Monarto Safari Resort review: Africa comes to South Australia in luxury
It’s been years in the making and opened just last month. Brad Crouch gets a taste of Africa right here in South Australia, and has a couple of important tips for those considering following suit.
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Looking over the pool I have a slightly goofy grin on my face as an even goofier thought pops into my head: “Horsies in pyjamas.”
The luxurious new Monarto Safari Resort is a world class experience, from its Kutjera Restaurant to the Marula Day Spa, from the earthy decor with plenty of natural wood and stone textures to the spacious rooms.
However, it also manages to trigger something in short supply – an innocent childlike wonder in even the most jaded traveller while gazing from the pool deck to the waterhole just beyond the fence line.
There, at first glance on our arrival, are several zebras. Or as my parents described them to me as a child looking at books, and as I called them to my own children, “horsies in pyjamas”.
The wonder increases as I take in this splendid vision of Africa less than an hour down the freeway from Adelaide and realise ostrich, eland, nyala and blackbuck also are gathering for an afternoon drink.
In the distance one, then several, giraffes languidly appear from disguise in the tree line and majestically stroll over the plain to within metres of the fence separating us from the 550ha Wild Africa precinct.
This is the largest open range African safari experience outside Africa, part of the 1500ha Monarto Safari Park, a zoo so big it could fit all other Australian zoos in it combined. So this is far more than a hotel stay – it is a wild experience.
Journey Beyond operates the 78 rooms-and-suites hotel as part of its portfolio of holiday experiences like The Ghan.
The resort is adjacent to, but separate from, Monarto Safari Park.
At just three storeys, the hotel blends fairly well into the landscape with sympathetic colours and materials.
Savannah rooms look out from the front of the hotel, the higher priced Waterhole rooms overlook the waterhole, and there are views from just about everywhere – the main stairwell, hallways, even the day spa’s sauna has a window to spy passing wildlife. There are accessible rooms and adjoining family rooms, with the expected mod cons from tea and coffee facilities to wide-screen TVs.
Savannah rooms start from $285 but if splashing out for an occasion the second floor of the Waterhole side has the best balcony views with wildlife most active around dawn and dusk.
The two bars, restaurant and pool deck with two pools all run along the ground floor of the waterhole side, giving commanding views – every so often there was a flutter of excitement as people having a drink or a meal would grab cameras and rush outside for photos as wildlife came and went.
Guests tend to form a natural bond. Most will have dinner at the restaurant as there are few alternatives, and the conversation flows easily about the experiences of the day.
The actual Monarto Safari Park, with a separate entrance to the resort a short drive away, has a hop-on hop-off bus tour taking in exotic and Australian wildlife from rhinos and the growing elephant herd to lemurs and meerkats.
Carnivores such as lions, hyenas and African painted dogs are kept in open plains with – understandably – strict security fencing.
However, exclusive to guests at the resort are dawn ($135 an adult) and sunset ($165 an adult) safari trips in two 26-seat all terrain vehicles in the Wild Africa precinct.
The two-hour dawn safari was superb as animals stirred into life. There was no need for binoculars as we came across a dazzle of zebras frolicking, a tower of giraffes feeding, a crash of three southern white rhinos grazing, all so close to the track the guide had to stop to give way.
A female cheetah gave a glimpse of her incredible speed patrolling one fence, where we later learned a herd of Barbary sheep were secure on the other side.
Another cheetah sat queen-like on a mound, mere metres from our truck, letting out a series of “meow” like sounds, presumably to her more active colleague.
Scimitar oryx with their swordlike horns came and went, effortlessly melting into the camouflage of tree lines, scrub or tall grasses.
This is far more than a box-ticking exercise – it’s seeing wild behaviour, social groups, even species interactions. And a male ostrich doing a full courtship display dance for a female before, well, doing what comes naturally.
The resort’s tour does not take in the lions’ compound, but it is close enough that on the first night’s stay I heard the distant roar of a dominant male.
More goofy thoughts popped into my head, this time set to music: “A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh … in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight” – but not just yet.
This resort has appeal to demographics from families with excited children to those whose best travelling days to Africa may be behind them, though there is no nightclub or casino for the party crowd.
An unforgettable two-night stay might go like this: Check in at 3pm to either go on the sunset safari or watch the dusk action at the nearby waterhole and surrounding plains with a drink before dinner.
Get up early for the dawn safari, regroup at the hotel, then spend the day at Monarto Safari Park including lunch at its cafe before returning to the resort and perhaps indulging in a spa treatment before pre-dinner drinks watching the sunset parade to the waterhole.
Enjoy a relaxed final morning’s leisurely breakfast before checking out.
During our final morning’s bacon and eggs, a procession of giraffes wandered very close to the fence line, tailed by an ostrich, several eland – and a few horsies in pyjamas.
It was a sublime way to round off an experience that felt more like a week’s overseas holiday without the flights than a two-night local getaway.
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