I have been lobbying B to stay here since it first opened in 2014 but he’s always said no because the cost is….to be blunt….totally insane. He finally agreed given we have had to cancel all our other travel this year and I have had some extra unexpected income recently which paid for half of it.
Jamala Wildlife Lodge is based at Canberra Zoo. They have a variety of accomodation but I’ve always wanted to stay in a “jungle bungalow” which is approx $2000 a night. I told you….the pricing is totally bonkers! Their website says “The Jungle Bungalows are luxurious individual suites adjoining a variety of enclosures throughout the property. A glass wall is all that will separate you from a pride of lions, cheetahs, tiger or a Malayan sun bear! Regardless of whether you are relaxing in your lounge area, resting in bed or taking a leisurely bath, you will only be a heartbeat away from these amazing creatures. All rooms feature king beds, bath robes, indulgent bath tubs, optional climate control, complimentary wireless internet, music system with MP3 input, television with complimentary Foxtel and premium TV.”
So, we booked in for a night during the September school holidays. They sent us a lot of information beforehand and were very responsive to queries. The schedules they use at the moment are slightly adjusted due to covid 19 but this was our pre-prepared schedule! We also added two extra experiences to this – giraffe encounter and white lion feeding – which were booked in on day 1.
We arrived at 1pm to check in and were provided with afternoon tea at the Ushaka Lodge which was delicious. The lodge has a beautiful view over the local land and there were also some lemurs just….hanging out. Jamala provide a self guided tour for the afternoon session but we headed off on our own tour as there was giraffe feeding to be done! We fed Shabu the male giraffe and also got to meet his lady friend and 1 year old calf.
After the giraffe feeding, we met the zoo staff at one of the gazebos and collected our bungalow keys. For most people this meant from 3-7pm they hang out in their bungalow with their animals. We took a brief detour on the way back to the bungalow to feed Jake the white lion, and meet his sister Mishka.
After feeding Jake the very hungry (and demanding!) white lion with his keeper Ryan – the zoo owners son – we headed to Jungle Bungalow 5 with Mya and Melita the toddler tiger twins! I was a teeny, tiny bit excited when we walked in to this….hi there 2 year old 120kg tiger friend!!
We settled in with a bubble bath, watching tigers wrestle/nap and some champagne to tide us over until dinner. Just before 7pm we were collected and taken to the rainforest cave for dinner alongside the white lions and hyenas. The dinner and drinks were all included and the food was mostly very good – B got unlucky with a not so great steak but mine was delicious – and the paired drink options were all good quality. I haven’t been so full in ages!
After dinner, they drive you back to hang out and watch your animal friends some more before you tuck in for bed next to them!
We then woke up to sleepy tigers quite early (6:30am!) and some small pastries before heading off on an animal tour and feeding experience. We got to see dingos howl, monkeys use tools, lemurs wrestle for snacks and learn about how they are combating the rhino horn trade.
After the tour, we had breakfast (more delicious food in the rainbow cave) followed by another 90 mins of hanging out with our tiger friends and people watching because this time…we could see all the people looking into the enclosure from the viewing spots! they had privacy barriers up from 3pm the day before but they do warn you they take them down in the morning.
Verdict
A few people on Facebook asked me “was it worth the money?”. I think the answer to this has a few parts. First of all, there are not many (f any) places with this level of experience and accomodation in Australia. So choices are limited. It’s also in very high demand, usually getting in during school holidays is pretty dang hard to do! There is also the aspect here of this particular facility being wholly privately owned and funded and the work they do is amazing….we feel it’s worth paying the premium to support such a dedicated organisation and staff.
Secondly, it’s definitely not an every day thing. We had 2 overseas trips planned this year and haven’t gone on either which is how I was able to convince B to even consider this amount for one night lol. So when asking was it worth it, B said he felt it was a fantastic one-off experience that was worth doing but not something we would repeat.
Finally, we chose to go top tier with the experience on advice from others. There are rooms at the lodge for approximately $1200 a night and the giraffe treehouse is $1500 a night. The advice we had from people who had stayed in these rooms was if you’re only doing it once….go all out. Geez, I am glad we listened!
Mel's Travel Blog 