Are you searching for a child friendly safari company? Are we a child friendly safari company/tour operator?

Welcome to Lion Roar Safaris (Pty) Ltd – AWARD WINNING TOUR OPERATOR AND KRUGER NATIONAL PARK SAFARI SPECIALIST

One of the BIG questions we are often asked is; Are you a Child friendly safari company/tour operator, and is my child/ren welcome on a safari in Kruger National Park?

The answer is YES! Yes, you are absolutely welcome to bring your child or children with you on a safari in the Kruger National Park with Lion Roar Safaris. However PLEASE TAKE NOTE that the Kruger National Park does not allow children between the ages of 0-3 years of age to be on-board any open safari vehicle in Kruger Park.

Lion Roar Safaris is proud to be a child friendly safari company

We are pleased to mention from first-hand experience that most of the kids find the Kruger to be magical, to say the least. The Kruger is filled with enjoyment, adventure and excitement that will have the kids literally sitting on the edge of their seats waiting in anticipation of what animal they will see next.

Read about some of our guest reviews on TripAdvisor. Read about their Kruger safari experience with their young children.

Your children will experience FOMO whilst on safari in Kruger National Park 

Some kids may even experience a mild case of FOMO – (abbreviation: FOMO – FEAR OF MISSING OUT)! We love it when this happens to children in the Kruger National Park. It is always a huge compliment when we see our little safari explorers having just as much fun as the grown-ups.

Why choose South Africa to travel with young children

NOTE: Kruger National Park does not allow children (0-3 years of age)  to be on-board any open safari vehicle in Kruger Park! Therefore we only allow children on-board our open safari vehicles – age 4 years and older.

It is always advisable to plan your travels accordingly, especially when traveling with young children, or any children for that matter. Extra care should be given when you plan to travel with children.

As parents, or guardians of young children, we all know that children are prone to get up to mischief that can lead to unforeseen accidents. Children are not yet as resilient to sickness as adults and can get sick way quicker than adults. All these factors need to be taken into account when traveling.

South Africa is without a doubt a top travel destination for families with children or even solo travelers.

• South Africa is an urban country, and perhaps more developed than other countries within the African continent. You will find most modern infrastructures, for example, healthcare, hospitals, clinics; doctors, shopping malls and outlets, as well as a huge selection of child friendly accommodation options on offer.
• South Africa is an easy and inexpensive country to travel; you will have transport options available, ranging from car rentals to shuttle services, to mention but a few. These transportation services will be able to take you directly to your destination of choice. Be sure to arrange this beforehand if you travel with young kids. Even better, let us arrange transportation on your behalf.
• Food options are plentiful. South Africa is big on agriculture, and you will get good quality fresh meat and fresh produce at reasonable prices. The food is also easy to relate to, meaning you can stick to basic food types if you choose not to be too adventurous with food when traveling. If you are an adventurous food traveler, practice common sense when choosing your food. Make sure it is well prepared, in a reputable restaurant and is sourced from a good quality supermarket. The last thing you want is to get an upset stomach because the “foreign” food is not agreeing with your gut. Or worse, food poisoning whilst on holiday in a foreign country. Be careful and wise. Keep your food simple.
• Water – South Africa’s water sources (tap water) are generally healthy and safe to drink but for extra peace of mind, buy bottled water. Mineral water is inexpensive and widely available.
• Children entertainment – There are many options available in South Africa to entertain your children; once you start to research, you will be amazed. You will find something that the kids will love, I can assure you.

Is there a right or wrong age to take your child on a safari in Kruger?

There is no right or wrong age to take your child on a safari. But please note that if you are planning to visit Kruger with your youngster, one of the rules of  Kruger National Park is that NO child between the age 0-3 years old are allowed to be on-board any open safari vehicle!

We do however advise you to contact us if you are interested in taking your child/ren on a safari. We request that you hire the safari vehicle privately when your child or children are between the ages of 4 and 8 years old. Children between age 4 and 8 are a bit difficult to control and may affect the other guest experience negatively, and will perhaps put you under unnecessary stress. If you hire the vehicle privately, you can be assured that only you and your family will be affected if the child starts to be difficult. The Field guide, on the other hand, will not mind and will continue the safari.

