Offering 'Lesotho in a nutshell', Malealea is a deserving poster child for the mountain kingdom. Every sunset, village choirs and bands perform at the mountaintop lodge. Many of the activities are run in partnership with the community, and a proportion of tourist revenue and donations goes directly to supporting local projects. The views, meanwhile, are stupendous.
Accommodation ranges from campsites and twin ‘forest’ (backpacker) huts in a pretty wooded setting away from the lodge to simple, cosy en-suite rooms and rondavels (round huts with a conical roof). A sense of history pervades the site, which began life in 1905 as a trading post, established by teacher, diamond miner and soldier Mervyn Smith. From 1986 the Jones family ran the store before transforming it into accommodation and integrating it with the surrounding community.
Malealea also offers a bar, hearty meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner M95/120/175), self-catering facilities and a shop with basic goods. There are now intermittent wi-fi and mobile-phone signals at the lodge, and the whole place runs on solar power. Bring your own water containers, as the lodge is moving away from plastic bottle usage.
September to December are the busy months.