A two-hour flight from Johannesburg and you're in descent to the dirt airstrip of Lion Sands Resort in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa. A well-polished artillery of refurbished Land Rovers plow over the plain as if you're the African King, returning to the Ivory Lodge where freestanding wood and glass suites offer panoramic views of the bushy plain. Between your bubble bath in the egg shaped tub and cooling outdoor shower, you suddenly realize this isn't really camping.
 
Ivory Sand specializes in one-of-a-kind fly-camp experience. Your camping adventure begins on the second night following a dawn dose of safari with up-close leopard, lion and wild dog sightings.  Your guide returns in lat evening to drive you into the horizon as the sun sets and your nerves peak. 30-minutes later you arrive to a swathe of wild wilderness and a lone 500-year old Leadwood Treehouse alit in flickering candles with canopied bed under an open sky. Then the driver leaves. The following hours of darkness offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience of wildness shrieks, hippo cries and lion roars as you watch and hopefully sleep the night away in the true African bush. 

The Room:

The lodge features an upscale design palette that feels like an African home-away-from home complete with oversize sectionals and large living area that let in the wild through large panes of glass. Bathrooms flow through indoor/outdoor architecture with floating bathtub and equally memorable bubble bath views. Most rooms feature their own private plunge pool, in addition to a larger resort pool in the main lobby.