Kruger National Park Safari – 10 DIY Things to Know Now

Last Updated: October 22, 2024

Since we were children, we’ve both dreamed of taking a Kruger National Park Safari. After traveling to many places on our bucket list around the world, this remained the elusive experience that seemed so difficult to tackle.

Everyone we’ve ever met who had been a safari in Africa did it with a tour operator/travel agent. We heard no complaints, only rave reviews, but we knew we wanted to try to go it alone so we could save money. Afterall, we know from experience that we can usually travel two and a half times longer on the same dollar, if we plan the trip ourselves.

We knew we wanted to take a luxury Kruger National Park safari trip, not a self-guided one with a rental car and not one where the accommodation was sub-par. We wanted to experience the luxury African safari that we had dreamed about.

1. Consider the Weather

Our first concern was the weather and picking the best time to go. We wanted warm weather, but not hot. A little rain doesn’t bother us, but we weren’t interested in being drenched during monsoon season, either. We ended up choosing to go in April and we realized that during this month, Kenya and the further northern countries were probably not ideal because of rain and weather, so we settled on a Kruger National Park safari in South Africa. April was the perfect month for us. It did rain some, but it was pleasant and the nights were cool for sleeping.

2. The Booking Game

Our search began online with a Google search to find a luxury, yet affordable African safari. We quickly became very frustrated with the process. Almost every site we clicked on required us to submit our email address before we could access information about their guided trip like cost and itinerary. Many of them had pop-up chats enabled that connected us with agents before we could ascertain any information. We like poking around and reading first, before connecting with an agent.

This process was needlessly cumbersome. We simply wanted to know what it cost, what was included, and we wanted to be able to compare prices. We are bargain travelers, after all!

After sifting through site after site, one day one of us said, “Hey, look on Booking.com and see if any lodges or camps are listed there.” BINGO! It was the step we were missing to get the information we needed.

We Chose Honeyguide Tented Safari

3. Game Drives are Included

It was here that we quickly learned that each camp or lodge offered game drives. This was something that we didn’t realize before. We assumed that you stayed at the lodge, and a tour operator took you out for a day trip/game drive. This is how travel usually works for us. We stay at a hotel, and if we want to go on an adventure, we book through the hotel or we book independently with a tour company for a day trip.

With game drives, they are an included activity of the lodge. In most cases, the lodges include two game drives a day, sunrise drives and sunset drives. This was music to our ears!

4. Selecting a Lodge

Having traveled to nearly 100 countries, we oftentimes look for unique experiences and we realized that many bookings offered tent camping. This is hardly a scout tent, but rather a luxury experience while keeping that grounded, raw, Out of Africa mindset that had lived rent free in our minds for so long. We loved the concept and felt as long as we were safe, this seemed like a fun experience.

We knew the weather would be perfect for sleeping outside because the nights were cool and not cold. In the end, this was one of our favorite parts of our stay. We had a mosquito net over our bed (no mosquitos that we saw) and a lovely fan. What more could we want?

We ended up booking with Honeyguide Tented Safari Mantobeni. This resort offered 15 tents, each with their own ensuite which included a shower. The tent material was heavy duty and had two layers, a mesh see-through layer and a solid heavy-duty tarp overlay.

Each side of the tent could be rolled up to take advantage of the view. On the inside of the tent, there was an additional wall of tarps that could be opened or closed, if you wanted to give yourself an additional layer of protection from the door opening. We also left it open while we slept in order to wake up to the morning view.

5. How Many Nights for a Kruger National Park Safari?

We booked seven nights, but after arriving, we realized that most people only stayed for three or four nights before moving on to another adventure. For us, we are travel bloggers, and since the lodge offered WIFI, we took the downtime to work on our posts and YouTube Channel. If we had to do it again on a DIY safari, we would only book four nights, as this gave us plenty of opportunities to see amazing animals.

6. Food is Included

The next item we needed to figure out was where we would eat. Honestly, this is something that is usually the top priority for us, we are simple minded in that regard! Honeyguide offered three meals a day, snacks and drinks on the drives, and a bar where you could order a drink of choice. Sodas, wine, and beer were extra, except on the game drives, one was included.

The meals were excellent, not foo-foo food, but hearty choices that were delicious and filling. Breakfast was amazing, and we were offered five or six choices. We ended up combining choices to make our plate the perfect combination to our liking. We ordered omelets, bacon, avocado. There was always a basket of muffins and bread on the table, and the tea, coffee, and juices were abundant.

