Kruger Park Accommodations: Olifants Rest Camp

The third post about accommodations in Kruger National Park is our Christmas night camp, Olifants Rest Camp. We travelled south through the park and Olifants was a convenient stop for night three. Here’s what we liked about staying in Olifants Rest Camp.

To learn more about booking accommodations in Kruger, check out my earlier post.

Night Three: Staying in Olifants Rest Camp
Kruger Olifants
Map of Kruger with Olifants camp

Olifants is one of the biggest campsites at Kruger Park, and was bigger by far than what we were used to when we arrived there on Christmas Day. It even had a restaurant and a pool for the kiddies. Nothing against a big camp; we really enjoyed the variety of sites in Kruger Park.

A lot of South Africans spend Christmas holidays in Kruger Park, not just tourists like us. The crowds thronged Olifants Camp on Christmas Day. The day visitors’ centre was full of locals cooking their Christmas brais. It calmed down at night, but is still a large and busy place with a lot of cottages, campsites and more.

About The Camp

Olifants camp is on a cliff overlooking the Olifants River. We learned that Olifants means elephant and is named as such because the elephants often drink from that river. Sadly, we didn’t see this supposedly common occurrence.

We had an air conditioned bungalow with a deck overlooking Olifants River. Not the wettest time of year!

Olifants River Kruger Park
Olifants River
Celebrating Christmas at the Park

Our Christmas dinner was spent with some South African Methode Cap Classique (bubbly) and a delicious brai on the deck on the Olifants. We had a nice view and a visit from a scrub hare. It felt very South African and we loved every aspect of it.

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Kruger Park Accommodations: Shimuwini Bushveld Camp

This is the second in a series of posts about the great places to stay in Kruger National Park. Overall, we spent five nights traveling north to south and we highly recommend Shimuwini Bushveld Camp, a highlight of our trip.

Overview: Shimuwini Bushveld Camp

Shimuwini was special! It’s a small camp with a reception area and not much else besides the houses for guests. The remote atmosphere made us feel as if we were secluded away in our own paradise.

Because of its location on the Groot Letaba River, it felt like we were staying in a summertime resort. We even had our own house, which was a roomy riverfront cottage with a beautiful view.

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Kruger Park Accommodations: Punda Maria Rest Camp

Kruger Park is huge: one of the largest game parks in Africa, it covers over 19,000 sq kilometers, and it has almost 40 different accommodation options. We visited Kruger National Park for 5 days in December, and stayed in a different camp each of 5 nights. Each one was quite different from the previous, and we enjoyed all of them! Here’s where we stayed our first night in the park and what it’s like to stay in Punda Maria Rest Camp.

Getting to Kruger pArk

We made Kruger Park our first stop in South Africa, so flew to Johannesburg Airport where we rented a car for the drive to the park. You can get to the park quite quickly as it is so large. However, we planned our trip from the north to the south of Kruger, so it was supposed to be a 7 hour drive. Factoring in holiday traffic, it’s a slog. But worth it because Kruger Park is a bucket-list destination.

Booking Kruger park Accommodations

We booked our rooms in advance through the Kruger Park website. We booked in August for our Christmas stay, and some of the places were already full, but we still got good rooms for each night.  Christmas is a busy time at Kruger: a lot of South Africans spend their holidays there and plan well in advance. If you can book earlier in the year, do so.

Options range throughout the park – from north to south, you can camp out or stay in fancier places.

This is the first post about our accommodations in Kruger Park.

Punda Maria Rest Camp location

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