Kruger National Park (KNP) is one of the biggest game reserves in Africa, and perhaps the most well known. Encompassing 7,523 sq. miles and an array of mammals, birds and reptiles, it is great for a beginner’s game watching trip. While safaris in Serengeti and Masaimara offer the ultimate in wildlife watching, Kruger is an excellent place to get started for people of all inclinations and budgets, as it has something for everyone.

Kruger National park is an excellent spot to view the Big Five of African game (Lions, African elephants, Cape buffaloes, Leopards and Rhinos). However, as we experienced firsthand, there is a dazzling diversity of animals; giraffes, zebras, big cats, small cats, antelopes, hippos etc. As a matter of fact, Kruger has more species of large mammals than any other game reserve in Africa. In addition, the terrain of Kruger is quite varied too, from shrubs and open savannah to heavy bush veld; changing with location and weather. The national park is bound by the Limpopo and Crocodile rivers respectively to its north and south. To its east, the Lebombo mountains separate it from the country of Mozambique.

As a flagship of the African national parks, the accessibility and affordability of Kruger makes it one of the easiest parks to visit on the continent. We decided on South Africa for our first foray into Africa, because the country not only has stunning wildlife, but also world class beaches, lively cosmopolitan cities and great natural beauty. It was a perfect all-around vacation.

We flew into Johannesburg (JNB) via Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways. We used our American Airlines AAdvantage miles – you can use AA miles to fly to South African on multiple OneWorld partner airlines. At JNB, we had our rental car waiting for us at AVIS.

Travel Planning

The largest game reserve in South Africa, visiting Kruger requires some planning to make best use of your trip. You can actually visit Kruger two ways: Visit the numerous privately owned game reserves or the Government owned Kruger National Park. The private game reserves are usually small concessions of land surrounding the Kruger National Park, and each reserve has one or more dedicated lodges. The private lodges are more expensive, very luxurious, and usually have to be booked as a package which includes the game drives. Meanwhile, the Kruger National Park is owned and managed by South African National Parks (SANParks), which also manages all the other National Parks in South Africa as well. If you want to go to the ‘real’ Kruger National Park, you can go freestyle, and plan your own Kruger itinerary with SANParks. A good explanation of the differences is given here.

We decided to do the latter, and planned our trip to Kruger on the SANParks website. Although not easy to navigate, the SANParks website is incredibly informative, and you can plan and book your stay as well as game drives and activities on the website. Note that Kruger gets very crowded in the peak months, and popular camps get booked months in advance. 

Begin by choosing your rest-camps (Read below to know where we stayed). Depending on how many days you wish to spend at KNP, try to split your stay between two or three rest-camps. Once you have chosen your restcamps, go to “Book Online” section of https://www.sanparks.org/. Select KNP, and choose the desired rest camp. Now choose one of the available options for your dates. At this point, it gets very confusing with the many different options – here is a tip : Choose any bungalow, the numbers such as BG2E, BG3E classify the bungalows based on their location in the camp. Once you have your accommodation booked,  you can book your game drives on the same site. Go to “Book Single Day Activity”, select your rest camp, and choose from the available activities (Read below for the activities which we did).

Satara Rest Camp

We entered KNP through the southern entrance of Crocodile bridge Gate, and drove north to Satara Rest Camp. Satara sits at the crossroads of many well known and wonderful game viewing roads. The rest camp here is one of the biggest in the park, and an excellent choice for watching big game. The bungalows at Satara are basic, but clean and comfortable. Our bungalow had an outdoor kitchen, and a fridge inside a cage (to protect the food from monkeys!). There is a camp store to buy groceries and other camp supplies, if you wish to cook. While at Satara we chose to dine at the restaurant, Tindlovu, which serves a variety of both Western and African dishes. 

At Satara, we did two sunrise drives, two sunset drives and one night drive. At every rest camp, a map is updated with latest sightings – we did a lot of self driven safari based on the map of latest sightings, in between our SANParks safaris.

Skukuza Rest Camp

We spent the next two nights at Skukaza rest camp. Skukaza is the largest and busiest rest camp in Kruger, and has ample game viewing opportunities nearby. The bungalows at Skukaza are slightly more luxurious than Satara, and there are more dining options as well. Being the closest rest camp from Kruger Gate, the most popular entry point to KNP, it gets very busy during lunch time with tourists. With film screenings, pool, barbecue pits, etc, there is a lot to do during the downtimes between game drives!

SANParks Game Drives vs Self Driving

The SANParks safaris are conducted on large trucks, with about 20 people in each truck. During our time at KNP, we did two sunrise drives, three sunset drives and one night drive. The drives are led by one or more rangers, and the quality of the drives depend a lot on the rangers. We had a lot of fun, the rangers genuinely wanted us to have a good experience on these drives. 

One of the main attractions of KNP is the possibility to self drives inside the national park. While we did enjoy the SANParks game drives, we had the most fun driving ourselves, trying to spot wildlife on our own. There is a mix of paved roads and dirt roads, and we had some of the best wildlife sightings on these dirt roads. Note: You do not need 4WD anywhere in the park where tourists are allowed to drive themselves. It is a good idea to follow the daily sightings maps posted daily at the rest camps. 

The SANParks game drives take you off-road to areas of the park where you are not allowed to self drive. Also, the knowledge of the rangers leading the game drives enriches the experience a lot. Hence, a mix of organized game drives and self-drives is highly recommended! 

Suggested Itinerary – 4 days in Kruger National Park

• Day 1

  Drive into Kruger National park from Crocodile Bridge Gate and drive north on the H4-2, H10 and H1-3 towards Satara Rest Camp. Take the detour just before Satara to see one of the oldest Baobab trees in Kruger. At Satara, check into your bungalow, and relax a bit. Take the SANParks organized sunset drive, which is an excellent way to orient yourself towards wildlife spotting for the next few days. Finish your day with dinner at Tindlovu restaurant.

  

  

  

  

  

• Day 2

  Wake up early next morning for the SANParks sunrise drive. The sunrise drives begin at 4:00 am! As you get back to the camp, grab some breakfast. Afterwards drive north towards Olifants Rest camp, crossing the Olifants river, a tributary of the Limpopo river. Don’t miss the breathtaking viewpoint of the river just before you take the turn towards Olifants rest camp on the H1-4! Watch out for hippos in the river. Olifants camp is a spectacular rest camp situated on a high ridge overlooking the river. Enjoy a picnic lunch at the viewpoint, just behind the reception. You won’t regret it! After lunch, drive back to Satara taking any of the side roads, keep your eyes open for leopards up in the trees! In the evening opt for the SANParks night drive, which is an amazing experience. Even if you don’t see a lot of animals, the feeling of being in the bush in the darkness of the night is an out of the world feeling.

  

  

  

  

  

• Day 3

  Start the day with an early morning ranger led bush walk. A walking trail in Kruger is the best way to make the bush come alive! After your morning walk, have breakfast and check out. Drive south along the H1 to Skukuza rest camp, stopping at Tshokwane for lunch. At Skukuza, check in and get ready for the SANParks organized sunset drive. Finish your day with a hearty African dinner at the upscale Cattle Barron restaurant.

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Day 4

  Today is the last day of your Kruger safari. Begin the day by opting either for the SANParks Sunrise drive, or self driving. If you are driving yourself, do not forget to see the map of yesterday’s sightings before heading out!

  

  

  

  

  

Visiting Kruger National has always been on our bucket list, and we are happy to have this one checked off! We ended our trip to KNP by doing a day trip trip to Blyde canyon… read about it in our next blog post!