Tips for the Safari Holidays Experience in Kruger National Park

by Mitchell Thomas
(Manchester,UK)

Kruger National Park is one of South Africa’s landmark tourist attractions with an understandable reason to be. Among one of the largest safari parks in Africa and is home to a number of few places that with just a couple of days driving you are surely guaranteed to spot all of the “big 5” animals at any given time of the year.

If this is your first time travelling on a safari holiday and you are more familiar being used to the regular tourist destinations with sun, sea and sand then this will be a completely different experience. I hope that a couple tips here will help you fully experience what’s best if you decide to venture to, in my opinion, South Africa’s finest and most interesting safari park.

Don’t Fear Driving Yourself

There are many organised tours available that you can go on through the Kruger National Park and some of them follow specific set themes they will include, although to fully experience the safari for yourself it is recommended you definitely self-drive. With being new to a safari, it would be worthwhile participating in a day long guided drive where you will be shown how to distinguish different animals and locate key areas and watering holes are. After that, I would suggest renting your own vehicle, purchase a map, and take to the road by yourself. The roads are paved or gravel for safety so anyone should be able to drive safely on it. Just remember to keep your speed down or you will miss things. The suggested speed is around 15 to 20 kmph as an average speed.

Accommodation

A personal favourite for safari holidays is the Vuyani Lodge for your accommodation where you will be welcomed with warm towels to freshen up on your arrival. You will then receive a tour by the polite helpful staff and fed very well by their chefs who you will personally meet and get to have a conversation with. It really is an excellent high quality experience.

Plan

Ensure to plan ahead. Grab your map, plan a detailed route, get it seen over if you can, and stick to it. If not you will end up getting lost and end up spending longer in the parks than planned and it’s not safe to be lost in the dark. Ideally, the best time to visit is between July and September when planning when to take your safari adventure and when planning your safari route – make sure to include designate toilet breaks as there are very few designated places!

Sights

Although there are lots of things to see in the park, you cannot miss the watering holes in the afternoons. This is the busiest time of the day at the water holes and the place will be buzzing with animals and activity.

Payment

One last thing is if you plan on exploring the park for a few days then it would possibly be worth purchasing a Wild Card. It includes the daily conservation area fees for any park in South Africa so could save a lot of money if you are travelling around. These can be purchased at any park office.

I really hope these tips have helped you understand more about safari holidays and will make your experience a lot more enjoyable. If you have queries, comments or tips then feel free to leave them in the comments section below.