Kruger National Park South Africa Bucket List Trip for ~$1500 from the US?? Hell Yeah!

If you are interested in wildlife on the African continent, you have probably heard of South Africa's Kruger National Park. If you haven't you should! It's certainly in the top 5 in terms of viewing the continent's wildlife in a natural setting. For all the traveling I've done, it's perhaps the most amazing place I've visited that doesn't have an active volcano!

The park is huge - about 20,000 square kilometers, or roughly the size of New Jersey. The park borders Mozambique and it's version of Kruger - Limpopo National Park.  My wife and I spent 4 days here in September of 2016, and managed to see this amazing park for under $1500 per person.  I will outline the trip, and expenses below.  It's a long-ass flight from the US (2 back to back red-eyes of about 12 hours each - for us it was Denver to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Johannesburg), but it really is a trip of a lifetime for wildlife enthusiasts.

Airfare

Well, this is going to determine just how affordable this trip will be. We started planning for this trip in early 2016, and immediately began looking for affordable flights. For several months, we couldn't find a flight for under $1800. Most of the time, the flights were around $2100 - more than we wanted to spend. We looked at other nearby options, such as Harare in Botswana, but none of these other airports were cheaper. But, we checked every day, and then out of the blue we found flights one day for under $1200. They didn't last long, but we were ready and grabbed them quick. We planned our trip for the third week of August. That's winter in Kruger, but the temperatures were in the 70's during the day and 20's to upper 30's at night, so cool mornings and evenings but pleasant during the day. And not a drop of rain.

To Kruger

There are many ways to see Kruger. You can do an organized tour, or take a charter flight from Johannesburg. We decided to do a self-drive of the park, which means we needed a car, and that we had to drive to the park from the airport in Johannesburg (about a 5 hour drive). I found a car for $81 for the 5 days. I should note that this car was a standard, which I am comfortable driving, and you drive on the opposite side of the road than in the US so the stick is on your left side. It's a little bit of an adjustment, but not too tough. The roads from Johannesburg to Kruger are great, and pretty easy to drive. We never felt unsafe or threatened, but it's best to keep track of the local situation because Johannesburg can get rough on occasion. We never drove at night, and would advise against it (just in case you break done - no need to risk it).  Gas for the whole trip also cost about $80, so car and gas added about $80 per person. Perfect. Below is our $15/car. Plenty of room.

In Kruger

Driving around Kruger is VERY easy. Just hop in the car at sun up, pick a road. look out the window, and be amazed. Bring a camera and binoculars, but most of the time the animals will be along the road side. Everyone wants to see the Big 5 - cape buffalo, leopard, lion, rhinos and elephants - we typically knocked out all 5 each day (along with a bonus cheetah), sometimes before noon. Don't expect to go fast though. On our second day, we planned to drive a total of 125 miles - it took us over 8 hours! We would literally drive 100 yards and stop because there was some new animal, or another herd of elephants, or whatever.  Amazing.  In the 3 days and 4 nights, we drove all day and saw less than 20% of the park. We stayed in the south (I will give you our itinerary below) so that the drive to and from Kruger would be minimized.  You can't go wrong visiting any part of the park.  A guide will always add to your experience, but if you are aiming to do this on the cheap, you honestly don't need one.

OK, I know this is a crappy picture, but I had to shoot it through an opening in a tree. A leopard dragging a dead impala is cool no matter how crappy the photo!

A couple of things. YOU CANNOT GET OUT OF YOUR CAR. There are a couple of places, clearly marked where you can use the bathroom, but unless you are in one of the gated villages you cannot get out and walk around. This is for a good reason. You could get eaten here. Seriously.

You also have to be back to the village by dark, or risk a hefty fine. There are some options for night hiking and wildlife viewing, but you have to arrange this within one of the villages. It's not something you can do on your own.

You have a number of options for accommodations in the park, ranging from camping in the enclosed villages (perfectly safe, and cheap, and lots of folks do this) to small huts, to more fancy huts, and so on. Because we had some baggage limitations (I was going to be attending a conference after Kruger, so I needed to bring a bag of dress clothes) we opted for the cheapest huts - about $33US/night. So, for the 3 nights we spent $100, or $50 a piece. Below are a few shots of our low level huts. They were perfect for us.

You can book all of the accomodations ahead of time through the South Africa National Parks Website. It's easy to use, but will require you to set up an account. It's not hard.  On Day 1 we drove from Johannesburg to the Numbi Gate (entrance near the SW part of the park). Once through the gates we took the first left up a dirt road, drove five minutes to a water hole and watched hippos and crocodiles. Easy peasy! That night we stayed in Pretiouskup in a simple hut (pictured above) and grabbed food from the grocery store. The stars were amazing.  Day 2 involved a drive from Pretoriuskup to Satara, in the south central part of the park. Again, another $30 simple hut (they have beds, a fridge, and AC (although we didn't need it).  Day 3, back to Pretoriuskop  for more egg salad sandwiches, beer and another hut (closest village in Kruger back to the highways for our drive back to Johannesburg on Day 4. We actually drove around quite a bit the morning of Day 4 before noon - we had a late flight that night). 

If you are in need of Hilton-type accommodations, then Kruger is not for you. Entry fees were one of the most expensive parts of visiting Kruger - $150 for the 4 days. My wife and I always go cheap on food. We simply bought food in one of the grocery stores in the villages - mostly egg salad sandwiches and ice cream bars! In total, we spent $100 on food over the 4 days for the 2 of us - $50 US a piece. So, the entire Kruger stay cost about $175US/person for the 4 days. Combine that with the $1200 airfare, and $80 for the car, we come in at a little less than $1500, leaving room for transportation to and from our home to the airport in Denver.