iSimangaliso Wetland Park or Sabi Sand?
The two parks side by side on what you will see, what you can do, what it costs, how you get there and the health picture, with the facts behind every rating.
Our verdict
iSimangaliso and the Sabi Sand are both South African, but they are opposite trips. Pick the Sabi Sand for close big game: leopard and elephant guaranteed, buffalo and lion likely, every game drive in your lodge's own vehicle with a radio network sharing sightings, and published beds from R7,300 per person a night, all-inclusive. You may drive only to your booked lodge. Pick iSimangaliso to drive yourself on a small budget: R130 per international adult at the Cape Vidal gate, campsites inside the park and St Lucia guesthouses as a base for the estuary cruise, the Eastern Shores, whales from June to November and turtles from November to March. Its land game is spread thin, with elephant and buffalo a chance and leopard luck. The Sabi Sand lists no boat trip, and boats are iSimangaliso's main draw.
Best for big game Sabi SandBest for birding iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for walking iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for on the water iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for self-drive iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for low budget iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for families iSimangaliso Wetland ParkBest for a first safari Sabi SandBest for wilderness iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Tap a row label to see the reasoning behind a rating.
| Compare | iSimangaliso Wetland ParkAbout 3,300 km² | Sabi SandSouth Africa |
|---|---|---|
| 3June to September for whales and… | 5Good year-round | |
3June to September for whales and game drives; turtles November to March; busiest mid-December to mid-JanuaryHippos, St Lucia: 1,004 (2013 count); Nile crocodiles: About 1,000 adults; Turtles nesting a year: About 80 leatherback, 935 loggerhead | 5bestGood year-round; dry season May to SepLeopard: Reserve's signature, good year-round; Leopard research: Documented at Londolozi since 1979; Fence with Kruger: Removed for good in 1993 | |
| Elephant | Fair chance | Guaranteed |
| Lion | Rare | Likely |
| Leopard | Rare | Guaranteed |
| Buffalo | Fair chance | Likely |
| Wild dog | Rare | Rare |
| Cheetah | Rare | Rare |
| Hippo | Guaranteed | Likely |
| Giraffe | Likely | Likely |
4520 speciesAbout 520 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | 4500 speciesAbout 500 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | |
| 5Water | 3Walking | |
3False Bay has three self-guided trails of about 2, 7 and 9 km and Mantuma books guided walks, including the Sycamore Fig Forest, but no multi-night trail is listed and elsewhere you walk only on a marked trail or with a guide. | 3The standard lodge rate covers guided bush walks, with age limits such as 16 at Singita and 12 at Dulini. | |
3bestAn operator runs night drives of two to three hours into the Eastern Shores, and licensed operators take you onto the turtle beaches at night from November to March; otherwise the gates close at 18:00 or 19:00 and hippos walk St Lucia town after dark. | 2No Sabi Sand page lists night drives; the guide mentions dawn and dusk game drives with sundowners, and an internal curfew clears the roads from 23:30 to 04:30. | |
5bestFour licensed operators run hippo and crocodile cruises from St Lucia town, Sodwana Bay is the country's diving centre, and there is snorkelling at Cape Vidal and Kosi Mouth, a licensed whale-watching boat and guided canoeing on the Kosi lakes. | 1The Sand and Sabie rivers hold hippo and crocodile, but no boat or canoe activity is listed. | |
4bestA sedan reaches St Lucia, Cape Vidal, Charter's Creek, the main uMkhuze roads and Sodwana Bay, and Avis has a branch in St Lucia, but the ten sections have separate gates hours apart and Lake Sibaya, the Coastal Forest and parts of Kosi Bay need a high-clearance or 4x4 vehicle on sand. | 1You may drive only to your booked lodge on a permit it stamps; there is no self-drive loop and every game drive happens in the lodge's own vehicle. | |
| $6cheapest bed | $447cheapest bed | |
$8 / $9International adult per day, the lower figure if you sleep inside the park ({'name': 'iSimangaliso Approved Gate Fees 2024-2025, valid 1 Dec 2024 to 30 Nov 2025 (archived copy, read 24 Sep 2026)', 'url': 'https://web.archive.org/web/20250428093744id_/https://www.isimangaliso.com/images/iSimangaliso%20Approved%20gate%20Fees%202024-2025.pdf'}, 2026-10-13). | Not published | |
