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The Kruger Park is one of the last bona fide paradises - a magnificent expanse of wilderness roamed by abundant wildlife.
Need Advice?Safari enthusiasts have diverse accommodation and package options, catering to various budgets and interests.
An itinerary suited to your requirements is sure to be found.
Properties range from plush personal lodges to extravagant safari palaces.
National park camps offer comfortable accommodations on budget-friendly safaris.
The private game reserves that form part of the Greater Kruger National Park are some of the most popular luxury safari destinations on the African continent. These reserves share unfenced borders with the park.
While Kruger National Park is the main safari attraction in Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province, trips can be customized to include scenic tours to nearby sites such as Blyde River Canyon and God's Window.
Browse our thoughtfully crafted safari tours.
All our tours and safaris can be customized.
Important information about visiting Southern Africa.
Here you will find information about some lesser-known activities, locations, and wildlife in Kruger.
Various wilderness trails crisscross the quieter regions of the park, where private vehicles are not allowed. You'll spend a few days on the trail, getting close to nature and learning more about the animals you encounter. Accommodation is basic but comfortable.
These wild outposts have discarded luxuries for a more intimate affair with nature. No restaurant (or other) facilities are available on-site, so guests at these camps need to arrive fully equipped for their rustic getaway.
Many casual picnic spots are scattered throughout the main arteries of Kruger Park. They are ideal for pit stops or lunch while you are out and about game viewing in the park with your African Sky guide.
Kruger is home to several snake species. Though most people detest these reptiles, many safari enthusiasts are fascinated by snakes and their role in the ecosystem.
Kruger Park is home to the 'Big Five' and the most significant diversity of other animal species of any national park in Africa.
Other AnimalsGame drives are the number one activity in Kruger National Park, and the place to witness spectacular wildlife encounters is from the seat of a safari vehicle. The activity may seem simple enough, but it is an experience like none other in the world.
Guests depart at dawn, in the afternoon, or at dusk for an excursion into the wilderness lasting between 2 to 3 hours. The open-top vehicle with open sides provides maximum viewing and photographic opportunities. Each drive is led by an experienced ranger who eagerly shares insights about the landscape and wildlife. You'll experience incredibly close and intimate encounters with animals, while the scents, sights, and sounds of the African wilderness will fully awaken your inner explorer.
Visiting this wild corner of the continent means some wild dining options are also available, which will appeal particularly well to meat lovers and adventurous eaters. Trying unique and traditional fare is undoubtedly part of a rewarding travel experience.
Kruger National Park is an excellent arena for close encounters of the four-legged kind. It is a haven where critically endangered and vulnerable species, such as the African wild dog, black rhinoceros, and cheetah, can still be viewed in their natural habitat. The big cats prosper, with around 2000 lions and 2000 leopards residing in the park, ensuring that the average game viewer can quickly tick them off their checklist.
Elephants occur in abundance, with herds expanding so much in recent years (almost 12,000 elephants currently call Kruger home) that many groups have had to relocate to protect the ecosystem. White rhinos are present in lesser numbers but are regularly spotted throughout the park. Solid herds of African buffalo frequently blacken the gold sweep of the savanna, emerging from the bush in their thousands.
Large herbivores such as Burchell's zebra, blue wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, waterbuck, and impala prevail on every terrain, while eland, nyala, and smaller antelope are rarer finds. Lesser mammals include spotted hyenas, black-backed jackals, honey badgers, genets, meerkats, mongoose, warthogs, bush pigs, porcupines, baboons, and Vervet monkeys. Dams and rivers teem with hippo and crocodile populations.
With over 500 feathered species, Kruger is a birder's paradise. From the delightful lilac-breasted roller to the majestic Bateleur eagle, even wildlife enthusiasts will be charmed by the kaleidoscope of birdlife after the larger game. A few of the park's birds belong to a group called 'The Big Six.' They include the tremendous Lappet-faced vulture, the snow-bellied Martial eagle, the eccentrically dressed saddle-billed stork, the low-stalking Kori bustard, the comically odd ground hornbill, and the rarely spotted Pel's fishing owl.
In 1898, the initiative of Jakob-Louis van Wyk, R.K. Loveday, and President Paul Kruger to establish a 'government wildlife park,' the area between the Sabie and Crocodile rivers, was proclaimed the Sabie Game Reserve. This area now comprises the Southern third of the modern park. The first official warden, Scottish-born Major James Stevenson-Hamilton, was appointed by Sir Godfrey Lagden in 1902. Harry Wolhuter and Thomas Duke became the Sabie Game Reserve's first rangers, posted at present-day Pretoriuskop and Lower Sabie. At the same time, Stevenson-Hamilton operated headquarters at the Sabie Bridge (present-day Skukuza).
In 1903, the Shingwedzi Game Reserve (which now forms part of northern Kruger) was proclaimed and added to Stevenson-Hamilton's list of responsibilities. He appointed Major AA Fraser as the reserve's first head ranger in 1904.
In 1926, the National Parks Act was passed. The reserves were fused and expanded into forging the Kruger National Park. The first three tourist cars accessed the park in 1927, with numbers swelling to 180 in 1928 and 850 in 1929. In the 1940s, the Greek royal family and King George II visited Kruger.
Vestiges of yesteryear survive throughout the park, from the Albasini ruins (the original home of the area's first European settler) near the Phabeni gate and prospectors' graves in the south to the site of Wolhuter's lion attack and the Masorini archaeological site in the north. From the near-extinction of several species to the ongoing battle against poaching, Kruger Park and its champions have braved many challenges in its evolution toward the distinguished reserve as it exists today.
Stretching 380 km north to south and averaging 60 km east to west, the wild expanse of the Kruger National Park may almost be considered a province in its own right. Two rivers are natural borders to the park; the Limpopo River in the north and the Crocodile River in the south. Kruger's western boundary runs across the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, while Mozambique's Limpopo National Park lies to the east.
A few significant rivers run west to east through the park, starting with the Sabie River in the south, the Olifants and Letaba rivers in the heart of the park, and the Luvuvhu in the far north. These rivers replenish the numerous smaller streams and dams throughout the park. Depending on the region, rainfall varies from a maximum of 720 mm to a minimum of 400 mm per annum.
Vegetation digresses throughout Kruger, creating a stirring medley of settings for game sightings. Rock figs and bushwillows star the southwest, with kiaat and silver-cluster leaf lacing the Pretoriuskop area. The general south is full of sickle bush and thorn trees, ranging from knob thorn to scented and sticky thorn. Shady tamboti trees and the juicy-fruited marula trees cloak the area as well. A mopane mantle covers the earth from the park's heart to the far north. Rare tree species occur in the northern Pafuri and Punda Maria regions; an area also weighted in ancient baobab trees.
Around seven geological substructures pads the bushy carpet of the park. The west is generally bedded in granite, with rolling plains sprouting from the sandy earth. Coarse, dark gabbroic intrusions also pepper this region, occurring sporadically in the savanna. Karoo sedimentary rock stretches north to south in an axial girdle, yielding fine sand and salty clay soils. The east of the park is stained with ruddy basalt, climbing into the rhyolite base coat of the Lebombo Mountains' stony bulges toward Mozambique.
