The Big Five in front of the hire car, lodges by the waterhole, plus Cape Town and the Garden Route – South Africa is the safari that's easiest to do.
Photo: Ludovico Di Giorgi (Unsplash)
Full disclosure: I haven't been on safari yet – but hardly any topic comes up as often among my friends. And they all say the same thing: South Africa is ideal for a first safari, because in Kruger National Park you can drive your own hire car, the roads are tarmacked and the camps are affordable.
Kruger is half the size of Switzerland. You stay in the state-run rest camps (simple, cheap) or in the private reserves on the edge of the park, such as Sabi Sand, where rangers in open jeeps drive right up to lions at night – it costs, but it's the experience everyone talks about.
The classic trip: a week in Kruger, a flight to Cape Town, then the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth with the winelands, whales at Hermanus and ostrich farms. No time difference, and our winter is their summer – only in Kruger is the southern winter (May to September) the best time.
Kruger: rest camps (Skukuza, Lower Sabie) or lodges in the private reserves. Garden Route: Knysna, Plettenberg Bay. Cape Town: see its own page.
I almost always compare hotels, apartments and guesthouses on Booking.com – with genuine reviews and usually free cancellation.
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