Kruger & Sabi Sands Safari
Seven nights. Two of Africa's greatest wildlife destinations. A private game reserve where lions walk past your tent at dusk.
There is a moment, somewhere in the Sabi Sands, when a leopard drops from a marula tree not thirty metres from your vehicle and simply walks away, unhurried, entirely unbothered by your presence. It is the kind of moment that reorders things. The kind you will still be describing years from now.
This seven-night journey pairs the raw, untamed scale of Kruger National Park with the intimate luxury of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, one of the most prolific Big Five destinations on earth. Kruger gives you breadth: ancient riverbeds, open savanna, and the honest wildness of one of Africa’s largest protected areas. The Sabi Sands gives you depth: exclusive traversing rights over vast private concessions, expert field guides who know individual animals by name, and a density of predator sightings that is, frankly, unmatched anywhere in Southern Africa.
You will move between these two worlds in a private vehicle, with a dedicated guide who reads the bush the way a sommelier reads a cellar, with knowledge earned over years, not pages. Morning drives begin before first light, sundowners happen in the field, and evenings return you to the kind of accommodation that makes the word “camp” feel entirely inadequate.
This safari is designed for couples who want Africa to feel close, not performed, not packaged, not viewed through the glass of a tourist lodge. Just wild, unhurried, and entirely yours.
Day by day.
Every detail placed deliberately.
Your journey begins with a short flight from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport into Skukuza, the beating heart of Kruger. By early afternoon you are already in the bush — the windows down, the air warm and dry, the first impala grazing at the roadside. Singita Lebombo sits perched on a rocky cliff above the N'wanetsi River, its floor-to-ceiling glass walls dissolving the line between suite and savanna. That first evening, as the hippos begin their conversation in the river below and the sky turns the colour of hot iron, you will understand that something has shifted. Your first full day brings two guided game drives — dawn and dusk — in the private N'wanetsi Concession, covering 15,000 hectares closed to all public access. Lion, elephant, buffalo, and wild dog are all regulars here. Your guide will read every track, every alarm call, every disturbance in the grass with the patience of someone who has nowhere else to be.
A short road transfer takes you west into the Sabi Sands, a private reserve sharing an unfenced boundary with Kruger, giving animals, and your game drives, complete freedom of movement. Londolozi Varty Camp is where the modern luxury safari was arguably invented, and it shows: the guiding is exceptional, the suites are set in riverine forest along the Sand River, and the sense of place is deep and unhurried. Three days here means six game drives, each one different from the last. The Sabi Sands consistently delivers the highest leopard sighting rates in Africa — some guests encounter them twice a day. Lion prides, elephant breeding herds, and the elusive wild dog round out what is routinely one of the most extraordinary stretches of wildlife watching on the continent. A bush walk with a qualified ranger on the morning of Day 5 adds another dimension entirely — the small things, the spoor, the silence, the knowledge that the protection between you and the wild is now just your guide's rifle and his expertise.
Your final two nights move you to Lion Sands Ivory Lodge, a collection of just six standalone villas, each with a private plunge pool overlooking the Sabie River and a treehouse platform for private star-gazing. This is where the pace slows completely. A private morning drive on Day 6 is followed by an afternoon at leisure, a spa treatment in the bush, a glass of South African Chenin Blanc on your deck, the river going about its business below. Day 7 brings your last dawn drive before a mid-morning transfer back to Johannesburg for your international connection, or onward to Cape Town if you choose to extend.
Everything included.
Nothing left unclear.
Included
- Return light aircraft transfers between Johannesburg and Kruger (Skukuza Airport)
- All accommodation on a fully inclusive basis
- Twice-daily guided game drives in open 4×4 vehicles
- One guided bush walk (Sabi Sands)
- All meals, local beverages, and house wines throughout
- Private conservation fees and park levies
- Pre-departure trip briefing and 24/7 in-field support from Extraordinary Safaris
- Ground transfers between Kruger and Sabi Sands
Not included
- International flights to and from Johannesburg
- South African visa fees (where applicable)
- Travel and medical insurance
- Gratuities for guides and camp staff
- Premium imported spirits and Champagne
- Personal items, laundry, and spa treatments
- Any activities not listed in the itinerary
This journey is built
around you.
Every detail — camps, guides, pace, timing — is adjusted to your group and this particular moment. Begin with a conversation.