What is the best park & time for a Safari trip?

Question

I plan to go to South Africa with my eight years old son. I would like to know the best park and the best month of the year to do safari.

Answer 1

Kruger National Park, June to August, safer then (malaria) and much cooler.

Answer 2

Kruger is nice but huge. You can drive a lot and see little or you can see a ton of stuff. It's a great place to go but if this is your first visit and you really want to see a lot, I would recommend Kapama. This is an answer I put up a while ago that the asker seemed to really  like. I like September - not too hot and not too cold.

The housing part of Kapama is fenced in to keep the animals out but there were a few giraffes hanging around the entrance the entire time we were there. There are early morning safaris and evening safaris and you would want to go on both as the animals are different. They take you a number of places but the best place was a watering hole. There was a herd of elephants and they were so close it felt you could reach out and touch them. We also, after a wild drive through the bush - no road, came on a lion who had a warthog down. We were very close and he was quite funny to watch after he had eaten. Acted like a kitten rolling and playing with his tail. There were a couple of ostriches, all manner of antelope which I referred to as deer much to the dismay of our guide. If you go remember - there are no deer in South Africa, only antelopes. We then came across three lionesses who were nowhere near as entertaining as their male counterpart. And monkeys. Buffalo, Rhino.

On the night trip we saw hyenas and had a bush baby fly onto our vehicle and take off just as fast. Those two things left the biggest impression for the time we spent out after the sun went down. we saw all manner of birds but the ones I remember most were the storks and the vultures.

Kapama also have safaris taken on elephants instead of vehicles. but I didn't do that. Have kicked my own butt a lot about turning that one down.

We had a wonderful guide and tracker. Both men were walking encyclopedias on the subject of African wildlife and shared as much information as any human beings can without losing their voices

Part of the package we took also took us to Hoedspruit Centre. Cheetahs mostly but at the time they had a wild dog or two as well in the hospital part.

This was 6 years ago and I may get the order of things mixed up and I am using the photos we brought back. I know I have left out a lot of stuff.

Was it expensive - This was a while back and I was using Canadian dollars. I thought it was good value for my money but expensive is relative - depends entirely on how much you can afford to spend at the time.

Below are three links - the first two are NOT my experiences but one shows some of the amazing things you can stumble on. The second is my favourite lion clip and the third is the Kapama site. If you watch the youtube clips, turn up the sound.

You might also want to check this answer and especially it's links out.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 3

I agree with Lisa K may-aug would be the best time to visit the Kruger National Park. It is cooler and it is more comfortable to do drives. It does not get too cold. And the malaria risk is smaller.

There are many lodges and camps that you can stay at.Depending on your budget.

Enjoy it...I really enjoy the Kruger...don't forget your binoculars.

Answer 4

Hi, I was lookig for the same thing some time ago and I found all the answers to your questions on one site...