KMIA or Skukuza? Choosing the best airport for Kruger

If you just want the answer

For most guests staying at The Zarafa, we would choose Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, KMIA.

It is the easiest all-round option for Hazyview, has a good choice of scheduled flights and the drive to us is around an hour.

Skukuza is a lovely airport and can make perfect sense in the right itinerary. It is just not automatically the better choice because it sits inside Kruger.

KMIA: usually the easiest option

KMIA is just outside Mbombela. The terminal is small enough to be easy and large enough to have the connections most visitors need.

Land, collect your bags, meet your driver or pick up a hire car and head towards Hazyview. There is no park gate involved and no need to drive through Kruger to reach us.

If you are looking at several flight options and have no particular reason to choose another airport, KMIA is the one we normally suggest.

Skukuza: a very different arrival

Skukuza Airport is inside Kruger National Park. That makes arriving there rather special.

You step out of a small airport into the bush, and the drive towards the gate already feels like the safari has started. You may see animals before you have even reached Hazyview.

If you are combining The Zarafa with a stay inside Kruger or at a private reserve, Skukuza can fit the itinerary very well. It can also simply be a lovely way to arrive.

But is Skukuza not closer?

On a map, it may look that way.

The important difference is that Skukuza is inside a national park. You are travelling on park roads, at park speeds, and there is always the possibility that the journey becomes slower because there are animals around. Which is not exactly a hardship.

KMIA connects to Hazyview on ordinary roads and is generally the more straightforward transfer.

So we would not choose an airport based purely on the number of kilometres shown on a map.

Choose the flight before you choose the airport

A convenient flight at a sensible time is often more important than saving twenty or thirty minutes on the ground.

Look at the whole journey. What time do you land? How long is the connection? Where are you travelling from? What are you doing after The Zarafa?

If one airport gives you a direct, comfortable flight and the other means sitting around for several hours, that usually answers the question.

What about Hoedspruit?

Hoedspruit Eastgate is another option. It works particularly well if you are combining The Zarafa with one of the private reserves further north.

For a stay mainly centred around Hazyview, it is a longer road transfer, around two and a half hours, so KMIA will usually be easier.

And Johannesburg?

You can drive from OR Tambo. Allow roughly five hours.

A lot of guests choose to fly onwards to KMIA instead, particularly after a long international journey. But if you would rather avoid another flight, the road transfer is completely feasible and becomes surprisingly scenic as you travel east through Mpumalanga and towards the escarpment.

We can arrange the drive if you would rather not hire a car.

Do you need a hire car?

Not necessarily. If you enjoy having your own car, want to self-drive in Kruger or prefer complete independence, hire one.

If not, it can spend an impressive amount of a Hazyview holiday parked.

We can arrange airport transfers, Kruger safaris, Panorama Route tours and local transport. So it is perfectly possible to arrive at The Zarafa and let somebody else do the driving for the rest of the stay.

What would we book?

KMIA for the easiest Hazyview arrival. Skukuza if the flight works particularly well or you like the idea of arriving through Kruger. Hoedspruit if it fits an itinerary further north. Johannesburg by road if you have time and would rather enjoy the drive than take another flight.

If you are still not sure, send us the flights you are considering. We look at these routes all the time.