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My husband and I had a wonderful but too brief trip to Kruger 10 years ago. We are planning to return in May or the first half of June for a somewhat longer trip; we are inviting our son (33) and my sister, who loves animals. Neither has been to Kruger. Planning the trip is a bit complicated, as we will be arriving from France, my son from NY, and my sister from Washington DC

This is my tentative itinerary; I'd appreciate any advice (also, would May be better than June, or vice versa?)

Day 1: arrive in Johannesburg, drive in rental car to somewhere reasonably close to Kruger, probably Phalaborwa gate, buying some groceries on the way. We'll be looking for a clean but inexpensive hotel/motel or the equivalent. I don't dare make reservations the first night in Kruger, in case flights are delayed.

Day 2: Enter by Phalaborwa, drive to Singwedzi for the night, or, to
Shipandani Sleepover Hide.

Day 3: Drive to Punda Maria, taking the Mphongolo Loop and perhaps the Lamont Loop. Time permitting, go to Crooks Corner?

Day 4: Drive to Pafuri camp, arriving by 2 pm to begin the 3-night walking safari. (Time permitting, go to Crooks Corner if we didn't do that day 3)

Days 5 and 6 - Pafuri walking safari.

Day 7 Finish walking safari by 10 am. Drive to Mopani Restcamp (is this too long a drive?)

Day 8 Drive to Nadeli bush camp (private)

Day 9 Stay at Nadeli

Day 10 Return to airport

I am including the Nadeli stay partly because I am unsure about what we will see in the northern reaches of the park - this will surely be my sister's only trip to Kruger in her life, and I would like her to see giraffes and some large cat. I have been told that sometimes one see more wildlife at a private lodge because the vehicles for game rides can go off the road. If for cost or time reasons we have to cut out either the Pafuri walking safari or Nadeli, which should I cut?

Also, if anyone knows of a way to get good fares from the U.S., I would be interested. I first saw fares around $1190, which I thought wasn't too bad, but those are for 30-hour flights, a night fly to Germany, then a long layover and a second night flight to Johannesburg.

Thanks for any advice you have.

Barbara,

I can't give advice on the intinerary but with regard to flights the only day flight to SA from Europe I know of is KLM (now part of Air France Group as you may know).

A quick search on Air France for 15/05/2013 shows outbound from JFK

JFK 6pm to AMS 7.25am +1 day KLM

AMS 10.20am to JNB 9.15pm KLM

A total outbound trip time of 21hr 15m and the return fare shown is $1,058.

I hope it helps,
Adrian

Barbaraburke, a warm welcome to you

I am no fundi, but if i plan a trip, i do not change it. I carry on! I do not want to blame anyone later

Enjoy your trip

A warm welcome to the forums barbaraburke.

Sending you a pm about flights from the US.

You are right - it is really complicated!
A couple of quick thoughts -

Could your son and sister meet you in France and then all fly together? The flight from NY or Washington to Paris is not bad, and if they could layover for a day or two with you, it would break up the flight for them and also help with jet-lag. (Assuming you are somewhere near Paris!)

Also, think about flying from JNB to Mpumalanga or Phalaborwa rather than driving. We find it much easier and don't really enjoy the long drive after a long flight. There are car rental agencies at both airports. If on the other hand, you want to experience some of South Africa and see a bit more than the park, then by all means, drive.

You will get all sorts of opinions re. private lodges but I think it is not a bad idea to try both private and self drive options. There is a whole thread on this subject somewhere.

Are you certain that you want to spend the whole time in the North? I love the northern part of Kruger, but if it is a once-in-a-lifetime, I would consider seeing some of the south or at least central part. I don't know where the private lodge that you mentioned is, so maybe you have that covered.

You will have a wonderful time no matter what, so do not worry.

A very warm welcome Barbaraburke

May/June is a lovely time of the year. The bush still has its autumn colours and the weather is the closest to perfect. Do take some warm clothes for any open vehicle drives.

I like the idea of spending a night in the hide. It is unique and should set the tone for pure bush.

For day 7 I would suggest staying at Shingwetzi unless you are really wanting to push things a bit. Depending on time, you could then do the Red Rocks drive and Kanniedood dam. Both are very special places.

Whatever you do, have a super time

Hi Barbaraburke,
why not take a nightflight (10 h to 11 h) by Lufthansa operator from Frankfurt (Germany) to Johannesburg?There are good offers starts from 660 Euro. They have a good newsletter where you can find flights.
For the newsletter: lufthansa.com
Wish you a nice trip.

