The Kruger Park food options really spoil you for choice. From self-catering meals to restaurants, eating certainly is easy!
Eating at Rest Camps
When you eat at rest camps, you have a choice of preparing your own food in a kitchen, cooking on a BBQ, getting take-aways or dining at restaurants.
If you’re opting for Kruger Park self-catering, you may or may not have your own kitchen.
If you don’t have your own kitchen, you’ll most likely have access to a shared kitchen. It all depends on what type of accommodation you’re staying in.
If your accommodation has a kitchen, it’ll also have a fridge. The kitchen and fridge might be on your outdoor verandah. It’s set up like this so you can enjoy the outdoors as much as possible.
When you’re not using your fridge, turn it into a corner so the door can’t be opened. Baboons and monkeys are very curious and like to eat…
Also make sure you put all your rubbish in the baboon proof bins. You don’t want to wake up in the morning and find your left-overs strewn around the place!
We really enjoy making a fire and cooking our dinner on a BBQ. Relaxing in front of a fire is the perfect end to the day 🙂
You can buy provisions from general stores. Most of the main rest camps have them.
General stores sell:
- Milk
- Bread
- Meat
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Drinks
- Snacks
- Firewood
- Toiletries
Fancy someone else doing the cooking? There are a good selection of restaurants and also take-aways and BBQs at the main rest camps. One of our favourite places to dine at is the Selati Station Grillhouse at Skukuza, set around the old train that used to take visitors to the park.
If you want an adventurous BBQ experience, another Kruger Park food option is a bush braai (BBQ). A professional guide drives you to an unfenced BBQ site outside the rest camp. Eat at leisure amongst the sounds of the bush and enjoy the wildlife!
Eating out options:
| Rest camp | Restaurant | Cafe | Deli | Take away | Boma braai (communal BBQ) | Bush braai (BBQ) |
| Berg-En-Dal | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Crocodile Bridge | √ | |||||
| Letaba | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Lower Sabie | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Mopani | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Olifants | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Orpen | √ | |||||
| Pretoriuskop | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Punda Maria | √ | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Satara | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Shingwedzi | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Skukuza | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ |
Day visitors to all rest camps except Boulders and Roodewal, can hire a skottel braai (portable gas BBQ) to cook their own meals. You can also hire them from picnic spots.
Picnic Spots
Picnic spots are scattered throughout Kruger National Park. They are unfenced, so mind the baboons! Keep your car doors locked and the windows up while you’re picnicking. Baboons can open car doors if they’re not locked!
All picnic sites have BBQs for hire and toilet facilities. Some have:
- Take-away shops for light meals
- Snacks
- Drinks
- Firewood
Bring your own Food
You may bring your own food into Kruger National Park.
If you have perishable food get a portable car fridge/freezer to keep it in, especially for a summer visit. It’s very hot at this time of year with the average daily temperature at 34°C (93°F). Perishables won’t last long in this weather! See the weather details by the month.
If you see any animals wherever you’re eating, don’t feed them! They have to survive in the wild on their own. If they rely on people for food, they get lazy and maybe even aggressive.
Enjoy the Kruger Park food! You won’t go hungry 🙂