Addo Elephant National Park

A true African panorama - bush, sky and amazing animals, combined with options to suit every budget

I am a regular visitor to Addo National Elephant Park. Every time I go, I see something different. Elephant, antelope, meerkats, birds, tortoises, zebra etc. Highly enjoyable, and driving through yourself gives you an opportunity to stop and appreciate the things that you choose. Guided tours on a safari vehicle can be purchased, guaranteeing sighting of elephants. Chalets and camping facilities are available, and the shop/restaurant cater for all needs from tourist gifts to clothing, food and drink. There is an on-site petrol station too, so fill up your tank before driving through and enjoying the spectacular wide open spaces, the natural bush habitat and the magnificent animals that live there.

More elephants than you can shake a stick at!

This is a very popular park and it shows with the amount of people you will see there. There isn't a place where you will think you are in the middle of nowhere, the roads are mainly paved and you are never very far from another car.
There is a notice board near the main shop that lists the animal sightings for the day so it allows you to plan out your trip, Addo is enormous so make sure you take a whole day to view of all (if not more).
We drove for a while only seeing a couple of animals, then a single male elephant stode into view. We followed him until he turned a corner and we saw a whole herd of the magnificent beasts. This memory will stay with me forever. We found several other herds throughout the day each as amazing as the other.
This is an amazing park and there are plenty of other animals to see (lions, zebras, antelope to name but a few). If you like elephants then you will love this park.

A day in Addo Elephant Park

Living in Port-Elizabeth, we decided as a family to go spend a day in the park. The drive was quite longer than initially expected as we took the freeway and got from the Southern entrance. The initial irritation of being a bit lost was quickly gone when we got into the park itself. The drive was amazing as you really feel as if in another world from the city setting. There are different areas for bird viewing. From the road, we were lucky to have a beautiful view of the elephants and zebras. We had a glimpse of lions in the distant. But the beauty of the place was mainly due in our eyes by the magnificent sight of elephants playing, mothers protecting their offspring.

Amazing experience

After starting our South Africa trip in Cape Town, Addo Elephant National Park was the first self drive safari we did. It was an awesome experience. We had the possibility to get realy close to giant elephant. But there is a lot more to see. We didn't see any rhino, lion or leopard, but we did see a lot of warthog, zebra's, buffalo, kudu and a lot more. It's a giant park, but it is not busy at all. This gave us the real safari feeling.

We only had about three hours there as part of a tour of the Eastern Cape, so not much time to see many animals. We did see two herds of elephants drinking at the dam which was an amazing sight to see.

A great way to spend a day in Africa

We have been fortunate to visit many Safari Park in both South Africa and across South Africa, and our day visit to Addo Elephant Park did not disappoint. Being short of time we could only spare the day for our visit, but it proved to be a great day safari location, easily accessible from Port Elizabeth and Port Alfred. We started our visit early in the morning at the Southern entrance to the park which meant there was far fewer cars on the road than the areas up around the main cam. We were spoilt with magnificient sightings of both Elephant and Buffalo herds. We didn't see any of the big cats, but others in the area did our timing was just a little off.

The bush in many places in Addo is very thick which can make spotting game a bit challenging at times. As we only visited for the day I can not comment on accommodation, however we did visit the restaurant at the main camp and were very impressed by the meal. Everything from arriving, purchasing our day pass and moving around the park worked efficiently and the park appears to be very well run. We will certainly visit again if we are lucky enough to find ourselves in this part of the world again.

The most underrated park in South Africa - an all round experience of a game park at it's best

I visited Addo twice - the second time was even more enjoyable than the first. There is an abundance of wildlife, especially large herds of elephants. Twice we encountered three different groups - more then 20 per group - in the same area. What a sight! The roads are excellent, even for the smallest cars. The accommodation facilities are well looked after and very clean and cater for a large variety of liking. There is a restaurant for them that don't want to do self-catering. We couldn't wait to get up early morning to do a game drive and came in last every evening. Addo Elephant National Park is a photographers dream because you are so close to the wildlife.

Iti s a nice park, but compared to others this would not be my first choice.

Very nice scenery, a lot of wildlife

Very nice scenery, a lot of wildlife, good guides, knowledge of the guide, nice people

Well worth two nights and use of the game drive to find way around.

We stayed at the main camp for two nights to get a whole day of self drive. Upon arrival we checked in ate at the excellent restaurant then booked an evening game drive. This gave me an idea of driving around. On day two we self drove all day, well after exploring the camp with my camera. For lunch we stopped at Jacks picnic site, which was well equipped. Self drive was a good idea as I could focus on what I wanted to photograph, not just seeing the Big Five. Loved the idea of the stop and get out spots, got some really good photos. All the staff were really helpful. Intend to go back and hopefully stay for more than two nights, maybe even do a 4x4 tour. Only down side was the accommodation was not warm in the evening this time of year, but other than that really pleased with the accommodation and the view, we overlooked the park right next to the fence.