Addo Elephant National Park

Worst service at Addo Elephant Park

We arrived with no water at our accomodation and still had no water when we checked out. The park did not even have the decency to inform us of the problem let alone deliver a bucket of water for toilet use. We ended up having to go with bottles to reception to fill up so we could flush our toilet and at least wash our faces and brush our teeth last night and this morning.
This is disgusting for the amount you pay to stay in the park.
We won't be using Addo again.

Addo Elephant Park full of lions.

Addo Elephant park is a beautiful park that have a nice nature view plus a nice wildlife scene. When I been in the park I thought I will come and because it's called "Elephant park" I will see a lot of elephants but actually my all time there I saw only two Elephants, but I saw a massive amount of lions.

When we drove in the park in the beginning we didn't see much animals or birds but then after couple of kilometres we saw couple of cars gathering in one place, we got there slowly and what we saw was one of the most beautiful scenes I ever saw, A lion mom I guess and her two grown old cabs (In a size of grown male but acting young) Playing with each other like they practising a fight; Every couple of minuets also the mom joined them and rested. after about half an hour we kept driving and we saw another male lion alone walking and after another short drive another group of lions sitting beside a tree.

The weather in Addo was clear and the road is very comfortable to drive on your own without 4X4.

Maybe I didn't see a lot of Elephants like I thought I would see, but in less then one day I saw a lot of Lions.

Addo elephant Park is really worth a visit

We spent two nights in Addo, sleeping at the Nyathi rest camp. This accommodation is beautifully positioned in that it is really very remote (no wifi or cellphone signal - sometimes a blessing....). There is a limited amount of game to see at the camp but the scenery and peace make up for this. The accommodation is very nicely appointed and the kitchen has pretty much everything one could want (only two of every piece of crockery and cutlery - which is a bit limiting). Parks people at the camp were friendly and attentive.
We really enjoyed the park, the lists of animals that one can see does not compare with Kruger BUT this does not mean that the game viewing was not great. We saw many, many elephant. So anyone wanting a close encounter of the elephant kind - this is the place to go.
I have never seen quite so many Kudu, there are quite literally herds of Kudu - usually one encounters a solitary Kudu half obscured by a bush - not in Addo, they are as plentiful as Impala are in Kruger - well not quite but one started to think that way. The bush pigs are very plentiful. We also saw lots of zebra.
The waterholes are the places to go to, easy viewing but one has to pick your time - as is the case at any waterhole - the animals are there and then they are gone.
We are not big "birders" but we saw some nice birds and the cherry was the secretary bird - wonderful.
The roads have been pretty well maintained and the restaurant and shops (some very nice up market curios - similar to what we have seen in the airport at ORT) are in pretty good shape. Overall we were impressed.
Addo clearly has some problems with regards to over grazing in some area and while one could be critical I would rather see it as a work in progress - especially when one considers the state of some other parks in South Africa/Africa.

Did not see that much game and park very dry

Elephants make the park

Huts okay. A little inconvenient that cooking and washing up facilities not on premises. A clean-up needs to be undertaken around the vegetation as quite a bit of litter lying around

Great game viewing. Very poor food at main restaurant.

Rich in wildlife. Good viewing of elephants and plenty of other game.

The restaurant was a disappointment with Lack luster service and food quality poor.

Addo or Addon’t ?

After several trips to Kruger, Etosha and the KTP, I decided to give Addo a go.
I have to be honest, it was a disappointment . A small park with little real bush vibe due to the da t that you can see the surrounding farms, towns and wind farms from large parts of the park.
The vegetation isn’t the most attractive either, and the large open areas looked more like fields, giving a “safari park” feel.
There is no doubt that the elephant encounters are the highlight, but a day trip is probably enough, with maybe a night at the excellent Addo main camp to give the best chance of an early morning lion encounter.
But it’s not Kruger, a totally different experience and the 30 minute drive and access to boat trips are probably the only reason for choosing it.

I prebooked alot of my SA trip and felt Addo was the hardest place to book. Their accommodation is booked separately from the game drives and restaurant bookings so nothing seems straight forward, linked or easy. It took a total of over 20 emails to book anything, information on the website is wrong, email addresses on the website bounce back - i honestly don't know how they're so busy. I was expecting great things since it is the second biggest park in SA, both of the Addo accommodation we stayed in were lovely (better than expected) altho the plunge pool at our nyathi rest camp booking was very dirty so I sadly didn't use it at all. We did two guided game drives that did end up enabling us to see animals we hadn't seen at other reserves but the park is so big and the bush so dense that its hard to actually see anything unless you happen to be lucky and find the animal crossing the road. We didn't do a self drive, drive which we regret but as we stayed in the Nyathi rest camp it ment we were locked out of the park and made us feel like we couldn't explore as much as we would have wanted. The reception is a frustrating place were staff definitely take their time processing things. Paying for game drives is unorganised and could definitely be dealt with better. All in all i'm glad i got to see some animals as if i hadnt it would have been a waste. I'm not sure i would recommend Addo - maybe if your in the area or driving passed and have a few hours or a day to kill then definitely go but if pre booking i hope its a better experience than i had.

Lots of elephants! Otherwise there was not so much on offer for us. Still worth a visit though.

ADDO is a massive National Park with lots of wildlife, in addition to the large number of elephants. We had a wonderful day there - the highlight was seeing a family of elephants with 2 young cubs learning to feed. All at close quarters, fabulous.