Travel Tip Of The Day: Alternative Ways Of Getting To Kruger

Whether you are going on a day safari or staying in a luxury camp, getting to Kruger National Park can be a costly endeavor.

Most visitors will just fly into O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) in Johannesburg, then take a connecting flight to Nelspruit Airport/Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP).

While this may work for you, you have several other options.

You can also fly into Hoedspruit from Johannesburg to visit the central and northern sections of the park, or Palaborwa to visit the northern section.

These areas are less populated by tourists, and you’ll usually save a bit of money on safaris operating in these areas.

If you look around, you can sometimes find deals on a charter flight to Skukuza Airport or other lodge airstrips.

If you are already in Cape Town or Durban, both airports have direct connections to Nelspruit, so you can avoid connecting through Johannesburg altogether.

It’s also quite easy to rent a car in Johannesburg and drive to the park via the N4 (toll road) to Nelspruit, it takes around 4-5 hours usually. From Nelspruit, you have a choice between nine gates to enter.

You can even skip the safari packages at this point and just drive your car into the park on a self-drive safari.

This is by far the cheapest way to visit the park barring any special deals you might come upon — just make sure to get a map when you enter if you don’t already have one.

To keep a track on flight deals, check out:

expedia.com

skyscanner.com

kayak.com

To book cheap domestic flights between the airports mentioned, check out:

Comair

Mango

Kulula

SA Airlink

SA Express

SSA

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