Kruger National Park Travel Forum

Any suggestions for our South African stay would be appreciated. We were going to go either mid January, Feb, of early March. Best of those months?

My wife and I are planning to spend a couple of weeks in S.A. and tentatively I had this itinerary in mind. Fly into J’Burg and rent a car. We can stay at a one of several Time Share units at or near the entrance to Kruger National park. So we planned on a week stay to do some sort of Safari or day/night driving trips into the park to take pictures of the animals etc.

I also understand Driving trips to God's window, Mac Mac falls and pools, Pilgrim's Rest, Blyde River Canyon, Sudwala Caves are all nice to visit. Are they day trips? Any suggestions??

Then we planned to drive to Cape Town and stay at a Time Share that is north up the coast about 90 minutes for C’town. How long is the drive from Kruger to C’Town and is there a coast road versus cutting directly across? What is the driving distance? Direct or coastal? Or, should we fly from J’Burg to C’Town?

Is Vic Falls reachable by car from either C'town in a day? Any suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated – maybe we should stay two weeks by Kruger?

We will have about 18 days in S.A. THANKS in advance for any help Richard and Deb

You are trying too much in 18 days, you will spend most of your time in the car.
A week in the park is sufficient enough, have own car for some self drive and book some lodges with game drive for some guides tour. You cannot drive on your own anyway for night game drive.
God’s window you can try to catch on the way from Johannesburg to the park.
To Cape Town use internal flights, it is really too long to drive and the flight are anyway affordable and will save you lots of hassle.

Distances as per my response to your second post. Depending on where you stay in the Eastern Transvaal, day trips to Pilgrim's Rest, Bourkes Luck, Blyde River Canyon etc. should be fine. There are also many waterfalls in the area.
Do your game drives into the Kruger during the early morning and late afternoon. During the day, particularly in the summer, animals seek shelter from the heat.
Best viewing spots will be near water holes.
A night safari is also a good idea.
My suggestion would be to fly from Jhb to CT.
The Vic Falls is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe - most definitely NOT a daytrip - or even reachable in a day - from CT.
One week in the Kruger is sufficient. Remember, there are also interesting game reserves in the Eastern and Western Cape.

While visiting Kruger make sure you stay in the park as day trips into Kruger can be an issue as only a limited number of day trippers are allowed each day. You can however easily do a day trip to outside areas and return to Kruger without any issues as long as you are staying inside. Remeber there are closing times for gates so ensure you get to the gates early enough to make it to your camp as well.

Driving to Vic Falls from CT will take at least 3 days.

Please see my Kruger page for the best car rental firm. Cape Town to Vic Falls is 3 days - 1 way. And that's hard and long driving. You have to go through Bots. Jo'burg to Vic Falls - 2 days. 2 whole days.

Have a great time!

All the best!

DAO

Please remember: Kruger has malaria

I agree -- too much driving. Kruger to Cape Town would be about a 19-hour drive.

we just did Vic Falls, Kruger, and Cape Town in 12 days / 11 nights. We were fully satisifed (but then again, we're admitedly 30-minute tourists). We hired a guide to drive us through Kruger. He drove us from Jo'berg and we arrived at Kruger at about 1130 am. We spent the afternoon driving around, spent the night at a Kruger Park rest camp, then drove around the following morning for about 2 more hours. We saw TONS. Then we did a quickie tour up the panoramw route on our wy to 2 nights at a private game reserve with guided game drives. Again we saw tons. So, in 3 nights we saw just about everythig except snakes. We have approximately 1500 photos as a result.

Bottom line: guides cost more, but they know what they're doing, so you see more in less time than if on your own. i would thnik that typiclly this gives you more bang for your tourist dollar. It certainly did for us.

We flew from Jo'berg in and out of Livingstome Zambia (Victoria Falls). This side trip was expensive, but worth it. For most of us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so you may as well see Vic falls while you are in the 'neighbourhood'. If you can affoed it stay at the Zambesi Sun Hotel. It's cheaper than the Royal Livingstone, but closer to the Falls (about a 10 minute walk). There's not much need for a guide at Vic Falls, but you can join a small package tour for reasonable cost. Take a helo or ultralight flight to get the complete Falls experience. The flights are expensive, but worth it. There's no other way to get that perspective.

I'll write all this up later as a tip.