Email us directly if you want to hire the safari vehicle privately, or check out Private Safari vehicle for rates. Alternatively, email us with your request to bring your child and we will accommodate you according to your needs and requirements.

How many days are advised to go on safari with young children?

It is generally advised to go on a safari at least for two days, either consecutively or on alternating days with doing some other activities in between. Remember, the Kruger is very large and doing multiple day safaris will give you an added advantage to hopefully find more animals. Two days to one week, it is great to go on a safari in Kruger, and if you stay in Kruger National Park, you will have adequate accommodation that will cater to all your family’s and children’s needs. If you do not stay in Kruger, you will find accommodation outside the park. Or you can book your accommodation through us.

We do however know that not everyone can do multiple day safaris, if this is the case, at least do a full day safari, so you can experience a bit of the magic of Kruger National Park with your family and children.

The number of days will also be determined by your budget and how good your children adapt when they travel with you. Keep the season in mind when you are traveling with young children, especially in the summer months, as the temperatures are sometimes quite relentless. Take the necessary precautions and talk to your general healthcare provider or general healthcare practitioner when traveling to South Africa.

Are there any dangers to take young children on a safari in an open safari vehicle in Kruger National Park?

We cannot stress this enough. You need to be aware of the danger involved, not just for young children but for any human entering a nature reserve where wild animals roam wild and free. There are strict safety rules and regulations that you will need to obey when participating in a safari in the Kruger, whether you are young or old. As long as you listen to the Field Guide and use your common sense, you will be safe. Rules are there for a reason, and you can also rest assure knowing our Field Guides take their jobs very seriously and enforce these rules for a good reason, for your safety as well as your children and all the animals in the Kruger National Park.

Our Field Guides practice good ethics and morals and will do their job with good safety measures in mind at all times. Our Field Guides are all trained in First Aid for added peace of mind.

You are however solely responsible for your child’s safety at the end of the day and your child is in your care and not in the care of the Field Guide. The Field Guide is merely providing a service. You and you alone will be required to be the legal adult guardian and childminder of your child during the safari, and you are responsible for your actions as well as your child’s actions.

How to prepare children for a safari in Kruger National Park

Step one: Tell your children that they will be going on a safari in the Kruger National Park. 

By telling your kids that they will be going on safari, you will ultimately enable your child to prepare themselves mentally (as adults we do this automatically because we already know what your next step will be, but a child rely on you and look to you for their next step on what to do, where to go and how to act, etc.) Now that you have told your children that they will be going on a safari in Kruger National Park, they can start tapping into their imagination. Why? Because the child is mentally preparing themselves and they now know where they will be going. This works on all ages, not just kids.

Step two: Tell the children as much as you know about the safari that they will be going on.

Gather as much information about Kruger National Park, safaris, how it works, the do’s & don’ts, etc. You will soon discover that your excitement (not only your child’s excitement) will start to build as you continue to discover more and more about these topics.

When you finally visit Kruger National Park on safari with your family and children, you will enjoy it even more. Why? Because you will be able to relate to the safari experience more, due to the fact that you have researched it previously. It will be more rewarding if you do it this way, believe me! You can get a lot of interesting information about safaris directly on our website, or you could simply read a few of the hundreds of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS on our website – Questions that were asked by some of our previous guests. Share this information with your children, so they know what to expect.

Step three: Speaking of expectations – tell your children about what they can expect and what they should not expect whilst on safari in Kruger National Park. 

For example, tell the children about the safari vehicle, (perhaps show them a photo of Lion Roar safaris open safari vehicle). Tell the children that there will be a Field Guide driving the open safari vehicle on the day of the safari in Kruger and that the Field Guide is friendly and are expecting many questions from the children on the day. This way the children can write down a few questions that they wish the Field Guide to answer for them on the day. This will create excitement and will stimulate their brilliant fresh minds; which likes to absorb information like a sponge at a young age. Who knows, maybe the safari will awake a new interest or passion for nature and animals, that will ultimately help form them into becoming good-natured, caring and loving adults that will have a great love for nature, animals and the environment.

Our company – Lion Roar Safaris have excellent Field Guides that will try their best to keep the children involved and intrigued during the safari, by sharing interesting and fascinating facts about animals with all their awesome animal “powers”. This way, the children will feel just as important as the other adult guests on the safari vehicle.

