Ithala Game Reserve

Not an abundance of wildlife and its too small for anything long term

The KZN parks enjoy some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in SA.

A large park with different game across the very varied habitat.
Scenery is immense with the park dropping from 1450 masl at the mountain tops to 340 m where the Pongola River leaves the park. Habitats include thornveld, grasslands, river valley bush and cliffs.
You can virtually get lost in your own little valleys looking for wildlife. Some roads are sealed, but given the nature of the terrain this does make life easier.
Birding is excellent, the varied habitat and altitude allowing a large variety of species to make the park their home.

Landscape, wildlife and birding is great in this park. The accomodation is fantastic.

disappointing

I travelled many years all over South Africa. I made a one day visit to Ithala game reserve by driving my own 4x4 car.
I was very desappointed except the scenic landscapes and some intresting 4x4 loops.
Wildlife is rather spare; there are no great predators. I drived sometimes long moments without seeing any animal ;when I was lucky I saw mostly isolated ones. Ithala is certainly a lovely place for week-ends in nature as the South african people like but sure not a place for tourist comming to SA for meeting games

Best park we have visited so far.

We love Itala because their are not to much trees near the roads, you can see a long way. The park has mountains and different routes with nice curvy roads (gravel/tar) were Kruger has only the main straight tar road. We saw elefant, giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu, secretaiy bird, warthhog and rhino. The lodges have lots of privacy and are spacious. The restaurant is very good, we ate their once. The supermarket at the park is not that big and low on products, we had to shop outside the park, a 12km drive. We love to braai and because we had a selfcatering lodge the supermarket is a bit of disapointment. The pool is very nice. Would love to stay in this park again!

I have bad memories of Ithala because while camping in their lovely rustic campsite we had a hail storm with stones the size of golf balls which wrote off my car as well, as two caravans belonging to the rangers. The bird life was quite good and there was limited game.

Didn't see a lot of the wildlife.

A Wild Adventure

Living in South Africa, I have seen quite a few of our wild life reserves but few hold more charm than Itala. Although no lion are in the reserve the Elephant and other game make up for it. The drives are extremely interesting and the 4x4 route might be one of the best routes I have ever taken...

The accommodation is with out saying the best I have seen in a national park in South Africa. I think the only limitation is that you could not really spend more than 3 to 4 days at the park. We generally use it as a stop over either going down to Cape Vidal, or returning from Cape Vidal.

The main camp also has really cool hikes starting from beginner to advanced.

A quiet, peaceful and relaxed game reserve setting with superb scenery

We stayed 2 nights, en route from Kruger, via Wakkerstroom onwards to St Lucia. The chalet accommodation and camp was superb. We were unfortunate to be on the edge of a major storm, but nevertheless managed some good game driving with plenty of White Rhino, Giraffe, Zebra, Hartebeest and Wildebeest. We alsotook time to study the smaller animals and reptiles they are often neglected, but are equally enchanting. We met a Ranger who could not have been more knowledgeable about his passion, the Rhino. The scenery was amazing with superb vistas below the large cliff face, and generally it is much more open than some reserves. We had a bush braai at a very well maintained picnic stop in bush. Birdlife was a little disappointing, but that was merely due to the bad weather. I am sure had the sun been shining there would have been plenty of raptors. As with all game reserves in SA beware of the monkeys, they will sneak into the chalets or vehicles and thieve anything. Would love to go back again.