Why choose this over Kruger
Three reasons, and if none of them apply to you, go to Kruger instead.
It is malaria-free. That matters more than people expect. If you are travelling with children, if somebody in the party cannot take prophylaxis, or if a nervous partner has spent six weeks reading about mosquitoes, Pilanesberg removes the question entirely.
It is close. A couple of hours from Johannesburg and an easy run from the Limpopo property, which makes it a one-day or overnight trip rather than a three-day expedition.
It is small enough to work in a day. Fifty-five thousand hectares against Kruger’s two million. You can drive a meaningful circuit in a morning and actually see things, rather than covering distance.
What it is
An extinct volcano. The park sits in the crater of an alkaline complex that erupted over a billion years ago, which gives it a geography nothing else in the region has — concentric rings of hills, and a landscape that looks like nowhere else you will drive through.
It holds all of the Big Five. Elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard were reintroduced in the late 1970s in what was then the largest game translocation ever attempted, and the populations have been established for decades.
Because it sits in a transition zone between the dry Kalahari and the wetter lowveld, it carries species from both. You see things here you would not see together anywhere else.
How to do it
Self-drive on good roads, as in Kruger, or a guided drive through one of the lodges.
The hides are the thing most people miss. Pilanesberg has several well-built hides overlooking waterholes, and in the dry months sitting at one for an hour will show you more than two hours of driving. Mankwe Hide is the one to ask about.
For a single day: arrive at opening, drive the central loops, sit a hide through the middle of the day when everything else is asleep, and drive out in the late afternoon.
Where you stay
There is accommodation inside the park and a great deal more just outside it, including Sun City next door if that appeals to anyone in the party. It very much does appeal to some people and not at all to others.
For a one-night stop, inside the park is better — you are through the gates for the dawn and dusk hours when the animals move.
How we handle it
Booked and arranged by us through the operators we use, with transfers from the Limpopo property. You deal with us.
This is the easiest add-on we arrange. If you have a spare day at either end of a plains game safari and you are not sure what to do with it, this is the answer.
Practical notes
Malaria-free, genuinely. This is not a seasonal claim. The park is outside the malaria zone entirely.
Children. The one park on this list that works well with young children — short drives, good facilities, no medication.
Gate times are fixed and change with the season. The lodge will tell you.
No firearms in the park. Rifles stay secured at the hunting property while you are away.
