Safari Holiday Lets You Forget the BlackBerry

LOS ANGELES (TheStreet) -- It's the chicest holiday experience you'll ever have, and likely the farthest away, as you make your way to the South African city of Johannesburg and onto a 12-seat puddle jumper that connects high-rise civilization to the sub-Saharan bush.

The pilot operates the sky taxi with numerous stops at adjacent safari camps before descending like Santa's sleigh into Singita Sabi Sands. A flurry of attendants rushes your bags off the plane as a mini-entourage of guides and trekkers welcomes you for the holidays to Singita, widely touted as the world's most luxurious safari experience.

The lobby of Singita Boulders is a design wonder.

Settling into Africa: Open throughout the year, there is something magical about a holiday safari. As a guide welcomes you to Singita in your own super-outfitted Land Rover, the infinite African plain tempers a teenager's -- and even your -- Apple(AAPL Quote) iPhone- and Research in Motion(RIMM Quote) BlackBerry-addicted mind. The guides talk of mealtimes and wake-up calls, but all you can think about is photographing that leopard, cheetah or lion on the kill that will make you the envy of your own Facebook and Twitter nation.

Hang your stockings: And there it is, Singita Boulders Lodge, an architectural palace of canopied and stone-encrusted architecture built around open walls free of windows or any other barrier that would separate your eyes from wild and infinite Africa. Singita's main lodge is a mix of old-and-new minimalist sofas and high-back chairs never more than an arm's length from a rhino skull (found in a lakebed) or a piece of petrified wood. The staff patters about with smiles, doting with pitchers of cucumber water and silver trays of fruit that can feel a bit much to those unaccustomed to full-time help. The fireplace crackles despite the muggy summer temperatures. But it's not the furniture or fireplace or staff that makes the lobby so impressive, but the 180-degree views of the bush horizon dotted with an elephant herd of at least 50 and possibly wild unknown animals lurking behind every tree and shrub.