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Hi, I am new at this BUT my wife has been reading all the KTP posts over the last year and we are now working on planning our very first trip which will only be in 2010. No actual dates yet - have to first decide if we will brave the heat in Jan to March or try April/May (after schools back in session). Thinking of using our tent and taking trailer for ease of packing (it is heavy duty and has high road clearance). Our plan is 2 nights at Augrabies and about 11 ights in KTP :

1st night at Twee Rivieren
Nossob 7 nights
1 night wilderness camp up near Unions end (while leaving our trailer and tent at Nossob)
1night at Twee Rivieren before departure

1 night extra - somewhere - wish it could be Bitterpan but we can't go there with our trailer - maybe go to both the wilderness camps up near Unions End

Perhaps we could drop one night at Nossob and rather do 2 nights at Mata Mata when we arive instead of 1 night at Twee Riviern.

Would really like some comments.

Also: looking for somehwere to just veg out for a few days on the way home to Germiston after our visit - any suggestions?

Hi bertru & welcome to the forum.

with nights in KTP outside of school holidays, anything is good

We always leave from 2R, after a little final drive.

BTW, I thought Germiston WAS the place to veg...

Hi, I would consider spending a bit more time in the western side - and that's not a comfortable day drive from Nossob. Consider staying an extra night at Tweerivieren or maybe Mata Mata or even better Kalahari Tented Camp (imo better than Bitterpan).
If you can handle the heat then Jan is nice and quiet - and its not humid there.
Enjoy!

With planning for 2010 keep in mind that there will be the WC football as well in that year. (Don't ask me when, I hate football.)
While I think that KTP should be fairly safe as it's quite a drive from either JHB or CT you may want to keep that in mind too?
And yes, most supporters will pop in and out, but a percentage will stay for longer...

Thanks for your input everyone. Will remember the soccer thing when going to book. It seems that we are leaning towards a few extra days and the hotter period - Jan as soon as all schools back. Thinking now of
first 3 nights Mata Mata
up to Nossob for 6 nights
one night up to Grootkolk
(back to Nossob for balance of our 6 nights)
2 nights TweeR

Extra 2 nights in hand:
Maybe 1 night at Kalahari tent camp before going up to Nossob
Maybe add a night at Gharagab or instead try Kiliekrankie on our way out

This will give us 14 nights - max time we will have for KTP as we want to do 2 nights at augrabies before going into KTP

We will then have a couple of days in hand for the travel home - would never tackle the whole trip in one go - we like the "slow" road home.

Will let you know when we finally decide and when we have been able to book.

Can anyone advise when bookings for Jan 2010 will open ?- We are anxious to make our booking now as after much discussion our in initial 11 nights days in KTP has increased to 15 nights We want to have the experience of camping as well and as we are no longer spring chickens don't want to put up the tent for anything less than 3 nights, so we have settled (we hope) on
Twee Rivieren 19 (chalet)
Mata Mata 20 / 21 / 22 (tent)
Urikaruus 23 / 24
Nossob 25 / 26 (tent)
Grootkolk 27 / 28
Nossob 29 - 1 Feb (tent)
TR - 2 Feb (chalet)

As far as I know(nowhere near 100% sure), you can only do this by calling the booking office directly, since online bookings are not available for after October yet. Either way, contact the booking office and I'm sure they can help you out.

As for the planned trip...sounds amazing!

You can book for Jan 2010 as from 1 Feb 2009

I'm also planning a trip to KTP in 2010,

Firstly I was looking at some maps of that area and they said that the road to KTP is sand so I would like to know:
- Is the road sand
- Is it in good condition
- and are there any plans for an upgrade

I would also like some advice:
- Im travelling from springbok and staying in upington for one night and then want to travel to KTP for two nights and then back to either Kuruman, or back to upington for one night and then to Kuruman, can anyone advise me on this thx,
JJ

The road from Upington to KTP is now tarred all the way.
Some parts of the road are not great, so don't travel too fast.
.........
Upington to Twee Rivieren takes about 2 1/2 hours.
So you could spend one night in MataMata and one in Twee Rivieren quite easily and still get back to Upington afterwards.

Two nights in KTP is not enough, JJ, why not spend a third at 2R, because you are only 260 km away from Upington with a tar road all the way there now, and you could leave as the gates open.

Thanks, the more nights the merrier
Ive got pretty much got no time limit.
I was just wondering if the road from KTP directly to kuruman via Hotazel is tarred or is it better to stay one night in Upington from KTP and then got to Kuruman.
JJ

We would like to visit the KTP in March - and have some questions:

We are flying to Upington and want to get a car there.
Any addresses of reliable car rental companies?
What type of car should we rent, bakkie, 4X4 or would a Toyota Venture or similar do it?
How long does it take to get to the park?
How late must we leave Upington in order get still into the park before the gate closes?
What camp would you recommend? We are not interested in camping, rather would prefer a cottage. By the way, we are two people.

Recommendations would be highly appreciated!

Hi Bontebok -- if you want to visit during March, I suggest you book as soon as possible, esp if you want to visit at the end of March when the school holidays start.

First of all, more information -- how long are you planning to stay ?
What time does your flight get to Upington ?
You may want to do some grocery shopping in Upington before you leave, but, from there to KTP is about 2 1/2 hours drive.
In March the gates are open from 06.30 - 19.00

There are car hire firms at the airport -- Avis is one.
4X4 is not necessary but the roads are not really sedan friendly, although many people do travel in sedans.

Twee Rivieren camp is at the entrance gate and is the only camp with a restuarant and credit card facilities.

If you are arriving in the late afternoon that is the camp I would suggest for at least one night.

After that, it depends on how much time you have

Hi there, thank you very much for the useful infos. We gonna be there beginning of March,most likely arriving on March 2. We are planning to stay: a fortnight! Is that too long? How should we divide our stay campwise? It might be too boring to stay just in one camp only.

In Kruger I often stayed a week or longer and I never got bored but what about KTB, should we rather stay a shorter period? We still have to book the flight.