Hello everyone! My husband and I are super excited as we have just booked our first holiday this September to South Africa! We fly into JNB on 15th September, then we are going to book a flight straight down to Cape Town same day. We'll spend 9 or so nights in Cape Town, then fly back up to JNB, then we thought we'd hire a car and drive out to Kruger National Park for a couple of nights.

SO...the first question is - how many nights would be good? We haven't booked our internal flights as yet, so can play around with our timings. We wondered whether 5 nights with 3 full days would be sufficient (late arrival on 1st night, leaving early after 5th night, hence 3 days)? Or should we do 8 nights in Cape Town and get a 4th full day?

We plan to drive from JNB - where would you recommend we initially go within the park? After doing a bit of reading in the forum, it sounds like trying 2 places would be good - try a self-drive to start, then go to a private reserve? We do not have any specific requests, just the chance to have an overall experience in the time we have. Any camp recommendations would be greatly appreciated as we are new to South Africa - lots of research to do, this is just the start!

We'd like to get our internal flights booked, so will do that based on the advice as to how long we spend at Kruger.

A point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Jen
x

Hi Jen
Have you considered flying directly from Cape Town to Nelspruit and hire your car there. SAA has one flight a day (departs 10am and arrives 12:30), and that would cut down your driving time from JHB considerably.

Here is a link to our South African trip some years ago ..... just scroll down to the section on Kruger Park and Timbivati for some ideas. http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...-mauritius.cfm

I would suggest that you would probably need to get booking if you plan to stay in Kruger Park as it does fill up quickly, although fortunately you are not in school holidays. Your options within Kruger Park may be limited to where you can get in.

Let us know what you decide.

Hi Jen,

I agree with PRLCH your time in Kruger may be limited by where you can get accommodation bookings and flying direct to Nelspruit from Cape Town is a good idea. The Sanparks website has a search function that will show vacancies across all camps by date.

3 or 4 nights isn't really very long to visit both the park and spend time in a camp, maybe do one or the other. If you can't get into Kruger, perhaps you would consider a stay at Mashatu which is just over the border in Botswana and has a good reputation for leopard sightings. I've been twice and have seen leopard, lion and cheetah, African wildcat as well as the usual suspects of giraffe, kudu, zebra etc.

Here is a link to my trip report to Shindzela (borders KNP) and Mashatu.

and here it is!

http://safaritalk.net/topic/7275-ele...e-and-mashatu/

Hi PRLCH and Treepol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write back - both of your notes are very helpful.

I am looking forward to reading your trip reports whilst I eat my sandwich at work shortly (will cheer the day up!). I will also research the flight option from Cape Town to Nelspruit, I didn't know about that! Perhaps we should have booked to Cape Town direct from London in that case but never mind.

I will also look at accommodation booking options first then as that sounds the more urgent thing to sort, and I guess that might decide the plans.

Thank you again, really appreciated.

Jen
x

You can also fly direct Cape Town to Skukuza and rent a car at the Skukuza avis.

Hey Jen,

If it's really Kruger NP you're visiting (in self drive mode), then I agree with the others; fly to an airport near Kruger and start from there. Also; the more days the better. Trust me; a safari is always over too soon.

But I have two remarks though;

1) I'd opt for Hoedspruit Airport, not Nelspruit. The latter is still 3 hours away from the nearest Kruger gate, and if you take the N4 to one of the southern entrances of Kruger you might even spend 30 mins to an hour extra, as there's big roadworks near Krokodilpoort Nature Reserve. We've recently driven that road twice (picking some friends up in Nelspruit and then dropping them off again later), and lost an extra hour each time.
In comparison Hoedspruit is much closer to Kruger NP gates (either Orpen Gate or Phalaborwa gate). And all the major rental companies have cars there too.

2) I'd only advise the above if you rented some form of accommodation in the Kruger NP restcamps. The story is quite different if you're thinking of getting only a camping spot at the restcamps. Because then you need to rent a vehicle that's equiped with a tent and all equipment, and not just some regular sedan. And these equiped 4x4s (or 2x4s) are not easily available at Nelspruit/Hoedspruit. You need to get such vehicles at Jo'burg.

If you're NOT thinking of doing a self drive, then I'd advise not to look for a lodge in Kruger NP itself, but rather go for one that's in one of the Kruger reserves next to Kruger. This map shows all such reserves near Kruger;

http://safaris.marulacamp.com/maps/PDF/Kruger.pdf

It's a PDF from Sun Safaris. You can download it and use it at home too. It will still work perfectly.

