Kruger National Park is one of the most famous, if not THE most famous national park in Africa and thus it is THE place to go on safari. Add to that the fact it’s so close to Johannesburg (you could do a very long day trip or easily stay overnight) and you get a very busy location. Whilst I had a good day, I found that I had a better safari experience in other parks around Southern Africa. Below, I’ve listed some of the pros and cons of visiting Kruger National Park.
Pros of visiting Kruger
I personally thought the cons outweighed the pros when visiting Kruger National Park. However, there were definitely some good things.
We saw the entire Big 5 in one day
Probably the coolest thing about Kruger National Park was that we managed to see all of the Big 5 in one day! Throughout the rest of my tour, we had managed to see everything except for a Leopard. However, at Kruger, we saw them all! Can you imagine how exciting it would be if this was your first or only park? To see all of the most famous African animals in one day? I think it’d be absolutely incredible.
We saw big cats which we didn’t spot anywhere else
Kruger National Park was also the only place we saw cheetahs and a leopard! When I was younger, I was most definitely a cat person and I used to be obsessed with big cats. So seeing these incredible animals in the wild was really exciting for me! We managed to see cheetahs twice: once at the very start of our day and once at the end.
The visitor centre has a sightings map to help visitors find specific animals
Something that I didn’t see anywhere else but really liked was the two sightings maps outside the visitor centre at Kruger National Park: one for that day’s sightings and one for the previous day’s. Both maps showed where you might be able to spot the Big Five (except rhinos due to the risk of poaching), Cheetahs and African Wild Dogs! On the map, each coloured magnet represented an animal.
The communication between safari drivers throughout the park
I noticed this at a few of the parks but it was definitely most prominent in Kruger. Each of the safari drivers had access to a radio which they used to communicate with each other. Often, our guide would hear something over the radio and start speeding back the way we came, rushing to see some kind of animal! The first Cheetahs we spotted (again with the puns!) were because our guide had heard about them on the radio. We wouldn’t have seen that particular animal if someone else hadn’t shared it and we hadn’t been nearby.
Cons of visiting Kruger
I realise that I have written less cons than pros in this post about visiting Kruger… But as I mentioned, I thought these really outweighed the pros at the time. Perhaps I’m just too picky…
The communication between safari drivers throughout the park
Now I’m sure you’re all thinking: “hang on Caitlin, you just listed that as a pro for visiting Kruger and now it’s a con?” Well, I personally think it is both. As much as it worked in our favour sometimes (like with the Cheetahs), at other moments it really didn’t. Allow me to provide an example:
We were parked off the road near an empty creek bed when we first spotted a small group of lions (one male and three females). From our vantage point, we could see them all walking past and I got some great photos! Eventually, they went around a corner out of our view and flopped down under a tree to rest.
By this point, other trucks had heard about the lions and a queue had formed of people wanting to catch a glimpse. Despite us getting a great view earlier, some of the others in my truck wanted to join the queue to see them again! So we joined the queue, waited for what felt like ages, then finally got to the front. We could barely even see the lions!!!!! I will admit to being rather impatient, so I was pretty disappointed to get such a rubbish view after such a long wait. But what can you do?
The crowds
No doubt you’ve worked out from the section above that the crowds were also definitely a con of visiting Kruger for me. Everywhere we went, there were other people and we had to queue for everything. Whether it was to get a rubbish view of a lion, a souvenir at the visitor centre, to go to the toilet or even to get into the park in the first place! Nowhere else I visited was this busy, so it really stood out to me.
A final note on my opinion of Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park was one of the last stops on my tour. By the time I got here, I had visited five countries, gone on five other safari-type tours and seen most of the famous wildlife species that you hope to see in Africa. I’d already seen giraffe, zebras, elephants, hippos, buffalo, both black and white rhinos, lions and SO many more! So whilst Kruger National Park had a great range of species, I’d kind of already seen them all.
I imagine that everyone likes the park where they go on their first safari or game drive the best because everything is so new and exciting. That was certainly true for me; Etosha National Park was the highlight of my trip! Conversely, if Kruger National Park had been the first park I visited, or the ONLY park I visited in Africa, I expect I would be writing a very different post today. I wouldn’t be complaining about queuing up for a bad view of lions because I’d have loved the opportunity to get another glimpse at them!
I hope my post on the pros and cons of visiting Kruger National Park has helped inspire (or not) your own safari trip! Looking for suggestions on where else to go? Check out my guide to viewing Wildlife in Africa here!
Did you know that you can subscribe to my blog newsletter? If you love travel and wildlife just like me, I recommend you sign up below! Each month, you’ll get a little update from me containing my latest blog posts, a wildlife fact feature and secret travel and blogging tips that I will share ONLY with my subscribers! Interested? Just enter your first name and email below! I’d absolutely love to have you.
One thought on “Pros and Cons of visiting Kruger National Park”