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Month by month

iSimangaliso in December

December is peak turtle nesting at iSimangaliso and the busiest, most expensive month of the year, when the South African holidays fill every camp on the coast.

If you only want the answer

Come for nesting turtles and book months ahead. Expect 115 mm of rain on about 10 days, days of 27.4°C and nights of 21.7°C, and the most crowded weeks of the year.

December weather: hot and wet

The Open-Meteo normals give 115 mm of rain over about 10 days, a day high of 27.4°C and a night low of 21.7°C. Swim only at the demarcated sea beaches and never in the estuary, Lake St Lucia or False Bay, where crocodiles and hippos live.

Peak turtle nesting

December is the height of nesting for loggerheads and leatherbacks on the 56 km between Kosi Mouth and Mabibi. Book a licensed tour early; Kosi Forest Lodge, Thonga Beach Lodge, Utshwayelo and Kosi Bay Casitas all sell them, and the public may not walk the beaches at night in season.

Holiday crowds and a new tariff year

Sugarloaf campsite's high season runs from 11 December 2026 to 11 January 2027, and Thonga Beach Lodge asks for three nights between 15 December and 15 January. iSimangaliso's gate tariff year starts on 1 December. The last table it published, for 2024/25, set R62 per South African adult and R130 per international adult at Cape Vidal; no newer table had been published by late September 2026, though several gate-side sources report rises of about 3 percent.

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