Kruger National Park

Kruger offers excellent game viewing from your own (rental) vehicle.

We were in Kruger for three nights staying in a riverside bungalow in Skukuza Camp. The AC was well able to cure the 40+ degree heat upon our return at the end of each day. The beds were comfortable and the plumbing worked. Cooking facilities (not used by us) and refrigerator were outside. The nearby Cattle Baron restaurant serves good food but the one time we ordered red wine it was absurdly warm...stick to beer.

We were on a private birding trip organized by Rockjumper Birding Tours with our guide Greg de Klerk. Prior to joining Rockjumper, Greg had 13 years experience guiding in the Kruger area so we had a great advantage over first-timers driving themselves around. We saw almost all the mammals that one could expect to see and lots of birds too. I was very impressed at how close we were able to view the mammals; make sure you have a short to medium length lens because very long lenses suitable for birds will very often be too long for mammals.

Amazing place, unique in the world. It's so huge, so beautifull !! You can spend weeks in it without using the same tracks twice. So many crazy animals.
The facts that you can drive you car yyourself changes everything. landscapes are amazing too. For me it's THE place to gove for safari.

All of the Big 5 in one day!

As far as viewing wild game, few places come close to Kruger. From the minute we entered the park we began to see game, and it continued for the next several days. It was amazing. The campsites are clean and well appointed, the guides are professional and knowledgeable. The scenery is beautiful. Our group went in November and the weather was quite warm and was lovely. There wasnt much of a true "bush" vibe as Kruger accommodates a lot of tourists, but it was still quite lovely and didnt really detract much from the overall aesthetic.

Amazing mammal and bird obersvations, an absolutely once in a lifetime place to visit!

The scenery at Kruger is dry and vast. It's also very hot when I was there in November. Most all the observations of birds and mammals is done from inside a vehicle driving around on the roads. The few days I spent in the park birding and photographing mammals was an absolute highlight of all my travels. The accommodations were nice, and the food was great.

How lucky I am to have experienced this.

Four of us visited Mpumalanga in November 2015 and stayed at Sabie River Sun in Hazyview. We were about 12 miles from Phabeni the nearest gate for Kruger NP. The completion of the forms, vehicle search and paying entry fees is a bit slow.
The main roads in the park and tarmac and ones we traveled are well maintained. The other roads are dirt but are good although in a small car could be tricky especially in wet weather. We were there in the rainy season but chose not to go to the park when the weather forcast was bad.
There is wildlife everywhere but you have to look for it. Driving slowly is the best bet and when you see something pull to the side of the road. The next vehicle along is likely to stop and ask what you are watching, unless it is obvious - elephant, giraffe, rhino!
Lots of people seem only to be interested in the big 5 and the larger animals but, in my opinion, you will be missing a great deal. I was pleased to have spotted a dung beetle rolling his dung and a tortoise. There are also lots of birds and some with amazing plumage but again you have to look for them. We did not see and lions or cheetahs when we visited which was disappointing until you consider what we did see.
Watch when you see elephants - they sometimes decide that you are too close - they will let you know and then back away slowly. They are bigger than you!
Plan your route so that you can leave the park before the gates close. We did not use a guide but next time I think I would try that.
We went to Skukuza camp for breakfast - really terrific and good value.
We have booked again for November 2016.

Wonderful - we could not have asked for more.

We went with Wild Wings and was guided by Simon. Three days at Sabi Sands, picked up by Simon in Jo'burg and staying in Skukuza. There were only four of us so the journey was comfortable and it was a great group. Simon was brilliant at finding and spotting game.

What we saw was amazing - within an hour of arriving we saw a baby elephant only a few days old, the hind legs of its mother still stained from the birth. By the end of the time we had seen just about everything except Cheetah. We even saw a pack of wild dogs.

The accommodation was very comfortable, in spacious bungalows with flushing loo and full shower. Simon cooked well for us and really looked after us. Out at 4.30 each day for the morning drive in an open sided vehicle, out again at 3.

Three things became clear - you need to be with an experienced guide; you need to be in an open-sided vehicle and you need to be based inside the park. Anything else and you are short-changing yourselves.

Bring binoculars, a good camera with a zoom lens and you will leave with a bright heart and a lifetimes of memories. We could not have asked for anything more.

Kruger Still Has It!!

When my girlfriend and I first visited Kruger National Park in October 2010 it was our first visit to Southern Africa as well as our first safari. We had 4 nights in the park splitted between Lowers Sabie and Olifants Camp and we loved every minute of it. On our flight back to The Netherlands we were already making plans to return to Southern Africa and since our first trip we visited some of the best reserves in Southern Africa such as Moremi & Chobe in Botswana, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa and Etosha in Namibia.