Hello Barabaraburke, welcome to the forum. You have been given some really good advice. I looked up the lodge you have mentioned and although they say they are in Kruger, they are actually in the Greater Kruger area, so not actually within the park. If you had to choose then I would stick with Pafuri and perhaps try to get either one of the guest houses in Satara or maybe one of the cottages in Talamati. These are in a more central part of the park, which will give you some very good game seeing options.

Hope you and your family enjoy the trip.

Many thanks to everyone for all the replies. I am not sure whether I am supposed to reply individually (and if so, how to do it) or just to post here.

It would be lovely if my son and sister could meet up with us in France, spend a night there and then go from there, but that would double the cost and take more time, which is at a premium. But the Air France flight arriving in Johannesburg at 9:15 pm sounds good - they could spend the night at an airport hotel and then we there when we arrive the next morning.

I will look into flying from JNB to Mpumalanga or Phalaborwa.

I am also having second thoughts about the total length of the trip; 8 nights in Kruger means at least 12 days total. My sister lives fairly close to our (90-year-old) mother, and checks on her once a week; her husband will be doing that while she is gone. But I think she may get anxious with such a long trip. So I may have to cut back on my itinerary. I am now thinking that perhaps we should concentrate on the southern and middle parts of the park. I don't know if there are any wilderness trails available in those areas next May; I will inquire.

Thanks again!

Barbara

Barbara, no hard and fast rules on how to reply, just go with how you feel.

If you'd like to show the individual post, just click on the quote button on the bottom right of the post. This will copy the contents and put quote tags around.

As for cutting your itinerary, for all that travelling I think you'll find any less than 8 days will just be too rushed so I would leave it as it is.

Hi Barbara,
my advice, especially if you are thinking of a slightly shorter stay and for your son and sister whose first visit it is, would be to concentrate more on the central and south of the park where the animals are more plentiful to give them that opportunity of seeing lots of varied game.

May is a lovely time of year for a visit.

There are trails that can be done from those areas.

Here

Hi, I have been rethinking my itinerary, especially since my sister is getting cold feet about being away so long. I'm trying to cut the trip by 1 day. I also have learned that some Kruger gates will open after hours, and that some wilderness trails are available. Here is what I am now contemplating:

Day 1, drive from Johannesburg to Kruger Gate, spend the night at Skukuza
Day 2 Olifants
Day 3 Either Sable sleepover hide or Shipandani Sleepover Hide (if available)
Day 4 drive either to Letaba or to Satara
Days 5-7 Sweni wilderness trail
Day 8 - either go to Naledi private lodge or some camp in Kruger closer to Johannesburg
Day 9 Drive to Johannesburg and begin the flights home

Any suggestions? Thanks so much!

Barbara

I sent this as a private message but I don't think you received it.

I suggest using South African Airways for the US flights. They have flights from New York and Washington. The flight from New York is direct and on the way down it's about 14.5 hours, return is about 15.5 hours. The flight from Washington stops in Dakar for refuelling. It adds about an hour to the total journey, and the flight from Washington is also a little longer (by about an houror so) than New York. Whatever, it's way better than 30 hours through Europe.


Cost depends on the time of year you're going. We have gone in early August, and it's cost us about $400 more than by waiting 2 or 3 weeks. We found out the hard way. Also, it's the the same price to fly to Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban - or at least it was a few years ago. If for instance, you want to go to Kruger and then spend some time in Cape Town, buy your ticket to Cape Town. You get off in JNB, drive to Kruger, stay in Kruger, drive back to JNB and then fly to CapeTown. By buying your ticket to Cape Town in the first place, you get the JNB - CPT - JNB section for free. JNB is an alloweable stop-over. We found this out the hard (expensive) way too.

We always use a travel agent here in Toronto. Check out flysaa.com. If you can't get decent info/prices, I can give you the name, number and email address of the agent we use. And if your family flys SAA, I suggest they join the frequent flyer club, even if they are not planning on returning. They can donate the points to charity if they don't use them.

Hello!!
Mi hope you have a great trip!

My only advice...if your trip is less than 2 weeks, fly to nelspruit and do the mid and southern parts of the park. There are excellent private reserves in both areas (pm me if interested) or you can spend the while time in KNP. Great experience either way, but we prefer a mixture if both.

We have flown into hoedspruit once and nelspruit once...preferring nels for stocking up and easy access to the park.

My two cents.

Oh, one more point. We have flown delta out of Atlanta and Saa out of JFK. Both were great. Watch to see if any of your options skip the stop in Senegal. It is worth a few extra euros to miss that delay.

On private reserves, we stayed at one before knp on our first trip and loved the experience as a primer for knp. On our second trip this June, we stayed in a private reserve as a wind down after knp. We loved both experiences. If you have people new to Africa coming along, I suggest a private reserve primer if you have time.