Month by month
iSimangaliso in May
May is the quiet month at iSimangaliso: the rain is tailing off, the holiday crowds are months away, and the only private lodge inside the park on the lake shore drops to its winter rate.
If you only want the answer
The best-value month of the year. Expect 55 mm of rain on about 4 days, days of 24.7°C and nights of 18.1°C, thinning bush and quiet camps. There are no turtles and the whales have not yet arrived.
May weather: dry season begins
The Open-Meteo normals give 55 mm of rain over about 4 days, a day high of 24.7°C and a night low of 18.1°C. The bush begins to dry, and game viewing on the Eastern and Western Shores and in uMkhuze improves through the month.
Winter rate at Makakatana Bay
Makakatana Bay Lodge, on the western shore of Lake St Lucia, moves to its winter rate of R9,250 per person sharing, fully inclusive, from 1 May to 30 June 2026, against R10,880 for the rest of the year. Check the lodge is trading before you book: its old domain now points to an unrelated site.
Quiet camps
Sugarloaf campsite's late-April high season ends on 3 May, and nothing else in the 2026/27 calendar falls in May. It is the easiest month to get a cabin at Cape Vidal or Sodwana at short notice, though the state camps have been run by iSimangaliso since 1 March 2026 and no new tariff or booking channel has been published.