Parque Nacional dos Elefantes Addo, Eastern Cape, South Africa

4jim2006 5:00 PM Mar 4, 2023

Unwelcoming Reception and no big 5
I agree with the previous reviewer that the Reception staff are not welcoming. In fact, one of them was upset and crying when I returned with a query in front of me. As she was obviously upset, she should have gone to the back and let her colleague continue to serve customers. We weren’t provided with the normal Addo map. Just an A4 photocopy of the simpler park map. As there were 4 of us, I asked for a 2nd copy and I was refused. We had a great experience with viewing wildlife and I would recommend Simni, the hop on hop off guide who sat with us in our car for 2 hrs at R295 for the car. He is very knowledgeable and it was an excellent experience. In terms of animals, it was disappointing that we only saw 2 of the big 5 - A few buffaloes and loads of elephants. We were informed that there are only 5 lions left, no leopards. We didn’t see any rhinos either. We enjoyed what we saw but after reading that the big 5 were present there, it was disappointing to learn that it’s not entirely true. They need to introduce more predators as you could see large nos of herbivores. Addo is no comparison to Kruger in terms of game and I’m glad we cut our 2 days of safari to 1 day and went to visit Kraga Kama game park instead as it was different.

4KentTeachers 5:00 PM Mar 7, 2020

A great way of being close to the animals
Addo is a nature reserve, this means the animals are in their own environment and you are the outsider. This allows for amazing experiences of watching elephants, springboks, war hogs ect in their natural habitat. They will come close to you because you respect their environment