A Malaria Free Safari With Kids: Madikwe and the Eastern Cape

The question every parent asks about a safari with a five year old is malaria, and South Africa has the answer. Two regions with the big five, family lodges and no malaria tablets required.

Madikwe is a reserve on the Botswana border, a four hour drive or a short flight from Johannesburg. Lions, elephants, rhinos, wild dogs, and a set of lodges built for families, with children’s programs, family suites, pools and rangers who are used to a six year old on the vehicle. It is where I send families with kids under eight.

The Eastern Cape reserves near Port Elizabeth are the other answer. Shamwari, Kwandwe, Amakhala, at the end of the Garden Route drive from Cape Town, so the safari becomes the last three nights of a road trip. Big five, malaria free, and the lodges are as good as the famous ones.

What a family safari looks like

Game drives at dawn and dusk in an open vehicle with a ranger and a tracker, three hours each. Kids over six on the vehicle at most lodges, some take younger ones on a private vehicle. In between, the pool, a nature walk in the lodge grounds, a junior ranger program with tracks and bugs, and a sleep.

A family suite with two rooms, a babysitter for the evening drive if the little one is too young, and dinner under the stars in a boma with a fire. Three nights is the minimum, four is better.

Kruger and the Sabi Sands are the famous safari, and they are the right one for kids over ten with the tablets. For a family with a small child, Madikwe is the one that makes the whole trip possible.

Planning South Africa with kids? Start with the full South Africa family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.