Accommodation near Phabeni Gate: what actually matters

How close do you really need to be?

The Zarafa is 17 km from Phabeni Gate. For us, that is close enough.

An early safari is easy, but we are still far enough outside Kruger that the lodge can be chosen for reasons other than how quickly you can reach the gate.

That is worth thinking about when you compare accommodation. The closest bed to Kruger is not necessarily the one you most want to sleep in.

A few kilometres do not change the safari

Once you are in Kruger, you are going to drive slowly. You are going to stop. You may sit for twenty minutes because an elephant is standing in the road. That is the point.

Saving another ten minutes on the drive to the gate is not terribly important if it means giving up the place you would rather spend the rest of your stay.

Early mornings should be easy

If you are going into Kruger early, the practical things matter. You want to know what time you are leaving, whether breakfast can be arranged and who is collecting you if you have booked a safari.

At The Zarafa, tell us what you are doing and we plan around it. You should not have to organise several different suppliers just to get into the park.

Coming back matters too

This is the part accommodation searches tend to ignore.

You are not only choosing where you leave from. You are choosing where you come back to.

After a full day in Kruger, most people want a shower, a drink, somewhere comfortable to sit and no further decisions. That is where The Zarafa works well. Come back, swim, take your time. Dinner is already part of the stay.

Guided safari or self-drive?

Either is easy from Hazyview. For a first trip, we generally prefer a guide. If you already know the park and like the freedom of finding your own way around, self-driving is hard to beat.

You do not need to choose one for the whole stay either. Do a guided safari first and self-drive another day.

And when you are not going to Kruger?

You have the Panorama Route in the other direction. You have Hazyview’s other activities. You have the lodge.

This is why we think choosing accommodation purely by distance from a gate misses half the point.

Why stay at The Zarafa?

The practical reason is that Phabeni is close. The better reasons are that every villa has its own pool, that there are only five villas, that breakfast and dinner are included, that it is adults only, that private safaris can be arranged, that the Panorama Route is easy to reach, and that you have somewhere worth coming back to.

That, for us, matters more than being another five kilometres closer.