The Kruger Gate Hotel is a lodge-style hotel located – yep you guessed it – right by the Paul Kruger Gate, overlooking the park. If you’re looking to stay in one of the best Kruger National Park Hotels, this review is for you!
Location
easy Access to park
As already mentioned, the Kruger Gate Hotel is located right next to the Kruger Gate National Park entrance. This is essential, because it means that you can easily be one of the first people entering the park at dawn, without needing to drive for hours before.
Views of the park
The hotel terrace and pool are directly overlooking the Sabie River, nested in between immense African trees and. Hence, chances are high that you won’t even need to leave the hotel to see wildlife! Personally, we weren’t that lucky, but according to other reviews you can often see elephants right from the pool!
Close to the skukuza park secion
As for the overall location in regards of the Kruger National Park, the lodge gives you perfect access to the Southern region of the park which is teeming with wildlife. When we were visiting in June we saw lions, giraffes and elephants all within the first 30 minutes of driving.
The location of the Kruger Gate Hotel is also perfect, because it is quite close to the “Kruger Shalati”, also known as “The Train on the Bridge”. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of this, it’s really quite unique and in my opinion worth a visit.
Airport vicinity
Lastly, another important thing location wise is reachability. The Kruger Gate Hotel is easily reachable from both the Skukuza Domestic Airport and the Mpumalanga International Airport. From Skukuza, it will take you approx. 40 minutes to reach the hotel. From the Mpumalanga airport it takes approx. 1h40 to reach the hotel. Ideally, you’ll rent a car at the airport (I do NOT recommend Europcar!!!), and take the short drive to the lodge yourself. If you don’t plan on doing self-drive safaris, you can call the hotel in advance and they will organize a transfer for you.
Room
The rooms are very tasteful and spacious. There is a range of elegant accommodation from Deluxe to Family rooms, and from Luxury suites to the most upmarket Nkanyi Suite. We stayed in a Kruger Deluxe King Room, with a large double bed, a nice seating area and a small balcony looking into lush greenery. The room has everything you could need, including a safe and a small fridge.
While the room does have some African accents, it still feels quite like a hotel room. There are other accommodations in the park that are more authentic, for example if the rooms are tents or more lodge style.
But since you won’t be spending much time in your room anyway this is more than enough.
Food
There are 5 restaurants/ bars at the Kruger Gate Hotel. And oh my god, the food was amazing! All reservations include half-board, which means a breakfast and dinner buffet is included in the price.
The buffet breakfast is served at the Kudyela Restaurant. There are tables both inside and outside. If you decide to sit outside, you will be surrounded by lush greenery and you might even see some monkeys. You’ll find all the typical breakfast foods, fresh fruit, juices, coffee, etc… Both the food and the atmosphere were great here 🙂
The buffet dinner is served at the Lapa Restaurant. Let me tell you, the dinner was truly an EXPERIENCE! The Lapa Restaurant is an open-air restaurant, with a large fire pit in the middle and surrounded by immense trees. The dinner is buffet style, and the options are endless! From an expansive salad buffet, over all kinds of vegetables and meats, to a great dessert buffet… If I were you, I’d arrive starving! Another great bonus was the dinner entertainment. When we were there, there was a dance show by some local children. It was fascinating to watch how they can move their bodies, and their traditional outfits were also super cool!
There is also the Pool Bar / Viewing Deck that serves great cocktails, the Shilovo lobby bar and a coffee shop.
Activities
The hotel offers their own safaris for their guests. You can check out their offers in the list here. They will also gladly book safaris that are only offered directly by the National Park, such as the night safaris for example. The prices and offers can be found in the same list. We did the night safari while staying there. To us it was worth it, because we finally saw some active lions. It’s definitely a different kind of experience being in the park after dark, when everyone else has left. Overall, the hotel offers a huge variety of activities for all tastes and ages, which for sure makes it one of the best Kruger National Park hotels!
Amenities
The highlight of the Kruger Gate Hotel is definitely their infinity pool overlooking the park. After an eventful safari day, there is nothing better than just unwinding in this serene setting with a cold berverage in hand. Beware though, the pool is not heated!
Other amenities (that we didn’t have time to make use of though!) include:
- Fitness center
- Spa. You can check out the spa offers here.
- Tennis court
- Mini golf
- Volley ball net
- Giant chess
Honestly, the amenities are great, but if you’re like us you will barely have time to make use of them because there’s just so much to see in the park itself!
Price
I would say the Kruger Gate Hotel is a mid-range hotel in the Kruger National Park. The Kruger Deluxe King Room, which we stayed at, is the cheapest room they have. The nightly rate was approx. 230 CHF for 2 people. As mentioned, this includes breakfast and dinner (half-board). The Nkanyi Suite, which is the most luxurious option, goes up to approx. 1’200 CHF per night and sleeps 4 people. For the things the experiences the hotel has to offer, I’d say you’re still getting a very good value for money 🙂
Overall experience
Overall, we loved our stay at the Kruger Gate Hotel. I wish that we had spent more than just one night there, which I believe already says a lot. The atmosphere of the hotel is just so serene and everything felt quite luxurious. I would definitely love to come back here, when our budget is slightly higher and we can stay longer 🙂 Overall, I’d definitely say that for the budget this is one of the best Kruger National Park hotels!
If it’s your first time visiting the Kruger National Park, make sure to check out my tips here.