Hi there,
My sister and I are planning a trip to Kruger in November. I am in the process of trying to make reservations at Satara, though it's looking rather full, and we may end up at Olifants instead. Lower Sabie is full, unfortunately. :(
Anyway, we will be in Cape Town prior to our visit to Kruger. Our original plan was to fly to KMIA or Hoedspruit airport and rent a car to get to the camp, then fly to Joburg afterwards and head home. However, in checking the official websites for the camps, it looks like they are suggesting 5-6 hours to get to the gate from the airport and then another 2 hours from the gate to the camp. Am I reading this wrong? I also understood the drive from Joburg was about 4 hours - is that true, and if so, does it make more sense for us to drive from there?
Thanks for your help!
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
From Satara to Orpen Gate is 46 kms, which is an hour, if you don't stop. From Orpen to JNB is 529 kms but it is 190kms from Orpen to Nelspruit and you cannot count on driving at much more than 80kph on this stretch, so that is 2.5 hours. The rest can be done at 110/120 kph. That's another 3.5 hours, without stops. Total, 6 hours. You know that you can fly into Skukuza and rent a car there? In all honesty, you might be better off flying into Hoedspruit, driving into the park via Orpen, doing your Kruger thing, drive back to Hoedspruit, then fly to JNB. If you look at what I wrote above, you will save at least 11 hours of driving time. BTW, Hoedspruit has some great B&B's and at least one excellent restaurant!
dave
Shell Geostar (you have to register, you can use 012 phone area code for Pretoria) says 264 km and 4 hours for Olifants to KMIA which I think is conservative but of course you have to allow for messing around at the airport. Olifants to Hoedspriut is stated as 2 hours probably you could do it in less without rushing. Don't speed in the park BTW, they have radar traps.
The drive from Joburg to the bottom of the park (Malelane) is about 5 hours and is freeway almost all the way. Going up the side of the park is slower two lane roads with towns to pass through and of course once in the park the limit is 50kph.
Yes possibly you should consider driving to Joburg depending on flight schedules. You could wind up waiting for hours at JNB (not nice) for your flight home. On the other hand, maybe not :-)
trusted partner
