The Secret Guide to Booking Accomodation in Kruger National Park (updated)

7 min readOct 9, 2018

There is no booking.com for Kruger National Park…

Phew, it’s out!

I couldn’ believe it at first moment but it’s true — you can’t book any accomodation in Kruger National Park with either booking.com or Agoda (or anything similar…) — you need to use Sanpark’s website !

On our trip through South Africa, we visited Johannesburg, took the train to Cape Town, climbed table mountain, explored the Garden Route and finally did a Safari in Kruger National Park! Unfortunately we didn’t really think about booking accomodation in Kruger National Park in advance, so I had to figure out everything on my phone while Markus was driving the car — not exactly easy if your internet connection fails you all the time.

But don’t worry — I’ll help you understand everything — so it will be easier for you!

The first steps — Register and choose a camp

So, Sanparks: First, you need to register, which is fairly easy.

Then comes the big step: choose which camp you want to stay in! That is actually a very difficult decision because there is such an abundance of options available. Or at least this is true if you book accomodation in Kruger National Park well in advance.

If you (like us) try that on rather short notice (few days ahead) your choices are drastically limited to a few available options and several camps will already be entirely booked up. Luckily, you can check availability across all camps for your desired date together on Sanpark’s website

Choose the type of camp you want to book

As you can see in the screenshot above, there is different categories of camps you can choose. But it doesn’t even show all the options — so let me collect them for you!

Main Rest Camps
Satellite Camps
Bushveld Camps
Overnight Hides
Bush Lodges
Camp Site
Luxury Lodges

These types of campsdiffer significantly in choice and comfort they offer! So choose wisely what you want your experience to be like!

Main Rest Camps

Most people should be fine with choosing the Main Rest Camps — those often come with restaurants, Wifi and various types of accomodation. They always have first-aid and cooking facilities (including South Africa’s most important utility: a “Braaiii” — a grill!). And some main rest camps even have a swimming pool for you to cool off after a day exploring Kruger National Park!

They don’t super very much like wilderness though — so if you want a more nature focused experience you might have a look at the other options!

Bushveld Camps

Compared to the main rest camps, bushveld camps are much smaller and more remote. They also have electrity though and offer quite some comfort. However, you won’t find restaurants and shops here — so stock up on supplies before you go!

Satellite Camps

Satellite Camps are always close to main rest camps — that’s why they are called that way! Normally you have to register at the main camp and can then go to your booked satellite camp.

Satellite camps offer a rustic experience close to nature — there is no shop, no electricity and only a low fence separating you from the wilderness!

Camp Site + Overnight Hide

Satellite Camps aren’t basic enough? Well then you might try the one camp site or the two overnight hides in Kruger National Park! There isn’t much surrounding you — except nature!

Bush Lodges + Luxury Lodges

If bushveld camps still feel way too crowded to you and satellite camps too basic, bush lodges might be your choice. However, they aren’t really cheap — they are meant to be an exclusive environment! Only registered guests are allowed to enter bush lodges — so there is no day visitors. Bush lodges also don’t have restaurants or shops, but they provide you with gas cooking facilities.

And Luxury Lodges (not so surprising) are the most exclusive and luxurious version of bush lodges.

Choosing your type of accomodation within the camp

Once you decide on the camp you will have the option to decide your type of accommodation. Depending on your camp, not all of the options will be offered but main rest camps usually offer:

Camp site (only a piece of grass, bring your own tent, ~300 ZAR)
Huts (basic, usually with fan)
Safari Tents (already set up for you)
Bungalows (often with AC)
Guesthouses (larger home for bigger groups)

When we figured that out, we booked our accommodation in Kruger National Park. However, we quickly realized that knowing your desired camp and type of accommodation may not be enough to book what you really want to have!

Sometimes there is e.g. different bungalows available in one camp with cryptic abbreviations (in our case BD2 and BD3U).

Unfortunately we didn’t realize the difference so we ended up without river view. And we didn’t do proper research on how to book accomodation in Kruger National Park since we were on a very bad mobile internet connection.

But now, I figured out all the necessary information and gonna share it with you! It is also very helpful if you check the map of your camp and want to stay in a specific area!

Decoding booking accomodation in Kruger National Park on Sanparks website

So, let’s make sure you start smarter than we did! Generally there are a few things where the accomodation varies and where you need to decide what is important to you:

AC or fan only
Communal abolutions or private bathroom? (Huts are communal, bungalows have private bathrooms)
Communal kitchen or private kitchen
View

First 2–5 letters — type of accommodation

CK = Campsite
EH/EA/EB = Hut (AC)
ES = Hut (no AC, fan)
CTT/ST= Safari Tent
LBVST = Safari Tent with bush view
LRVST = Safari Tent with river view
BD/BA = Bungalow with private kitchen
BG/BE = Bungalow with communal kitchen
F, G or CO = Guesthouse or Cottages (more than one bedroom)

Number after letters — number of beds

So it’s likely there is either 2,3,4 or 6 beds.

However be careful: Base rate shown is often for only two people and you have to pay extra for every other person staying in this accomodation!

Ending letter (if exising) — special characteristic

U = Perimeter — close to the border of the camp (you want this, believe me!!! Well worth the up-pay!)
V = Special version of “U” — it’s a particularly beautiful view!
Z = Disabled friendly accomodation
L = Large site (for campsites)
D = DSTV (television)
E = Closed veranda

So in our case the available options were “three person bungalow with private kitchen with perimeter view” (BD3U) versus “two person bungalow with private kitchen without perimeter view” (BD2). Price was 1.650 vs 1.400 ZAR — if we had known at time of booking, we would definitely have added those 250 ZAR extra and get perimeter view! But at least for our third night we booked “EH3U” — you can now figure out what we got for 680 ZAR that second night 🙂

My personal favorite: Lower Sabie Rest Camp

When we booked, we didn’t have a lot of options left — but I had already done my research and so I was delighted to see that Lower Sabie Rest Camp still had some options left.

It’s one of the newest camps with outstanding facilities — and leopards are frequently spotted in the vicitinity of the camp! Plus, it’s next to a river — so you will see elefants directly from the café and hippos in the lake as well!