South Africa safari kids

[Samsung1122]

Hi all,

we are heading to South Africa in April, our kids are 3 and 5 and we are doing the garden route, we would like to end the holiday with a 2night maybe 3 safari, I don’t want to do Kruger because of malaria, has anyone been to any with good recommendations? We did see Addo but partner would love to see lions and they don’t have many while I know we could go to one which has more and still may not be able to see them I would like to give us a better chance.

we are up for self drive or private game drives.

thanks all

We've done a few safaris, & there's a lot of sitting still & being quiet.
Some tours specify an age limit for kids.

For 3 and 5 year old your options may be limited as there is a H&S element with ability to keep quiet on game drives/keeping other guests happy etc. We went to Madikwe a few years back when kids were 9 and 7 - stayed at Tau game lodge. Is north of Joburg and non-malarial. They have a children’s program for under 6s which could work well - allowing you to go out on adult safaris. They have to be 6 to join the adult safaris. Was a great place. They had the big 5 plus African wild dogs which were very cool.

Ah yes we were looking into Madikwe it looks amazing there, not many options for smaller kids though, we might just do Cape Town garden route and addo elephant park and put the money towards a propper safari when there both a little older 😊 it was between SA and SRI LANKA just worried it may be to hot in Sri Lanka in April.

Might be better! Make sure to go see the penguins. You could also consider a side beach trip to Chintsa (East London) - really beautiful wild beaches - we stayed at Crawfords beach lodge which the kids loved. Or a trip up to wine country - quite a lot of the vineyards are family friendly (like Babylonstoren for example)

I don’t think a safari is a good idea with kids that young.

I think that kind of holiday is best doing when they’re older.

I’m guessing you’ve already booked, so my advice is not much help, but have you considered other activities that would be better at their age?