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Will be traveling with 3 year old child in eastern South Africa in late March into early April 2013.
After a stint at the beach near Durban, we wish to go to Kruger NP.
Are there certain activities that would not be recommended, or others specifically recommended with respect to traveling with such a young child and safety concerns.
Never having been to African game park, I would welcome any advice and I come with no point of reference or information.
Thank you all.

Hi kimperato and a warm welcome to the forum!

Please do have a read Here for lots of great advice and info.
If there is anything further you need to know, please do ask.

Enjoy!

I'd also suggest you base yourself in one of the larger camps for several days.
That way you won't have to drive around too much and you can enjoy the camp surrounds together. Pretoriuskop has a lovely swimming pool and there are tame impala living in camp which makes it nice for kids. Skukuza might also be an option because there are plenty of short trips you can do around there and there's lots of activity.
Satara has a nice play area for kids near the pool too.
Children don't have the same appetite for long game drives so it's probably best to do things in small bites.

Be aware of the hot African sun, even in March/April, and put on sunscreen and cover up your child.

Without becoming neurotic, keep an eye on your child at all times. You will be visiting the African wilderness, and there are snakes, insects etc. Just remain alert, no need to panic.

We've taken our daughter twice, at 2 and 3 years of age.
Even at three, she is only really interested in animals that are quite close to the car.
So, it has changed our driving style somewhat.
Less time looking for the rarer animals far off in the bush, more sitting alongside a herd of zebra talking with her about what the animals are doing.
We also ensure that we could get out of the car at picnic areas on a regular basis

We bought her a cheap set of small construction vehicles and plastic shovel.
She spent most evenings scraping little roads in the dirt/gravel outside each bungalow we visited.

Also, there is a zebra at Lower Sabie and a giraffe at Skukuza that small children can ride (for 2 rand the animal rocks back and forth, like the horse rides elsewhere).
Six months after our second trip my daughter still considers this the high point of her trip!

Think through the malaria issues, be aware of the monkeys and the child will have a great time.
We gave our child a stick to carry when playing around the camp and the vervets treated her with more caution when she had the stick in her hand.

Hi,

My wife and I are visiting Kruger for two weeks in August this year. We have two children aged 5 and 7 and conscious that if we spend two weeks driving around Kruger without doing anything else, we may end up with two rather grumpy children !

We are staying at Talamati, Shimuwini, Orpen, Biyamiti and Berg en Dal. Appreciate that three of these are bushcamps and so facilities are minimal.

Any suggestions of things to do around the edge of Kruger, or in the bigger rest camps ? I recall from past visits that there is a great reptile park somewhere near Hoedspruit (?), and that also there is the Endangered Species Centre (also Hoedspruit).

Any other suggestions ?

Thanks for your help.

Terry

Hi tvivian and a warm welcome to the forum!

Please do have a read through Kids in Kruger and I am sure you will find a lot of great advice and info in there.

Enjoy your trip.

We used to have three children all grown up now ..
Maybe buy them an animal colouring in book for when you are in camp.
Take a walk around the camps ( inside the fence of course) Letaba has a super hall with all the magnificent 7 tusks inside and the stories to go with them.
Buy the children each an inexpensive pair of binos !!! they will love that My two grandies ( then were 3 and 4) had great fun .. and of course a few animal books .
They love trying to identify the various birds, the then 4 year old knew more birds than I did .
Those outside places didn't exist when my children were small but any mites out there who do know them they must PM you .. I am sure your children will love it .
Oh and buy them each a torch and plenty of spare batteries .

Hugh,

Thanks for the tips. We shall go to Letaba for the Elephant Hall, and I have started a little shopping list here for bino's etc. I hadn't thought about a torch each, good idea.

Regards,

Terry

Tvivian, a very warm welcome to you

I have had the challenge of keeping kids happy in the Park and you will have to be a bit creative at times.

A couple of things I did was to get them to choose "their animal" and count how many they found. My one daughter chose impala and the other Cheetah.. guess who won the counting competition.

I also bought them a scrap book each and they were allowed to choose post cards of animals seen at sightings.
In my day walkmans were the rage. I bought a selection of animal bush stories that they were allowed to listen to on the longer drives. We often had children singing on the top of their voices to tunes we could not hear.

Pray for baboons and monkeys always a crowd pleaser.

Hi tvivian and welcome!

We started taking our children (also grown up now) to KNP when they were about 8 - 10 years old and had the pleasure of taking a grandson then 3 1/2 for a week about 4 years ago.
As you should go out early in the morning, we found that by about 10 - 12 midday, silence would descend in the back seat as they passed out - so take a pillow with you!
Colouring books; children's animal and bird ID books and (for grandson) a set of National Geographic DVD's that we played through the laptop.
Berg n Dal has a swimming pool - so take their costumes.
You could try resurrecting that old game "I spy....." it usually keeps the whole vehicle occupied for a while.
You will enjoy observing Kruger through the eyes of your children (and, boy, are those eyes sharp!)- we found it more fascinating with grandson than normal!
Binoculars and torches are a MUST and maybe, if your budget can stretch that far - a cheap camera for them to take their own pics.
Enjoy it!

I always take "glow sticks" you can find it at your local china mall or places like plastic warehouse. Each little one gets one around the arm every evening (they only last about a night) but helps finding little ones in the dark and also acts as a "night light" for all those "scary" things that go bump in the night.

Sasol has very nice children books on mammals, birds and reptiles. I think it's called "My first ______ book" (insert the name of the animal type).

Thanks very much for your suggestions everyone. I have some shopping to do !

Regards,

Terry