Average Expert Rating
Rating Breakdown
Write a User ReviewThe closest Big Five destination to Johannesburg
Many years back, when I lived and worked in Johannesburg, I would regularly visit Pilanesberg on a weekend break, usually camping and always self-driving. Back then the park was relatively understocked in terms of Big Five wildlife, and my main interest was birding, which was invariably excellent (and still is today). The park checklist includes around 350 species, and it was always good for raptors and waterbirds, as well as localised gems such as crimson-breasted
Read more
shrike, violet-eared waxbill, shaft-tailed whydah and southern pied babbler. Indeed, I’ve often ticked 100-plus species over a two-day stay.Although I still tend to think of Pilanesberg as a self-drive destination, it now incorporates several excellent upmarket lodges that offer all-inclusive packages with meals and guided game drives. On my most recent visit (2024) I stayed at Shepherd’s Tree and Ivory Tree Game Lodges, and the all-inclusive experience gave me a very different perspective on the reserve. Overall the game viewing was superb, and it is definitely one of the best places in South Africa for close-up encounters with white rhino and elephant.
Guided night drives undertaken with the lodges in open 4x4s were a real highlight, and offer a good chance of encountering nocturnal specials such as brown hyena, aardwolf, genet and leopard. On one such drive, we were lucky enough to follow a pride of five lions as it walked nonchalantly along the private road to Shepherd’s Tree. I also really enjoyed the network of photographic hides, which gave us some of our best sightings on our most recent trip: we saw plenty of elephants drinking, but were also lucky enough to see white rhino, black rhino and lions at various waterholes.
A Big Five destination just a few hours’ drive from Johannesburg
Pilanesberg is instantly likeable, and with its savannah grasslands surrounded by an attractive ring of hills broken by wooded valleys, it’s hard to imagine that it started life as manmade reserve (it opened in the 1970s as an accompaniment to neighbouring Sun City). While I think it lacks any kind of wild atmosphere – the rangers know where most of the animals are located at any given time, ‘extras’ include game checklists given out at the gates, and the lodges are unashamedly touristy, facilities are very good and game-viewing is easy if you’re short of time. I saw the Big Five here in just a two-day visit, and even on a short two-hour safari from Sun City, the chances of seeing some of the larger mammals is excellent.
Pilanesberg: Busy & Beautiful
Pilanesberg is so easily reached that my first experience of the park was the antithesis of everything I love about the African wild – paved roads, traffic jams, and tour guides with loud microphones. The fact that there were rhinos, both black and white, in numbers, lions, elephants, and rumours of leopards and buffaloes seemed, at the time, incidental. But then I took my own vehicle, left the main roads behind and there I found a different park of beautiful rolling hills, pretty waterholes and wildlife undisturbed by the clamour two valleys away. A brown hyena, companionable rhinos, great birding and a wilderness experience that couldn’t have been more different than the busyness of the previous afternoon – these were Pilanesberg’s true gifts. If you’ve never been on safari before, Pilanesberg is a good way to check off some species. But if you get away, on your own, you’ll understand better what a safari ought to truly be about.