Skukuza, Kruger National Park: Camp Review
SA Logue brings you the lowdown on the camps of the Kruger National Park. See our Kruger Camps tag for more.
Skukuza Camp
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Where is it? Not fifteen minutes’ drive inside one of the park’s main entrance points in the south, the Paul Kruger Gate.
How large is it? Skukuza is Kruger’s largest camp. It’s the size of a small town.
What price range? Its size caters for all price ranges.
What kind of facilities does it provide? Accommodation, night drives, bush walks, restaurant, big shop, educational experiences, etc. Crucially, Skukuza also has the only doctors’ rooms in the entire park, and, less crucially, its own airstrip as well.
Official website (map, pictures of the accommodation, booking, etc.): Skukuza Camp.
Camp notes: Skukuza is beautifully situated on the Sabie River – be sure to ask for a perimeter hut with a river view when booking, and to listen for the grunts of the hippos after checking in. It has a pleasant internal-camp walk, too, and a fine shop. It’s one of the best places to stay if you anticipate arriving at Kruger in the afternoon (and so don’t have much time to drive around before the camp gates close, between 5h30 and 6p.m.). It’s definitely the best of Kruger’s “big three” camps (the others being Letaba and Satara), but, equally so, SA Logue always advises getting out of the big camps as soon as possible. Don’t stay more than one night, if you can help it!
Also: don’t forget to pay a visit to the nearby Lake Panic Bird Hide, which often attracts spectacular waterfowl.
What you might see getting and staying there: For some reason, you see an elephant right after passing through the Paul Kruger gate, en route to Skukuza, nearly every time. If you’re lucky, you’ll also get an evening visit from a thick-tailed bushbaby, several of which scavenge in the park at night (leaping from hut-top to hut-top), and have your blood curdled by its sound-of-a-baby-being-murdered shriek.