Self-drive safari
On the park roads.
Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE — CC BY-SA 2.0 · freestock.ca — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0
Africa's most famous wildlife reserve and South Africa's largest, spreading over nearly twenty thousand square kilometres along the Mozambique border, the size of a small country. It began as a reserve in 1898 and was proclaimed a national park in 1926. The park is home to the Big Five, lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard, along with cheetahs, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, wild dogs and hundreds of bird species, in habitats ranging from savanna and woodland to rivers. What sets Kruger apart is that visitors can explore it in their own car on a network of tarred and gravel roads, stay in the park's rest camps, the largest being Skukuza, or book guided game drives at dawn and dusk. Gates and camps close at night at set times. The daily conservation fee is R602 per foreign adult until 31 October 2026, per visitor guides, rising every November. The dry winter months from May to September are best for seeing animals, and the area carries malaria risk, so consult your doctor before travelling.
On the park roads.
In the wild.
The largest.
North-east South Africa on the Mozambique border; gates from Mbombela, Hazyview and Phalaborwa
Yes, you can self-drive on the park roads and stay in its camps, keeping to the gate times.