$6bestLowest listed rate per person per night across 86 places; 70 are budget tier. | $447Lowest listed rate per person per night across 39 places; 0 are budget tier. | |
$49bestMedian of 59 priced places; top end $665. | $1,953Median of 31 priced places; top end $3,303. | |
5bestCheapest listed bed $6, 70 of 86 places in the budget tier, park fee $9 a day. | 1Cheapest listed bed $447, 0 of 39 places in the budget tier, park fee None a day. | |
| $601mid-range | $4,376mid-range | |
$131Budget one: self-drive camping at Cape Vidal | Not published | |
$601bestBudget two: a St Lucia guesthouse with two park day trips | $4,376Worked example one: three nights mid-range, two people | |
Not published | Not published | |
| King Shaka Internationalnearest airport | Skukuza or Kruger Mpumalanga Inte…nearest airport | |
King Shaka International, Durban, 207 km to St Lucia, about 2 h 40From the getting-there and flights pages. | Skukuza or Kruger Mpumalanga International, then a road transferFrom the getting-there and flights pages. | |
Not for the southern half; high-clearance or 4x4 for Lake Sibaya, the Coastal Forest and parts of Kosi BayFrom the getting-there page. | Not published; self-drive only to your lodgeFrom the getting-there page. | |
| June to September for whales and…peak game viewing | Good year-roundpeak game viewing | |
June to September for whales and game drives; turtles November to March; busiest mid-December to mid-JanuaryFrom the best-time page. | Good year-round; dry season May to SepFrom the best-time page. | |
Open all year; main gates 06:00 to 18:00 April to October, 05:00 to 19:00 November to March; Maphelane closed since late 2018From the best-time page. | No closures; gates 05:00 to 23:00From the best-time page. | |
| Low to very lowmalaria | ||
Low to very low, September to May (NaTHNaC)From the health page. | Not published | |
Not publishedNeither iSimangaliso nor NaTHNaC's South Africa page mentions tsetse, and the guide found no record of it in the park. | Not publishedThe guide has no health page and no Sabi Sand page mentions tsetse. | |
January, 28.5 °C average highMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page. | Not published | |
Not named in our sources: ask your lodgeFrom the health page. | Not publishedFrom the health page. | |
| 4Families | 5First safari | |
4Malaria risk is low to very low with bite avoidance advised rather than tablets, St Lucia has family rooms and units, and bush rides take children over 6; but hippos walk the town after dark, no estuary or lake is safe to swim in and the guide names no hospital near the park. | 4Two Londolozi camps take children from six and run a Cubs Den, Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge has the EleFun Centre and Singita Ebony takes all ages; lodges are unfenced and the guide publishes no health or malaria page. | |
2Hippo is guaranteed on an estuary cruise, but on a three or four day visit elephant and buffalo are only a chance, and lion, leopard and wild dog are luck, with lion living only in uMkhuze. | 5bestLeopard and elephant are guaranteed and lion and buffalo likely, a radio network shares sightings with two to three vehicles each, and scheduled flights land at Skukuza and Kruger Mpumalanga International. | |
3bestThe far north is reached on sand tracks with no airstrip for visitors, but St Lucia town has more than 40 guesthouses, and the cabins at Cape Vidal and Sodwana book out months ahead in the school holidays. | 2No fence with Kruger since 1993, but 39 places to stay share traverses as small as 1,860 ha and sightings are queued by radio at two to three vehicles each. |
Compare all of South Africa's parks on the comparison page. Sabi Sand has its own guide at visitsabisands.com.
How the ratings work
- Big game is calculated from each park's sightings table on its wildlife page: guaranteed counts 3, likely 2, a fair chance 1, rare 0.5 and absent 0, across elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, wild dog, cheetah, hippo and giraffe, scaled so that 16 points is 5 out of 5.
- Birding follows the species count on the wildlife page. Low-budget safari follows the cheapest listed bed, the share of budget places and the daily park fee.
- Walking, night drives, water, self-drive, families, first safari and wilderness are our ratings, whole numbers from 1 to 5. Press "Why?" on any row to read the facts each one rests on, with the page they come from. Where a rule is not published we say so rather than guess.
- Prices are per person per night in US dollars as listed on the lodges pages, before park fees; the three-night totals come from each park's costs page and use the dated rates there. Fees are the international adult rate per day.