Kruger National Park

Kruger is the park most people picture when they think of a South African safari. It runs about 360 km from the Crocodile River in the south to the Limpopo in the north, covers close to 20,000 square kilometres of Limpopo and Mpumalanga lowveld, and shares its eastern fence with Mozambique. It has been a national park since 1926, and you can do the whole thing yourself in a hire car.

Getting there

Most visitors drive from Johannesburg. The southern gates (Malelane, Phabeni, Paul Kruger, Crocodile Bridge) are 400 to 450 km away, roughly five hours on the N4. Skip Numbi Gate. SANParks advise against it after a tourist was killed in a violent attack, and the UK Foreign Office reports protests on the R538 leading to it. Use Phabeni or Malelane instead. Orpen, for the central section, and Phalaborwa, Punda Maria and Pafuri in the north add another hour or two. Pick the gate nearest your first camp.

If you would rather not drive, Airlink flies into Skukuza inside the park from Johannesburg and Cape Town. Kruger Mpumalanga International at Mbombela is about 82 km from Paul Kruger Gate, and Hoedspruit’s Eastgate airport serves the Orpen side.

When to go

May to September is the dry season and the easy answer. Grass is short, waterholes draw animals in, and days sit comfortably between about 8 and 22 degrees. July and August are peak months and camps fill six months out.

October to April is hot, often above 35 degrees, with afternoon storms, thick green bush and newborn antelope. Kruger is a malaria area all year and the risk is highest in these wet months, so talk to a travel clinic whatever the season.

What to do

Self-drive is the point. The speed limit is 50 km/h on tar and 40 on gravel, but regulars say 25 is about right if you actually want to see anything. The south, between the Sabie and Crocodile rivers, has the densest game and the most cars; the road along the Sabie between Skukuza and Lower Sabie is a reliable start. Satara in the centre is open grassland and lion country. North of the Olifants River the park empties out, sightings get patchier and the birding gets better.

Camps run guided sunrise and sunset drives and night drives, the only legal way to be out after the gates close. Three-night wilderness trails (Napi, Olifants, Sweni, Nyalaland and others) take eight hikers and two rangers into areas with no roads.

Good to know

Gates close at sunset, 17:30 in midwinter and 18:30 in midsummer, and arriving late earns a fine. Plan each day’s distance with that in mind; a herd of buffalo on the road can cost you twenty minutes. Stay in your car outside camps, do not post sighting locations online (poachers read them too), and keep your gate permit until you leave. Most big camps sell fuel and take cards. Book as early as you can, a year ahead for school holidays. Three nights is a bare minimum; four to seven, split between two or three camps, is what works.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Sources: Wikivoyage, Wikipedia, HPH Publishing, Africa Geographic, SafariBookings, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.