Our lunch choices usually included two options, a vegetarian option and one with meat. We oftentimes ate the vegetable based one and loved both. Dinner was the same, a couple of wonderful choices that changed daily.

One evening, the kitchen staff put on a show for us. This included traditional dancing. It was very exciting and energetic to watch. It didn’t happen each night, and since we were there for a week, we only experienced it once.

Overall, we were very happy with the food choices, they were well rounded and delicious. They were home cooked and not processed foods.

7. Getting to the African Safari Lodge

One of our biggest logistical issues when going it alone was getting to the lodge. There are three larger airports that service Kruger. Our lodge was located about an hour from Hoedspruit, and we were able to fly on AirLink directly there from Cape Town. This was a jet plane and one of our favorite regional airlines we’ve encountered on our world travels.

When we arrived at the airport, the excitement started immediately, as we saw four or five different animals as we were taxiing to the terminal. While this alarmed us a bit, it was a taste of what was to come, a week filled with wildlife.

We arranged through Honeyguide for a transport from the airport, and we paid $150 for the round-trip service. Our driver was wonderful and friendly. His van was air conditioned, and we were very comfortable on our hour drive.

8. An Important Lesson

While driving through the Manyeleti Private Game Reserve, we passed another lodge. There was an antelope that we often saw running the fence line. We asked about him, and were told that there are two types of lodges near Kruger, ones who leave their land open to the National Park and ones that are fenced in.

This particular lodge offered game drives within their fenced in area, and our driver told us that had we booked with them, we would be completely bored over the course of the week, since the area is small. He said the animals are not free to roam and we would have seen the same animals all week as we traveled down the same roads.

We were very pleased with our choice of lodges because it was located in the Manyeleti Private Game Reserve. In the past, this reserve was one that allowed all people to visit regardless of race, during apartheid and because it offered this ability, it wasn’t considered a premium destination. As such, the infrastructure was lacking for many years. It also doesn’t have as many lakes. For these reasons, other reserves became more desirable to travel to and grew. Today, the adjacent reserves have many more lodges and hence become congested with jeeps of onlookers.

9. Avoiding the Crowds

For us, we saw this as the perfect place for us to take our first DIY luxury Kruger National Park safari. Yes, we knew we might miss an animal sighting, but we were coming from Sri Lanka where the safari in Yala National Park included many jeeps, and it was sometimes the luck of the draw as to whether the driver could position his jeep for prime viewing.

Our drives in Kruger were carefree and absent from these crowds. Yes, the roads were bumpy at times, but we were there for the animals and the experience, and we didn’t mind. We’ll take low crowds any day over a perfectly groomed path.

10. What We Saw on our Kruger National Park Safari

We were thrilled that during our week, we were able to witness four of the big five game animals. The elusive leopard was just that, elusive. We didn’t see one of them, but we had just seen one in Sri Lanka and that sighting was still sitting firmly as one of our favorite travel memories, so we didn’t mind.

We saw plenty of lions! This was a highlight during our drives. We were able to see a fresh kill and watch the pride feed on the carcass of a Cape Buffalo. We returned over the course of a couple of days until all the animals had cleaned the bones. It was interesting and gross all at the same time!

We would be remiss to not include that our week was filled with wonderful animal sightings. Every drive, every day included something that fueled the little kid in our hearts. The experience was everything we hoped for and more. We would go back again and again. In fact, we hope to return and do it all over again.

Conclusion

Be sure to watch our entire DIY African safari video, so you can see the large variety of animals we saw. It was a bucket list experience in every regard.

Also, booking directly didn’t hurt our experience in the least. We were able to book Honeyguide for about $500 a night for the two of us and along with our shuttle service, we were able to go on a luxury DIY safari for a week for the low price of $1,825 each. We’ll take that!

Extra note:

We referenced in our video Pamarah Lodge in Victoria Falls. Be sure to check them out and include a trip to see the falls when booking Kruger. We think four nights at each is the perfect timing. Pamarah helped us book excursions to Botswana to visit Chobe National Park for safari on land and river. They were gracious hosts, and their advice and guidance made our stay perfect. They will assist you in setting up sunset dinner cruises on the Zambezi River and other experience in the area.

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