Addo elephant national park/general safari question!!

[ProseccoSupernova]

Looking at a potential trip to South Africa; Cape Town, garden route drive and then ending here. Never done a safari before; how do you cost up this element of the stay? I want a nice base (no camping!!) and guided drives I think. Just two people for probably two or three nights. Any advice would be great; I never use travel agents as love planning my own holidays but safari is a different kettle of fish!

I’ve found the sanparks.org website with prices on for guides/self drives and also a list of accommodation so is it just a case of putting it together myself as a package?!

I did a very similar trip through trail finders, they know what they're doing and how long to stay in each place for, and they can tailor it to exactly what you want.

I booked through trail finders too for shamwari which is near addo. I've heard great things about addo but I think when we went it was purely elephants, that may have changed now.

We did this for the first part of our honeymoon and stayed in Kuzuku Lodge. We saw all of the big 5 and booked through trail finders. The hotel we stayed in in camps bay was incredible, it was called Sea 5.

Addo can be done in a day and is mostly elephant. Lots of lovely boutique places to stay in nearby Port Elizabeth.

Thanks so much! Have found some lovely looking places outside the reserves to tailor make a package rather than pay the premium to be within the park itself.

Itinerary at the moment is:
3 nights Cape Town
2 in stellenbosch area
1 hermanus
2 knysha or nearby
2 near the reserve
Fly home from Port Elizabeth (indirect)

Any comments on that would be great!

Have you looked at the driving times to check how many hours you're driving between places?
I'd stay on reserve personally it's one of the best experiences I've ever had and I can't imagine it's the same staying off reserve. The reserves are vast, you're out on game drives at 7am.not sure it would work?

Yep driving distances definitely look manageable. You might be right, have costed up Kuzuko lodge and actually with all meals included it isn’t too bad and wouldn’t be a great experience I’m sure!

(Apologies hollow someone else mentioned kuzuko)

If I were you, I'd fly to Joburg and drive to Pilanesberg.
All the best game reserves in SA are in the north of the country, and, in my opinion Pilanesberg always wins as you don't need malaria tabs and its the perfect size to self drive.

Thanks for the tip but I don’t really want the whole holiday to be about the safari element, and Cape Town/garden route is my key reason for going. If we enjoy the reserve element though then who knows, next time could go for the full on safari experience!!

I'd have 1 more night in Cape Town I reckon. We went to a reserve called Kareiga for the safari, it was really good and included all food and drink. It had a deal on too so we booked two nights and got another free.

Hi op reason I said driving times rather than driving distances is that there is one road across that area and it can be slow. It can take longer than you think and some of the distances are long.

I think you are doing too much in 10 nights. I would forget about Addo and add extra time for the garden route. You are missing out Plett and your time is truncated everywhere. Can you go for 2 weeks?

The best safari reserves are elsewhere and I would say do them and just spend longer doing the Garden route. The whales are in Hermanus in September and this would be a good time to go. You are also missing out places like Tsitsikamma and this is a mistake. You can also drive from Kynsna up into the Swartberg Pass area and this is stunning. You are driving quite long distances and missing a lot out.

I meant to add: All the safari areas in the south are reclaimed farmland and restocked with animals. More like huge zoos. If you are not bothered about the real safari experience and you are short of time, I would swerve it for now.