Bronwyn Varty-Laburn has spent years doing something increasingly rare in the world of luxury travel: resisting the impulse to add, and instead learning how to refine. As Creative Director and Brand Architect of Londolozi, the legendary South African game reserve her family has stewarded for generations, she has quietly guided one of Africa’s most iconic destinations toward something far deeper than safari. Under her stewardship, Londolozi has become less concerned with spectacle and more devoted to reconnection: with wilderness, with community, and with oneself.
We sat down with Bronwyn to discuss the philosophy behind Londolozi, the beauty of building something that breathes with the land around it, and why true luxury may ultimately lie in our ability to reconnect with ourselves.
What does Londolozi mean to you, and how have you seen it evolve over the years?
Londolozi is home, but it is also something far less tangible than that. It is a feeling, a rhythm, a way of seeing the world. I have watched it evolve from a place where people come to experience safari into one that invites guests to remember their relationship with the wilderness.
When it comes to sustainability, what are your main goals, and how do you ensure they become a reality?
For us, sustainability is less about ticking boxes and more about relationships. Of course, there is science behind it: impact reporting, alignment with global SDG goals, and systems designed around best practice. But ultimately, sustainability lives in what we call the “heartware,” the overall health of the ecosystem surrounding the business. We are constantly asking ourselves: are we giving back as much as we are taking? Are we in balance with the land, the wildlife, and the people who make up the Londolozi family?
There are structures and systems supporting that work, but the deeper work is cultural. It is rooted in respect, care, and responsibility. It lives in the way people think, the way they care for one another, and the way they take ownership of something larger than themselves. That is when sustainability becomes real because it becomes lived.
How does Londolozi embody your core beliefs, and how do those beliefs shape the experience itself?
I have always believed that we are not separate from nature; we have simply forgotten how to be in relationship with it. Londolozi, in its own way, creates space for that remembering. It is there in the stillness of an early morning game drive, or in the way a guest begins to slow down without even realizing it. It is not something we force. It is something we protect and allow room for. I often refer to it as “the old new ways.”
How do you embody a life devoted to transformation, consciousness, and interconnectedness?
I am not sure it is something you ever fully arrive at. In my own journey, it feels constantly evolving, a daily practice of paying attention, remaining open, and allowing yourself to be changed by what you experience. Living close to nature helps. The wilderness has a way of keeping you honest. It returns you, again and again, to what is real and to what truly matters. And perhaps that is the work itself: continuing to return to that place of connection.