6 Day Kruger Wildlife Family Safari Vacation

Guests are met and welcomed at a location of their choice in Johannesburg by their private African Sky guide. After a few formalities are completed, your safari departs Johannesburg, first in a northerly then an easterly direction en route to the central Kruger National Park. We arrive at Phalaborwa Gate at around 14:30, where your first game drive begins as we travel to our overnight accommodations at Letaba.

You’ll enjoy daily game drives for the duration of your stay in the Kruger National Park, tailored around your preferences. The finer details, such as daily departure times, length of game drives and the direction they’ll take, as well as when and where meals are taken, will be communicated to you by your private guide once in the park. He or she will keep track of animal activity through sightings boards and use extensive knowledge of the park to help maximize wildlife sightings. The size of Kruger facilitates a great diversity of ecosystems, each the preferred habitat of many species of animal. In the north-central region, open plains are covered with mopane, as well as red bushwillow and leadwood in places. Large herds of elephant occur here, and sightings of several hundred are not uncommon. Perennial rivers such as the Olifants and Letaba are home to hippopotamus and crocodile and form a lifeline in an often dry, harsh environment for many animal such as leopard, which favors the large trees along the banks.

Your last morning game drive in Kruger is devoted to finding the more elusive animal you haven’t yet seen. Often some of the best sightings of the safari occur on the very last drive. Later, your guide will deliver you to your safari lodge in the nearby Timbavati Private Game Reserve. Timbavati consists of more than 53,000 hectares (about 131,000 acres) of prime wildlife habitat, sharing an open eastern boundary with the Kruger National Park, nearly two million hectares and one of the world's premier conservation areas. The late afternoon is devoted to a first game drive on an open 4x4 vehicle in search of Africa's Big Five in an area where many other mammal and bird species grace the African savanna.

While in Timbavati, you’ll enjoy two guided game drives daily atop custom-built 4x4 vehicles, conducted by your professional ranger and tracker. You may also choose to participate in an optional guided bush walk at no additional expense if weather permits.

Timbavati, although not as well-known as its southern counterpart, the Sabi Sand, is by no means inferior. Like the Sabi Sand, Timbavati shares an unfenced boundary with the central Kruger National Park, allowing unrestricted movement of wildlife. With fewer lodges, traversing areas in Timbavati are often larger than most territories in the Sabi Sand. The southern extent of Africa’s Mopani Belt transects the reserve. Drives in the north wander through mopane woodland, a tree favored by African elephant, while drives to the south enter classic savanna bushveld.

Since the 1950s, occasional sightings of white lion have been recorded in the Timbavati. White lion have not been reliably recorded as naturally occurring in other reserves in Africa outside the neighboring Greater Kruger system, making the possibility of seeing one a special highlight. Of course, the remaining Big Five—leopard, buffalo, elephant, and rhino—are also commonly sighted, as are impala, zebra, giraffe, warthog, waterbuck, nyala, and wildebeest. African wild dog and cheetah, once uncommon, are sometimes also spotted. Game drives operate during peak wildlife activity—early morning, late afternoon, and evening—while the remainder of the day is free to enjoy lodge comforts.

After your last safari, you’ll be met and transferred to the local airport to board a flight to Johannesburg, bringing an unforgettable South African safari to a close.