Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park never disappoints!

After many visits to Kruger in the past 6 years, I can honestly say that no matter what time of year or which season, Kruger never disappoints in the opportunity to see an abundance of wildlife in their most natural state. Every trip had certain highlights - on my most recent trip in March, because of the arrival of the rains, we saw lots of young babies of many species. It was quite a delight. Whether doing a self-drive through the park or using the services of the restcamps or independent operators, one will be able to experience the opportunity to see life and death in its most basic form. I also appreciate the courteousness of other Kruger visitors and park staff. There is something magical about an African safari and Kruger Park is certainly one of the best managed in the world. I will be back again!

An experience that makes you hunger for more.

Visiting the Kruger for the first time was a fantastic experience. We loved the atmosphere and beauty of the bush, added some 20 new bird species to our birding lists, ate well at the Mugg and Beans now available at several camping sites and enjoyed satisfactory accommodation. Although our visit was shortly after the drought and we didn't have as many wildlife sightings as we could have, the size of the park and the knowledge of an abundance of species kept us in anticipation of what we could see around the next corner. We boasted for weeks after with memorable photographs and we knew instantly that we would purchase a wild card and visit the park more regularly. A bush-lover's dream.

wonderful experience, we were blessed to see the big five within two days, cant wait to return!!

The weather was perfect. In total we saw 555 animals! 28 different species. We only did 10% of the park!
We started at Crocodile bridge, spent the night there, which was idyllic. I saw my first bush babies there. They were about one metre away and were not scared. The following day we went to Lower Sabie. Stunning!! Elephants , hippos, crocs, monitor lizard, water buck , we stayed at Berg en dal that evening. We had a wonderful time driving around and stopping off at different places for brunch etc. I love the Kruger National Park. We will definitely be returning, but for a lot longer next time!! Please look at my Flickr account to see my photos kaz3160.
If undecided, I would definitely recommend that you go!!!

Fantastic Fun on Safari!

Visiting Kruger in early April, we were lucky with the weather as it was dry and warm. Kruger National Park is absolutely huge and I can only comment on the tiny portion I have seen, however I had the opportunity to do both an evening sunset safari and a full day safari and was lucky enough to see a huge range of wildlife.

Guides
The guide for the sunset safari, Rick was brilliant: loads of fun, had a good sense of humour, great interactions with everyone in the jeep and of course was incredibly knowledgeable about the park and the wildlife. The guide for the day safari, Nicky, unfortunately was not as good. She was knowledgeable about the park and wildlife, but wasn't great at interacting with the clients and rushed from place to place without giving us the time to really watch the animals interacting with their environment.

Wildlife
No matter who the guide is, the park still has loads of absolutely amazing wildlife to observe and the best time to see the animals is at the cooler parts of the day around sunrise and sunset. In all my safari's I have been ridiculously lucky and have seen so many different animals, including the solitary ones such as Cheetah and Leopard. In my two safari's at Kruger I had the opportunity to see Lions, Elephants, Cheetah, Leopard, White Rhinceros', Giraffes, Impala, Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Hippos, Buffalos, Zebra, Warthog, , Scrub Hare, Blue Duiker (smallest antelope breed - almost extinct), Nightjar (part of owl family), Kudu, Hyenas with pups, Klipspringer, Water Terrapin, a Water Monitor and Woolley Neck Storks.

Park Facilities
The park is well set up and the roads are all clearly marked. There are toilet facilities provided at set locations in the park and there are also places to stop for food and souvenirs. We stopped for morning tea at Skukuza, which was brilliant, there were a few different food options, accommodation options and a large souvenir store. We spent our lunch stop at Pretoriuskop which was tiny and had very little to offer (we were very unimpressed that this was our lunch stop as Skukuza was so much better).

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Kruger National Park and would highly recommend visiting!

The only thing ever on my bucket list, everyone should go!

The Kruger was everything I had dreamt about, and more. I stayed with god friends that live in Jeffrey's Bay and have been several times. We stayed at the Mopani Rest Camp. The accommodation was spotless and even though your neighbors are close, there is plenty of natural bush between them that it is still quite private. The restaurant at the dam has some amazing views. Sunset there is incredible!! Was lovely to just sit there in the evening and watch the birds and look out for other wildlife. We did a night drive, a sunset drive, and a game walk. Amos was our guide on all three (the walk also had Able) he was amazing, funny, informative, professional, polite.

