Kruger National Park - How much time needed

Greetings fellow hunters. I will be on my 2nd Safari in RSA this coming August. My Wife will be joining me and she wants to do a side trip to Kruger National Park.

How many days are needed to get a decent sightseeing tour of Kruger? I want to book air travel and hotels based on your experience, suggestions and guidance.

Thanks in Advance!
B

There has been a lot of damage in the area due to flooding which will change access and travel on the roads throughout the area. Something to be taken into consideration.

Kruger is a large park and having several days with accommodation in the park would allow you to see the critters on your list. Local friends typically do three days.

Tours or self driving changes the details.

Are you visiting Kruger National Park or will you be touring one of the private reserves that adjoin the park and make-up the Greater Kruger; like the Klaserie, Timbavati and Sabi Sands?

My understanding is the Private Reserves have a max number of guests they allow per day keeping congestion/competition down, whereas the Kruger NP doesn't have a max so you're rolling the dice. Additionally the Private Reserves have a little more flexibility in what they can do/where they can go, whereas within the National Park you're not supposed to leave the road system. On the reserves it seems like all the guides help each other out when certain species are spoted, but I've heard horror stories about Kruger NP and seen it first hand in multiple other NP's (Chobe, Etosha, Hwange, etc) where it turns into a mad house with people racing around/cutting each other off when certain animals are spotted.

Having only done the reserves in Kruger before I'd say 2.5-3 days but it really depends on what you want to see. The cats will be the more difficult ones to see, and it's really just luck. If you want the best possible chance of seeing the entire Big 5 in a single trip, you probably will want to go for 5 days or more. Everything else you will see, aside from maybe Elephants and Rhino you should be able to see where you're hunting.

Will send you a DM

I would say as a South African, 3/4 days minimum. The park is huge and it will take a proper 2/3 weeks to see just the main areas of it. If a few days are all that you have, you will need to consider logistics as to where you can and want to go. Flying into Nelspruit (outside KNP) or Skukuzu (inside) and hiring car, gives you more options.

The KNP is divided into "3 areas", South, Middle and North. South is busy with people and animals, you can get traffic congestion. North is more remote and has Mopani veld, reducing visibility, thus less busy with people, North have bigger herds. There are more differences that just these, but keeping it short. I prefer the North for this reason, less people.

You can book online yourself, there are numerous camps you can try out, even some luxury camps within the KNP. Sanpark website, click bookings

Traditionally the KNP is a self drive adventure, you determine what you see, where you go. It is tarred and very good gravel roads. Almost all camps have restaurants and shops, where you can get the pretty much everything you need.

Then, if you want a more relaxed pampered experience, the lodges in the adjacent APNR (no fences between them) are a very good idea. But it is expensive!

The KNP had major floods a week ago, so depending on when you come, you may find some camps are still closed. Most camps have re-opened, there are 2/3 still not open (in middle to north of park) - hopefully repairs and government processes do not take to long, and it will be fixed.

there were only limited areas in the south of the park that sustained some damage
middle and north are fine
i would say 3-5 days, depends on your needs and wants really

My wife and I spent 3 days in the south. We would have liked to spent more time, but we did see the big 5.

Personally, I think one would get bored after 2-3 days. Its not unheard of to see the entire big five in a single day, so if that is your goal, go with three days. Only so many million Impala a man can take.

One thing I haven’t done that I would still like to do my next visit is Letaba Elephant Hall. I’d think the drive there/back and visit would likely take a day depending on the part of Kruger NP you’re in.

Kruger National Park is a massive 2 million hectares in size; Switzerland is roughly twice that. It measures approximately 350 by 60 kilometers. There are 14 main camps, all equipped with a shop, restaurant, and swimming pool.

Many visitors stay in the park for up to 14 days, some even longer. Once, I met a lone individual in a car. I struck up a conversation with him. He was from Florida and comes to South Africa four times a year for about 14 days at a time—and during this time, he visits only Kruger National Park! For him, there is nothing more magnificent than Kruger. I must say, I was very impressed by the man.

I recently visited Kruger National Park. Eleven camps were closed due to flooding; I'd never seen anything like it there before. Most roads were blocked, and we were limited to just two paved roads for most of the time, but we still had excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing.

This past August we spent 4 days in the park, we started in the very north around “crooks” corner and worked our way south staying in a different lodge every night. We entered the park through Punda Maria gate and exited the park through the Phalabrowa gate.
Our outfitter set us up with one of his PH’s and farm manager to drive us around. He knows the park really well. We never got out what I would consider the north part of the park.

Definitely take a sundown drive and at least one if not two night drives.
According to our guide the north part of the park has less traffic than the south.

If we do it again we would probably do another four days in the southern part of the park. We did see a very extensive game and bird list. I think we saw all of the antelope in the park except bushbuck and the only predator we didn’t see was a caracal, cheetah and leopard.

KMG Hunting Safaris said:

Personally, I think one would get bored after 2-3 days. Its not unheard of to see the entire big five in a single day, so if that is your goal, go with three days. Only so many million Impala a man can take.

Click to expand...

I think this is good advice, especially for someone that has been to Africa several times. On our last trip my daughter was with us for the first time so she was still enthralled bye the common stuff. I was still loving finding the great dagga boys and elephant.
I finally got them to stop taking pictures of zebra and giraffe after the third morning!

It's huge so you can do a day or 30 days!

A good guide (due partly to WhatsApps groups these days) will probably get you in front of the Big5 in a couple of days, we got lucky with a leopard and saw them on Day 1 but did four days

Hififile324 said:

Greetings fellow hunters. I will be on my 2nd Safari in RSA this coming August. My Wife will be joining me and she wants to do a side trip to Kruger National Park.

How many days are needed to get a decent sightseeing tour of Kruger? I want to book air travel and hotels based on your experience, suggestions and guidance.

Thanks in Advance!
B

Click to expand...

We did 3 Days and saw a lot, including the Big 5…

We even saw a leopard napping with a hyena

KKF said:

Kruger National Park is a massive 2 million hectares in size; Switzerland is roughly twice that. It measures approximately 350 by 60 kilometers. There are 14 main camps, all equipped with a shop, restaurant, and swimming pool.

Many visitors stay in the park for up to 14 days, some even longer. Once, I met a lone individual in a car. I struck up a conversation with him. He was from Florida and comes to South Africa four times a year for about 14 days at a time—and during this time, he visits only Kruger National Park! For him, there is nothing more magnificent than Kruger. I must say, I was very impressed by the man.

I recently visited Kruger National Park. Eleven camps were closed due to flooding; I'd never seen anything like it there before. Most roads were blocked, and we were limited to just two paved roads for most of the time, but we still had excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing.

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Hunt anything said:

I think this is good advice, especially for someone that has been to Africa several times. On our last trip my daughter was with us for the first time so she was still enthralled bye the common stuff. I was still loving finding the great dagga boys and elephant.
I finally got them to stop taking pictures of zebra and giraffe after the third morning!

Click to expand...

Thank you, I appreciate your guidance!

If you're a normal tourist, take two days and stay one night in Letaba in a guesthouse.

You don't have to worry so much about small change—go to Timbavati, the neighboring reserve, which is much nicer.

NIGHTHAWK said:

We did 3 Days and saw a lot, including the Big 5…

We even saw a leopard napping with a hyena

Click to expand...

Thank you!

We stayed in different areas of the park for 2 Nights

I only regret not having a camera. Took pictures with my iPhone

@NIGHTHAWK did you happen to see what the wild dogs had been feeding on?
We saw a pride of lions on a wildebeest surrounded by jackals and hyenas, it was a gruesome side of nature.