We are a couple from the U.S. (experienced budget backpackers in our early 30’s). We will be coming to South Africa for our first time for 11 days in mid-December of 2014. We have flights booked into JNB and departing from CPT. We want to spend a little time in Kruger (2-4 nights, depending on flight times and the rest of our itinerary) and then fly to Port Elizabeth and drive along the Garden Route to Cape Town and finish the trip there. We don’t mind traveling quickly and spending just 1 night in a couple places along the Garden Route. From doing some research I think we are leaning toward staying at Umkumbe Safari Lodge in Sabi Sand private game reserve and maybe also 1 night in nDzuti Safari Camp in Timbavati. I’ve done a safari before in the Masai Mara in Kenya and loved it, but given the amount of time we have, we probably can only do about 3 days in Kruger on this trip.
Here is a very tentative itinerary that we need help with. It’s not fleshed out yet and yes, I realize it’s busy, but we want to see as much as we can in a short time and don’t mind moving quickly.
Day 1 Land at JNB at 10am, see Apartheid Museum and a couple interesting neighborhoods, night in Johannesburg
Day 2 Early rent car drive 6 hrs to Sabi Sand, 4pm game drive in Umkumbe night in Umkumbe
Day 3 Game drives at Umkumbe, night in Umkumbe
Day 4 Morning game drive at Umkumbe, drive to Timbavati, after game drive at nDzuti, night in nDzuti Safari Camp
Day 5 Morning game drive at nDzuti, drive 6 hrs to Johannesburg, 7pm flight to Port Elizabeth, night in Port Elizabeth
Day 6 TBD
Day 7 TBD
Day 8 TBD
Day 9 TBD
Day 10 TBD
Day 11 TBD Flight from CPT at 11pm at night
Here are our questions:
Johannesburg – Stay 1 night or not? Our international flight arrives at 10am on a Sunday to JNB. When we first arrive, should we immediately drive to Kruger to maximize our time in Kruger (skipping J’berg altogether) or is it worth it to stay the Sunday and Sunday night to see the Aparteid museum and a couple things in Jberg and then drive out early on Monday?
Cut off time for meals/drives at private lodges in Sabi Sand & Timbavati – we looked into a few private lodges in Sabi Sand and Timbavati. These lodges include all meals and game drives. How does this typically work? For example, do you have meals and game drives for 24 hours after arrival (regardless of what time you arrive?) Or does the "all inclusive" end after the morning game drive and breakfast? Since these lodges are all inclusive I want to make the most of it, so I want to time our arrival and departure times accordingly. For instance, I don’t want to depart at 6am on our final day if we'll be missing out on several meals and game drives that day that we'd already paid for.
Booking Car online from US versus SA. Is it recommended to book the car rental online from the US or using a local travel agent in South Africa? Which way is less expensive? Any advantages/disadvantages to either method?
One way Car rental fee: How much extra do rental agencies typically charge for a 1-way car rental drop off (i.e. pick up in J/Berg but return in Nelspruit or Hoedspruit or a different location than the one we picked up in)? In the U.S this charge can be very substantial ($500 sometimes) so just wanted to know if it’s uncommon and expensive to drop off a car at a different location than pick up in South Africa).
Logistics for getting from Kruger to Port Elizabeth Considering cost and timing, after we finish Kruger, is it best to drive back to Jberg to drop the car and fly to Port Elizabeth? Flight from JNT-PLZ is $135 pp whereas flights out of the park (I checked Hoedspruit, Nelspruit, Skukuza and Phalaborwa) seem to be at least $260pp always with stopover in JNB.
Is there anything else we could do other than driving all the way back to JNB and backtracking. We’d prefer to drive a different way than the way we came and see something different and then perhaps fly out of a different airport (even Pretoria or Swaziland if that makes sense). Any suggestions for how best to get out of Kruger and get to Port Elizabeth without backtracking?
Garden Route or skip it? We don’t mind moving quickly and realize we’ll only have 1 night each in maybe 2 places each along the Garden Route. For us that it OK. Is the Garden Route more about the drive itself or more about experiencing the actual small towns along the way? If it’s about the drive, then moving quickly is no problem, but if it’s important to experience the towns themselves, then perhaps we’ll skip Port Elizabeth and the Garden Route and fly straight to Cape Town after Kruger.
Any help would be much appreciated!
