Addo Elephant National Park

Saw 3 of the Big 5

We went through the tour company Quality Touring Services (http://www.qualitytouringservices.co.za/index.htm). The guides were very knowledgeable and professional. We first drove through the park in a small bus that holds about 30 people. We saw a lot of wildlife right away: warthogs, red hartebeests, an eland, a black-backed jackal, zebras, helmeted guinea fowl, elephants, male and female ostriches (and their eggs!), kudu, leopard tortoise and another small one I can't remember, and black-headed heron.

I highly recommend taking the open air vehicle tour because they can go off the main roads, whereas the personal cars cannot. That's where we got to see two male lions very up close and personal! It was awesome.

The restaurant told us they were only serving breakfast, which was very delicious, however, we saw that the table next to us (also with our party), were able to order lunch. That was a bit disappointing!

Go into the interpretation center to read about Hapoor the elephant. Very interesting story.

Overall, it was really great. Many of the watering holes are on the side of the roads so we were able to see many animals. That's the only part that seemed a bit artificial. Oh and we stayed along the edge of the park for some of the tour so you can see fencing and also electrical towers, etc.

There is a lot of open space which is ideal for elephant spotting. You will see a lot of elephant! Other game is harder to spot. It is also a very busy park.

Very nice scenery, a lot of wildlife

Very nice scenery, a lot of wildlife, good guides, knowledge of the guide, nice people

A great way to spend a day in Africa

We have been fortunate to visit many Safari Park in both South Africa and across South Africa, and our day visit to Addo Elephant Park did not disappoint. Being short of time we could only spare the day for our visit, but it proved to be a great day safari location, easily accessible from Port Elizabeth and Port Alfred. We started our visit early in the morning at the Southern entrance to the park which meant there was far fewer cars on the road than the areas up around the main cam. We were spoilt with magnificient sightings of both Elephant and Buffalo herds. We didn't see any of the big cats, but others in the area did our timing was just a little off.

The bush in many places in Addo is very thick which can make spotting game a bit challenging at times. As we only visited for the day I can not comment on accommodation, however we did visit the restaurant at the main camp and were very impressed by the meal. Everything from arriving, purchasing our day pass and moving around the park worked efficiently and the park appears to be very well run. We will certainly visit again if we are lucky enough to find ourselves in this part of the world again.

We only had about three hours there as part of a tour of the Eastern Cape, so not much time to see many animals. We did see two herds of elephants drinking at the dam which was an amazing sight to see.

Amazing experience

After starting our South Africa trip in Cape Town, Addo Elephant National Park was the first self drive safari we did. It was an awesome experience. We had the possibility to get realy close to giant elephant. But there is a lot more to see. We didn't see any rhino, lion or leopard, but we did see a lot of warthog, zebra's, buffalo, kudu and a lot more. It's a giant park, but it is not busy at all. This gave us the real safari feeling.

More elephants than you can shake a stick at!

This is a very popular park and it shows with the amount of people you will see there. There isn't a place where you will think you are in the middle of nowhere, the roads are mainly paved and you are never very far from another car.
There is a notice board near the main shop that lists the animal sightings for the day so it allows you to plan out your trip, Addo is enormous so make sure you take a whole day to view of all (if not more).
We drove for a while only seeing a couple of animals, then a single male elephant stode into view. We followed him until he turned a corner and we saw a whole herd of the magnificent beasts. This memory will stay with me forever. We found several other herds throughout the day each as amazing as the other.
This is an amazing park and there are plenty of other animals to see (lions, zebras, antelope to name but a few). If you like elephants then you will love this park.

Large elephant herds, predators, giraffes, zebras, warthogs and others. Self driving through the game reserve. Follow the safety rules.

Nice area close to Cape town and the Garden Route, mostly Elephants (never seen any other Big 5 animal there).

This is a great place to see wild life.

We visited this park last year and I was pleasantly surprised with the beauty of nature and its animals. We stayed in the park accommodation and we found them to be clean, comfortable, spacious and well equipped. What a pleasure. The parks shop has all that one needs when visiting a park and the public ablutions are clean and modern.The restaurant is geared for good food and the menu has quite a variety of South African dishes.

Concerning the wild life, this is a green park with lots of animal and you will see elephant. You can do your own game drives or use the Sanparks open vehicles. There are picnic spots that are well maintained but always remember that your are in a national park with wild animal and please be careful.

We will visit this park again in 2015 as we take in tour groups and we always enjoy this park.