Question on Kruger National Park Accommodation

[Twain]

We are going to Kruger and our friend who is South African has booked the following. If anyone has stayed in any of these, we would appreciate any feedback:
Lower Sabie Rest - Safari Tent
Olifants Rest Camp - Bungalow
Letaba Rest Camp -Bungalow
SAtara Rest Camp -bungalow
Also what is the difference between hut, safari tent and bungalow?
Thanks

[Graham]

Hut: A structure/building with only one room. To cook, you share a kitchen with other hut dwellers. For ablutions, you share that with others as well.

Tent: Same as above, but made of canvas.

The facilities in huts/tents are are beds, a cupboard, table and chairs, fridge and electric fan.

Bungalow: Round-walled African style units with thatched roof. 2 or 3 beds per unit, equipped with en-suite ablutions (most with showers, but some with baths). Most units have air-conditioning. Kitchenettes vary: some have hotplates and sinks, some have only sinks, while some have neither. Cutlery and crockery may be provided or can be hired from reception. Visitors should confirm all of the above when booking.

[Graham]

By the way, they are all very well maintained and cleaned daily. No dirt floors - either painted cement or tiles. Bedding is in excellent condition. Windows an doors are rodent/reptile proof. They all have electric lighting and power points. You would have to search hard to find complaints about the accommodation, but I think that one VT'er had a bat problem.

[travelman]

We toured SA in Sept 2006, from Pretoria to Cape Town by Mercedes Overlander for 3,500KM, & stayed at chalets throughout the 3 week journey. Kruger was covered in 3 days, staying at chalets. Accomodation varied from huts to big air-conditioned self-contained apartments. Shukuza, Huluwali, Niemsiella, Umfulozi, and a few other names come to mind. The most exotic was one where we stayed in "beehive huts"- round thatched roofed structures with brick extensions for individual bathrooms & toilets. The "door" was just a sliding wooden piece that locked from the outside, & we had to lodge a heavy bag there to prevent outsiders from coming in. Most cooking facilities were available.
KC

[Amazed]

Amazingly travelman lives in the future: We toured SA in Sept 2006?

[My2Cents]

I doubt any outsiders would go into your accommodation in KNP. Surely Sept 2005 was meant? The accommodations are all neat and safe (from people and animals).

[Mary]

I stayed at KNP in August of 2005 and had a GREAT experience. Can not wait to go back some day. Anyways We stayed in Lower Sabie (hut), Satara (bungalow), Oliphants (bungalow), Tamboti (safari tent) and Skuzua (safari tent) and loved them all but Skuzua. Gerald described them all in the above post so I won't get into that. We felt safe the entire time in the camp. The staff were very kind.

Many say Oliphants is the prettiest camp. Lower Sabie has a nice eatery and there is a river situated on the out skirts of the camp where you can watch the hippos. Satara is more flat, but wonderful. We saw many lions around this area. I did not stay at Letaba. Our favorite accomadation were the safari tents actually, because it just felt like what you should do on a safari!

We did one morning drive with a guide, which is lots of fun. It allows you to get on the roads during dark. Each camp I believe (maybe not the smaller ones) have activities such has drives, walks and braais that you can sign up for. I believe Oliphants has a mountain biking adventure of some sort.

Every where we stayed was very clean also...I think I wrote about the different places in my pages...

Have fun.

[Unregistered]

All the camps/facilities you mentioned are clean and well maintained. Oliphants was our favorite. There is a bike tour offered at Oliphants as well as a "star-gazing/constellation" tour. We did the bike tour and had a great time but missed out on the stargazing. We were told it was great by some other travelers that we met while at Oliphants. If you want to do some of the activities offered you can book them in advance on line at the SANParks website. The bike tours are small groups and I think the stargazing is also a smallish group as they have only 1 (maybe 2 by now) large telescopes that are shared among the group.

[rozerdemit]

Read about every thing you need to know about the Kruger National Park. The area and South African Safari has so much to offer that you will need to find suitable Kruger Park Accommodation to best serve your trip and the length of it.

1. The Kruger National Park stretches across two of South Africa provinces - Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces - and both offer the opporunity to experience and enjoy South African Safari.
2. The Kruger National Park stretches 350km from the Limpopo River in the north to the Sabie River in the south.
3. A range of two 2 million hectares os covered in this vast Kruger Park -
4. It is estimated to be the size of Wales.
5. The Kruger National Park was founded in 1898.
6. It is one of the world's largest game sanctuaries/ wildlife sanctuaries/ safari sanctuaries.
7. Within these exapnse of natural wildlife, find three distinct habitats, including the deciduous treed and grassy southern region; the central savannah region and lastly the arid mopane scrub land in the north.
8. The famous Big Five can be found in the Kruger Park - lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and the rhino.
9. Visitors to the Park are encouraged to obey the speed limits - so as not to frighten the animals and respect them in their environment - if they are crossing the road.
10. Your Kruger Park Accommodation will support the advice and instruction to never leave your vehicle.

The Park embraces various areas, and all offer appropriate Kruger National Park Accommodation, including Graskop Accommodation, Hazyview Accommodation, Marloth Park Accommodation, Nelspruit Accommodation, Schoemanskloof Accommodation and White River Accommodation.

[fazekma]

Hi Twain

The tents in lower sabie are great as you look over the fence and can see and photograph animals at the Sabie river. The tents are very hot in summer so try and stay there before October and after March. The bungalows do not look over the fence so it is difficult to see wildlife.
For olifants try and get a river-view bungalow - they have air-conditioning and and a magnificent view over the Olifants river and plains below.
At Letaba also try and get a river-view bungalow - they face the normally dry letaba river and you will see many animals walking across the sand.
Satara is situated on the plains - there are no rivers or mountains but there are good predator sightings. Most of the huts are in a circle shape facing each other.

All the bungalows are air-conditioned while the tents have ceiling fans.

Mario
http://www.kruger-2-kalahari.com