Addo Elephant National Park vs Amakhala Game Reserve
Two parks in the Eastern Cape. Addo Elephant National Park has 55 tickets and tours to book; Amakhala Game Reserve has 6 tickets and tours to book. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
Addo is the easiest big-game park in South Africa to add to a Garden Route trip, forty minutes from Gqeberha, the city formerly called Port Elizabeth, and it is malaria-free, which makes it the choice for families and for anyone not going as far as Kruger. It can be driven in your own car on tarred and gravel roads, paying the daily conservation fee at the main gate, and that is how most South Africans see it. The tours sold for it are half- and full-day safaris in open vehicles with a guide from Gqeberha, Jeffreys Bay or the guesthouses around the Sundays River valley, which are better than a self-drive for spotting and for the commentary;
Amakhala is a private Big Five reserve in South Africa's Eastern Cape, on the N2 highway about seventy kilometres, forty-five minutes, north-east of Gqeberha, the former Port Elizabeth, and a short drive from Addo Elephant National Park, and it serves two kinds of visitor. For those at the end of a Garden Route journey, off a cruise ship or on a stopover with a day to spare, it sells day safaris: a morning or afternoon game drive of about three hours in an open vehicle with a ranger, usually with a meal at one of the lodges or the day centre, or a full day with two drives and lunch, and the operators in Gqeberha add the transfer from the city, the airport or the harbour; some versions include a boat cruise on the Bushmans river with drinks.