We did self drives days, this was incredible. We saw so many elephants, water buffalo, zebra and all so close. The birding is incredible, not a major birder but getting into it, and coming from Bermuda every bird in South Africa was new. The Kruger helped my bird list reach 118 species spotted! Many of the raptors were easily spotted. We saw jackals and hyena but no big cat, but that didn't impact the joy I got on my trip!

We did visit Letaba for a little while, the river, the different landscape, it was awesome. The fact that you can drive around and see different types of terrain, dry areas of scrub brush, to lush plains. This experience is the best of my life! I hope to return one day and visit more of the Kruger!

Kruger is fantastic for wildlife but becoming too crowded and hectic to enjoy the experience. It's a good place to visit for first-timers but tick it off your list and head somewhere more adventurous next time.

Kruger is the crown jewel of the South African National Park system. It's huge and it has everything. It would be hard to name a better national park in Africa, or even in the world.

Fantastic place needs more cats.

When i went the weather was fine in the mornings, not too cold. Throughout the day it got very warm so sunscreen and a hat is vital in a tour jeep. The animals were amazing. The first time we saw an elephant we were over the moon. We then came to learn how common they were. The cats were very illusive and in 3 days we saw lions at a distance once and a single leopard walking through dense bush. The boards in the camps and park facilities saying where the animals were was very helpful. I understand why rhino's were not allowed but a little frustrating from a tourist perspective. I would recommend always using the jeeps. One day we had to travel through the park and used a minibus the glass made pictures a lower quality and it was hard to get a good view.

Breathtaking, destination and an absolute awe-inspiring trip!

Fantastic place to spend ones time. Nature at its finest. Peaceful with the the potential to see animals in their natural environment. All the facilities at the camps where clean and the staff were friendly and professional.

Great variety of wildlife big and small

We stayed in two of the private reserves that are part of the Kruger Park system: Sabi Sands and Ngala Reserve. Staying in private reserves afforded us the opportunity to go off-road in appropriate conditions and meant few encounters with other safari vehicles. However, it also meant we did not have permission to cross boundaries into the park proper or other reserves—a downside when trying to track African wild dogs, but the downside goes both ways (you can't cross from the park proper into the reserves, either).

We saw just about everything that could be seen by daylight: lions and leopards (almost daily), Africa wild dogs (two days out of six), jackals, spotted hyenas and their young, elephant herds, giraffes, rhinos, Cape buffalo, terrapins, tortoises, hippos, giant land snails, dung beetles, wildebeest, baboon spiders, baboons, vervet monkeys, half a dozen kinds of antelope, and birds galore. Only one crocodile because the rivers were dry. No cheetahs, which are less common there and difficult to spot because of the tree density. (The areas we stayed were not open savannah, but rather dense savannah and veld.)

Our &Beyond guides from Kirkman's Kamp and Ngala Tented Camp were incredibly knowledgeable. They knew the mammals, birds, insects, plants. When they found out we were more interested in insects, plants and soil/geology than the average safari-goer, they made accommodations to get us off the vehicle now and again to look at termite mounds, watch dung beetles, squint at mites, inspect flowers, or admire the dirt.

It rained two days of six (two of eleven game drives). The safari vehicles are open, so raincoats and ponchos were a must. Some people in our group opted not to go out, but we went and didn't regret it. Both times, the rains brought African wild dogs, and the rain was not cold so it wasn't too uncomfortable.

The other days were hot and dry (we went in March, late summer, in a drought year). That meant few mosquitos. We forgot about the heat when we were watching animals, and when the vehicles were moving we had a breeze.

In the private reserves, it's permitted to be out on game drives after dark. We did not do any specifically night drives, but drove back at dusk/nightfall on our afternoon safaris. I appreciated that at Ngala they had red filters on the headlights, which don't interfere with animals' night vision. We saw nightjars, a hippo, and a few other things.