Talk to your children and inform them about the thing that they should not be expecting when on safari in Kruger National Park. Do not get your children’s hopes up for no reason. Remember the Kruger National Park is not only BIG, it is enormous. YES, enormous! (Put 2 million football fields next to each other – that is the size of the Kruger National Park, massive right?) Well then, the last thing you would want to do is tell your child that they will see lions. Nope! No animal is guaranteed in Kruger National Park. It is absolutely possible to find lions, yes, but you will never know if you will find them in the Kruger or not. (Even our trained Field Guides struggle to find cats in the Park on some days, even though the Field Guides know where most of the animals are most active. It’s just finding them close enough to the road to be able to see them – *Remember Kruger National Park is not a zoo! Rather create reasonable expectations for your kids and if they see something like lions on the day of the safari, their expectations will most certainly be exceeded. What a nice feeling that will be!

Your child should also know that there will not be constant animals throughout the day and that many minutes, sometimes hours will pass without seeing any animals. You should also tell them why this is. Why? Because just like us humans, animals too get tired and need to rest, or perhaps hide from the cold or hot weather. This is when you need to be searching even harder (like an Easter egg hunt but instead of Easter eggs, we are looking for animals). This way they will understand better.

Step four: Teach your children the common animals’ names.

By teaching your children common animals’ names, you will again stimulate their minds as well as their imagination. Even better! Show your children photos of animals along with their names so that the children can get familiar with these creatures. This will excite your children beyond imagination once they find these animals that they have learned about in books or on TV, when they find them in real life, during their safari in Kruger National Park.

Step Five: Teach your children to take responsibility for their behavior.

This might sound harsh, but if you give your child some responsibility, you will see some good results sprouting from it. Tell your child that he or she is just as important as all the other people on the safari vehicle and that there is a special place for children on-board. They will have a very important role on the day of the safari and that is to help search for the animals. They will be responsible to look around using their brilliant keen eyesight to point out animals on the day. Why? So that everyone gets to see many animals, and that they can find the animal first. This way your child will try their best to find as many animals as possible so everyone can be proud of them.

Remember to congratulate your child if they have found a new animal that they (as well as the people on-board the safari vehicle) have not seen before. This will create a feeling of pride in your child and will inspire them to continuously search for animals.

Another important point to focus on and to tell your child, is to be as quiet as possible during the safari and especially if you are busy looking at animals or are trying to find animals. Tell them if they are going to cry, scream and be loud, the animals will get frightened, and they will run away. Then no one will see animals.

These are only a few basic steps you can help your kids to prepare for their first, and hopefully not their last wild adventure in Kruger National Park. The rest of the preparation will be up to you. Yes! You’ve got this! Your children will love you for taking them on a safari like this, something that you will treasure for as long as you live. What are you waiting for?

A Child friendly safari company can do everything in their power to help keep their guests and their guests’ children safe, but you will still need to practice these safety tips to ensure you are safe at all times.

Safety for children on safari in the Kruger National Park

Remember, the Kruger is not only the biggest and wildest nature reserve in South Africa, but it is also the home of the iconic BIG FIVE animals. Besides the BIG FIVE animals, Kruger National Park is also home to a number of creepy crawlies. For example, snakes, spiders, scorpions, bees, reptiles and other interesting and fearful creatures lurking in the wilderness. It is for this reason that we need to practice a good sense of safety and follow the rules and regulations at all times.

Kruger Park has a long list of rules that have been specifically formulated with the safety of both humans and animals in mind, and all these rules have to be followed. As soon as you enter Kruger, you are agreeing to follow these Park rules in order to keep you safe whilst on a guided safari in Kruger National Park with Lion Roar Safaris.

Remain in the safari vehicle at all times and do not lean out of the vehicle

You are not allowed to get out of the vehicle during the safari. You can only do so at a picnic spot or a rest camp or at a designated area where you are allowed to get out of the vehicle. Your Field Guide will brief you on the morning of the safari regarding the safety rules. The Field Guide will also tell you not to lean out of the vehicle and will explain why you can’t do so etc. The Field Guide will place your children in the middle seats and not on the side seats. There is space for 9 people in the back of the open safari vehicle. Three rows seating 3 people in each row.

