mountains fold into valleys older than the Cradle of Humankind next door, and the bush feels untouched and unhurried, exactly the Africa you pictured before you booked the flight.
It’s also a story with people in it: the reserve’s recovery and the upliftment of surrounding communities move forward together, not as separate projects. Ongoing conservation work continues to shape the land, with recent ecological observations and habitat regeneration adding to the evolving story of the reserve.
Once you know the land, let’s unpack what there actually is to do on it.
More Than Game Drives
Yes, there are game drives, including the late-afternoon kind that end with a sundowner and a view worth the jet lag. But African Hills is built for more than the obvious. Get close enough to touch, feed or walk alongside elephants. Hike out to thousand-year-old San rock engravings, or spend a quieter afternoon in the on-site history museum.
Then let the spa finish what the bush started: a couples’ treatment room, an outdoor double shower, and a steam room built for two.
After days like that, let’s talk about where you’ll actually rest your head.
Rooms for However You're Travelling
Whether it’s a honeymoon, a multigenerational family trip, or a long-overdue reunion, there’s a room shaped for it: standard and deluxe rooms, a suite, and garden cottages and units with extra space for families travelling together. Every option comes with the same mountain view and the same team looking after you, hand-picked wines and a kitchen that takes the “spa” half of the name seriously.
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The flight was always going to be the longest part of this trip. Everything after it is the easy part. Let’s get you here.
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Ready to swap a long-haul flight for a malaria-free Big Five escape, minutes from Lanseria and O.R. Tambo? Let’s plan together — browse our rooms, rates and airport transfer options at africanhillslodge.co.za