Note that it shows the reserves that are fenced as well (so; not directly connected to Kruger). These reserves provide a good safari experience too, but since this is your first time you'd really be better off with a reserve open to Kruger NP. Like Sabi Sands, Manyeleti, Timbavati or Klaserie.

If you chose any lodge in Timbavati or Klaserie, the added bonus is that you don't even need a car. At least not if you're flying to Hoedspruit. All lodges come and get you at Hoedspruit airport, and drop you off again after your safari, for free or for a minimal fee.

I see Treepol has already mentioned places like Shindzela and Umkumbe. My favorites in Timbavati & Klaserie are nThambo, Shindzela, Africa On Foot and Simbavati River Lodge.

In your case (not that many nights in the bush), I think nThambo or Simbavati RL are the better choices (all drives, no walks -> walks are great but perhaps not on your first and short safari when you still need to see it all -> you see far less while on foot).

HTH,

Jochen

This is an article from the New York Times on how to do Kruger on a budget; perhaps you will find it interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/tr...rica.html?_r=0

I just returned from CapeTown and Kruger this week after tons of planning for our first trip there. We flew direct to JNB then to CPT. WE took the direct flight CPT to Nelspruit.
If you book a safari lodge with a travel agent from Africa they may be able to get you a discount on a full package with flights/safari lodge….I would check go2africa, iconExpeditions, and Tanya ([email protected])… You can actually get somewhat of a discount from the rack price of the safari prices online with an agent…just ask. They can also get you a better rate with the transfer from the airport to the lodge either the car or the charter flight.
Cape Town…we did all the highlights and used a tour guide for different days. Used PG Tops Travel…Yolanda was fabulous…also used them for all airport transfers.
2 nights..one full day in Winelands (wine tastings and great food and very scenic) ..On way back to Cape Town went to the Cougar reserve and had a tour of a township/shanty town (huge highlight…absolutely MUST do).
Need to do Table Mountain and Robben Island one day and the Cape Penninsula tour (Boulders, Cape of good Hope etc) another day.(total 2 days).
So I would say 3 days is good but you will miss some things and with 4 days you will get all Cape Town highlights in..also Robben Island and Table Mountain are often closed due to weather so more days gives you more flexibility on those visits. The real highlight will be the Safari experience so if it means more time in Kruger then stick to 3 days.
Also…there is a place to interact and ride elephants near the Nelspruit airport area called The Elephant Whispers which might be a real fun diversion after or before your safari experience.

I recently returned from my first self drive trip to the kruger I would highly recommend you download the Wild About Kruger app. It contains all the information you require from gate times, pricing, the different camp options, picnic and get out points. It also contains sections on Mammals, birds, trees flowers, historical points and there is a great section on how to track from your car. You can even get step by step directions from where you are which helps if you are driving from JHB

How exciting for you. I agree with what everyone is saying - fly into one of the airports in/near Kruger. Most of the lodges will pick you up at the airport so you don't have to drive. Also, a lot of the lodges are on private land within Kruger so you don't end up with lots of other cars. We stayed at a camp called Nottens in March of 2012. Loved it. Family run. Great accommodation and amazing food. The game rides were great as well. Saw the big 5 a number of times. Not sure about the cost because we'd done a 3 week trip with a number of other stops. One thing I would highly recommend is to do a full day in Johannesburg and arrange a tour of Soweto and the aparteidh museum. Amazing! We really felt we needed to understand the country and all of its history in order to truly appreciate it. If you need a hotel in J'Burgh try the Peech. Terrific spot. Have fun.

Good advice posted based on our sojourn of a couple of years ago. Oh oh, yes arriving in Cape it is quite a distance to Kruger. Yes, safaris inside park a treat...both self drive and guided tour. But I would consider a package deal anyway. We were in Jo'burg (son was teaching) for a spell visits incl. Soweto, Apartheid Museum, etc. Also explored area NW of Pretoria which has Blyde R. Canyon and amazing Maropeng Museum/cave.

Nine days in Cape Town is a bit long. Though Cape itself and Kirstenbnosch Nat'l Garden wonderful. Most enjoyable aside from Kruger Park was our week in a resort castle at Plettenberg Bay.

Treepol and others, thanx for picts!