No feeding or touching of any animal in Kruger National Park is allowed

Even though the monkeys in the camps look cute and cuddly, keep in mind that all animals in Kruger National Park are wild and are equipped with sharp claws, hooves, teeth, jaws, horns, etc. and can hurt you and will hurt you when they feel threatened. We are only visitors to their home that is Kruger National Park. Respect the animals at all times.

If you feed animals, they lose their natural ability or instinct to search for food for themselves. They get used to humans and lose their fear, as they associate humans with food. When they become accustomed to humans, the situation can become dangerous and they will start to attack humans for their food. This is when humans start hating animals, and this is ultimately when we start killing animals because they hurt us. Finally, you sign the wild animal’s death warrant when you start feeding them.

Always listen to your Field Guide

The Field Guides are trained and they know best, always listen to your Field Guide and do as they say, they have a good reason for how they do things.

Is there any toilet stops for my children during the safari in Kruger?

There will be toilet stops yes but they are limited during the safari day:

• First stop: During the morning when you arrive at the gate and the Field Guide or guests (that have not included their Kruger entrance fee/conservation in their payment when they booked) are busy with payments and permits.
• Second stop: After approximately 2 – 2½ hours during your compulsory 45-min breakfast stop.
• Third stop: After breakfast stop (approximately 2 – 2½ hours) during your next compulsory 1-hour lunch stop.
• Final stop: After lunch stop (approximately 2 – 2½ hours) when you finally exit the park at a gate.

IMPORTANT: No person is allowed to get out of the vehicle during the safari, and this includes non-designated toilet stops. Regulate your fluid intake throughout the day. This is for your own safety. Wild animals that see humans as easy food roam free in Kruger.

Entertaining the children during the safari in Kruger

The steps that we have explained above (Preparing your child for a safari in Kruger) will help you to entertain your child during the course of the day.

Perhaps bring your child’s favorite stuffed toy animal with them on safari so that your child can tell the stuffed toy animal and show the toy animal, all the animals of Kruger National Park.

You can perhaps include a reward for when the child has found one of the BIG FIVE animals, for example an ice-cream when you stop for lunch.

Play games like (I spy with my little eye) or describe an animal and the child/ren has to give the name of the animals you are describing.

Be creative, you know your child/ren best!

Sun protection and hydration during safari

Make sure you as parents or guardians look after the wellbeing of your child’s skin health during a safari. Even though the weather might be cold on the day of the safari, put sunscreen on your child anyways. You sometimes burn more on a cold and overcast day as on a hot day because you cannot feel when you burn. Skin health is important.

Re-apply sunscreen several times a day, for both you and your child.

Fluid intake on a hot day is also very important.

The behavior of children during a guided safari in Kruger National Park in an open safari vehicle

It is of utmost importance that your child behaves well during the safari, especially if you are sharing the safari vehicle with other paying guests. It will be unfair towards these people if the safari gets disrupted by a child who cannot behave and do not listen to the parents. This is yet another reason why we encourage you to hire the safari vehicle privately. This means that you as a family, together with your child/ren will have the safari vehicle all to yourself (privately). And if any incident occurs, it won’t affect other paying guests. Remember to keep this into consideration when you are planning a safari to Kruger.

Most people only have one opportunity to visit South Africa and go on a guided safari in the Kruger National Park. Most people save for months and even years to make this possible. Please don’t let your child be the one that spoils it for other guests.

Yes, we were all young at one stage in our lives, but it does not mean that people should tolerate misbehaving children just for the sake of being polite, especially if it is a longtime dream of yours that you have worked hard for. Even though children are welcome on a safari in Kruger National Park, it is mainly for adult entertainment only and it is for this reason that very few safari companies & tour agents/operators do not allow children on a safari at all. Please do not make the companies that are willing to accommodate your children on safari, reconsider their child friendly safari policy, due to your children’s bad behavior.

A company can easily get a bad review from guests that had a bad experience due to your children misbehaving, and it was not even the safari company’s fault. This is unfair towards the child friendly safari company. Please don’t let this happen! It is a huge favor if safari companies like us, allow children onto our open safari vehicle, please do not make us regret this decision and ruin it for potential future families wanting the opportunity to experience Kruger National Park on safari with their children.

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