For 2015 we had decided to revisit South Africa and Kruger National Park was one of the reserves we wanted to explore some more and we were very curious if we would still enjoyit as much as we did in 2010 after visiting those other famous parks in the previous years as some of them are much more adventurous and/or wild than Kruger. We had booked 9 nights in 4 different camps (Lower Sabie, Satara, Shimuwini & Berg-en-Dal) and I can honoustly say we again had an amazing experience and still loved every minute of it!! Of course Kruger can be busy, especially when you come across a big pride of lions on the tar road between Lower Sabie & Satara but if you know where to go and count to 10 sometimes it's still one of the best reserves to see the Big 5. We had 4 leopard sightings, multiple lion sightings, we saw hyena's, wild dogs and even a pangolin!! Some sightings were hectic, those on the tar main roads mostly but we had several amazing sightings with no (with the pangolin) or only a few other people around. We also liked the fact that we could chill in the fenced camps for once as it can be very relaxed and enjoy a good meal at one of the restaurants so we didn't have to cook ourselves. That's something you can't do when your at an unfenced camp in Moremi or Chobe in Botswana or the Kgalagadi. That's awesome as well of course but like I said before, we still loved Kruger!!

Amazing African Safari

From the time we began our booking enquiry to the time we returned from our trip the customer service with this company was outstanding. Christine was very responsive, helpful and insightful about what to expect, what to bring, where we were going and assured us that we would enjoy our trip – my gosh she was right! Our guide Anthony ‘Hoppy’ was a wonderful man who made sure we made it into the Kruger Park when our flight was delayed into Jo’berg on the first day, and his knowledge of the local area and the Kruger Park itself was amazing.

We were a family of 5 from Australia travelling together and luckily ‘Hoppy’ was our personal tour guide over the next 4 days. Hoppy was up first every morning ready with coffee and biscuits for us before the early morning drive, and breakfast, and would teach us something new each day. Hoppy has been a tour guide in the Kruger for some years and this was evident as he knew all the spots of where to find the animals and would allow us time to stop for photos whenever we wanted. We saw all of the Big 5 on numerous occasions, except for the Leopard which eluded us, however we saw many other animals which amazed us, including two rare white rhino – Hoppy even gave us a check list to mark off the animals which was great!.

We stayed at two rest camps over the four days, and they were both clean, had good facilities and were of a decent standard (aircon, fridge, shower and little balcony) – they were not 5 star but I didn’t expect that either, you are in Africa after all. The dinner at the restaurant at Skukuza camp was very impressive and the selection was endless, additionally all other camps were serviced by a ‘Mug and Bean’ which was also very good, believe me you won’t go hungry!

Thank you Wildlife Safaris for being a wonderful ambassador for tourism in South Africa, I would recommend your company and ‘Hoppy’ to everyone. We will be back some day, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Thanks – The Johnsons (Leanne, Gab, Charmaine, Charles and Bianca)

Love it - grew up in this area

One of the best value for money locations for safari I have ever come across

I initially visited Kruger as an extension to another trip I was doing in South Africa so it was never my main focus. As I love to focus on wildlife photography, I contacted a company that provides guiding for such trips (Wild4 Photographic Safaris) and they set up an excellent custom trip for just myself with a guide focusing mainly around the Lower Sabie area. I have to say that having been on safari to other places (in other countries), my initial expectations for the photographic aspect of this trip weren't too high.

It all changed on the way from Skukuza airport to the camp, with the airport in Skukuza offering a fantastically easy way to access the park. Just along a single stretch of road, in less than 1 hour, we saw Lions, Elephants, and Leopards. Throughout my time spent there, it was relatively easy to find and photograph the Big 5.

What really impressed me however, was the bird sightings. The road and areas became somewhat congested when it came to sightings of Lions and Leopards which were easier to come across than I initially expected in the Kruger. Having said that most of the self-drive tourists didn't really seem to care about the other stuff, especially birds. One episode I will not forget was how we spent hours with a Juvenile Bateleur photographing it in spectacular light all by ourselves (just me, and my guide at the time - Etienne Oosthuizen). Based on my experience, I thoroughly recommend having a guide as you would otherwise end up missing the vast majority of wildlife you can potentially see.

Having stayed in a hut in the Lower Sabie, accommodation can be best described as basic. The hut itself was adequate. Small, but clean and did the job wonderfully, but the common ablutions were often left in a pitiful state by some of the other visitors to the camp (they were, however, cleaned every day by the excellent staff). As a result, I would probably recommend people consider a room with private facilities.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and it is by far the best value-for-money safari I've ever been on (even if I was all on my own!) and it ended up being an integral part of why I'm planning to visit South Africa again - this time looking forward even more to my time in the Kruger.