Frequently Asked Questions

Normally bookings open 11 months in advance. When the school holidays extend over two months, a feasible date will be indicated on our website when bookings will open for this period.

For more information see Booking Periods.

All booking requests are only accepted 11 months or less in advance. Bookings for the 11th month are opened on the 1st working day of each new month.

For more information see Booking Periods.

Your basket will expire 120 minutes (2 hours) after it was created, ie. when the first item was added. This prevents reservations from being held indefinitely, and helps keep availability accurate and up to date for all customers.

If your basket expires, you can simply start a new booking.

No. Adding an item to your basket does not reserve the item. Bookings are only secured when you have checked out your basket and made payment.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club and American Express cards that are enrolled with 3D Secure. Debit cards activated for online purchases are also accepted.

Cash or EFT is NOT accepted.

1. Enter your name as it appears on your credit card.
2. Enter your 16 digit card number on the front of the card.
3. Enter the expiry date on the front of your card.
4. Enter the CVV number (usually 3 or 4 digits) on the back of your card.
5. Once completed you may need to enter your cellphone number or email address to receive your One-Time Pin (OTP).
6. Enter your OTP once received.
7. Your bank will direct you back to the SANParks website for an order confirmation.

Try again using a different delivery method (Email or SMS). Otherwise please contact your bank for further information on your OTP.

Reservations that were booked over the telephone, via email, or through an agent, will NOT display in the Online Bookings platform.

If you have reservations that were booked online and they aren’t showing, please try sign out of your account and then sign in again. If this doesn’t help, please submit a support ticket via our Account Assistance form.

Contact Reservations or email [email protected] should you wish to modify your booking.

The downgrading (reducing the total value) of a reservation made online could result in modification fees. These are calculated on the difference between the reservation cost before and after the changes were made:

• Modify within 30 to 15 days before arrival – 25% modification fee
• Modify within 14 to 7 days before arrival – 50% modification fee
• Modify within 6 days and less – 100% modification fee
• When modifying the arrival date to an earlier date, no modification fees will be charged, unless the total cost is decreased and the arrival date before the modification fell inside the 30-day period.

Please see the Cancellations & Modifications section on our How To Book page for more information.

Contact Reservations or email [email protected] should you wish to cancel your booking.

Cancelling a reservation made online could result in cancellation fees. These are calculated on the total value of the reservation that was cancelled:

• Cancel within 30 to 15 days before arrival – 25% cancellation fee
• Cancel within 14 to 7 days before arrival – 50% cancellation fee
• Cancel within 6 days and less – 100% cancellation fee

You may consider postponing a reservation (at same or higher cost and subject to availability) as an alternative to cancellation. You will be required to pay in the difference should reservation cost increase as a result and if reservation cost decreases the booking will be subject to the rules that apply for downgrading a reservation.

Please see the Cancellations & Modifications section on our How To Book page for more information.

Guests are allowed to move their reservation from one park to another without any penalty fee costs as long as the booking is not paid. However once the booking is partially or fully paid they have to be cautious when moving their booking to another park as Terms & Conditions will apply.

I’ve you’ve booked multiple different camps under the same reservation and the reservation is partially or fully paid, then no partial part of the booking will be allowed to be moved from one park to another. You will only have one option of moving the entire booking. Reservations may not be split.

Senior citizen discounts are NOT available to reservations made through the Online Bookings platform.

For more information see Senior Citizens.

Yes, but only very conditionally. While SANParks acknowledges and empathizes that persons with disabilities may be economically marginalised and have additional medical or mobility expenses that other guests might not have, we are also aware that disability is such a diverse and wide-ranging group and very difficult to narrow down. Offering discounts purely on disability is open to abuse and very difficult to regulate. Thus only persons with a South African state disability pension will qualify and for the same discount conditions and visitation periods that senior citizens qualify for.

The availability information is updated real-time (unless interrupted by technical difficulties) between our reservation system and the website. As SANParks accept reservations on a first-come-first-served basis we cannot guarantee that accommodation clients saw as available online will still be available by the time a reservation is attempted.

Accommodation availability is reconciled on a daily basis. This process starts at 12:00am (SAST) and runs for approximately 2 hours. Unfortunately no bookings can be made while this process is running.

These mentioned parks/camps are in high demand. We operate on a first-come first-served basis. SANParks does not limit or control the number of units booked by each guest.

It is required to declare individual fitness and ability to complete the trails or walks.

Bookings will done directly through the park(s) gates or receptions.

This would be determined by the length of stay in the Parks as well as the client’s itinerary, group dynamic, and nationality. The conservation levies applicable must be compared to the Wild Card option best suited to the guests.

There is a maximum threshold of visitors that can enter the park daily. If this threshold is reached only visitors with pre-booked overnight accommodation will be permitted access. Such situations tend only to arise in extreme cases such as public holidays and long weekends.

• A booking fee is payable when making an advanced day booking.
• Pre-booked day visits must be paid in advance, on or before the deposit due date.
• Guests who book one day in advance must pay when the booking is made.
• Wild Card members have to pay this “advance booking fee” if they want to pre-book their day visit.