The Kruger National Park's largest rest camp, as well as its administrative headquarters, Skukuza is situated on the southern banks of the Sabie River. Well 
foliaged, with lofty trees along the river's edge, activities and facilities (as well as animals and plants in the area) at this popular camp are diverse.

Skukuza camp is the Kruger National Park's capital facility, accommodating around 300 visitors at full capacity, and affording a wealth of lodging, gaming and general entertainment facilities. The administrative heart of the park at large, the camp is situated on the well foliaged southern banks of the Sabie river, and provides an impressive array of amenities, just some of which include an internet cafe, restaurant, library and filling station.

Originally known as Sabie bridge rest camp, Skukuza was chosen as a reference James Stevenson-Hamilton, the first warden of the park who cleared large groups of indigenous people from the area during its establishment. The James Stevenson-Hamilton museum houses relevant artifacts from the area, including the knife ranger Harry Wolhuter used to kill an attacking lion and save his own life.

Accommodation

• Campsites comprise of eighty tent or caravan sites, all with electricity points, communal ablutions, and cooking facilities with twenty-four hour boiling water, electric hotplates and washing up facilities. Campsites accommodate a maximum of six people per site
   
• Twelve two-bed and eight four-bed furnished canvas safari tents on stilts are available for booking, and include a fridge, standing fan and small veranda, as well as communal ablutions and communal kitchens
   
• 178 round-walled, two or three-bed, African style bungalows with thatched roofs are also available. These are complete with en-suite ablutions, and either fans or air conditioning in each unit. Most bathrooms have showers, some baths. Kitchenettes range from having hotplates and sinks, to just sinks, while some have neither. Cutlery and crockery can be requested from reception
   
• Luxury bungalows are available in twenty one-bedroom units, all with en-suite bathrooms. Each unit has a double bed, air-conditioning and a limited channel access DSTV television. Luxury units are available with a riverside view and kitchen, while semi-luxury units have no river view and make use of a communal kitchen
   
• Known as Waterkant 2, the family cottage unit constitutes a section of the Waterkant Guest House complex. It includes a kitchen, four bedrooms, a living room, one bathroom and a river view
   
• Guest Cottages comprise of fifteen four or six-bed units. Each cottage has its own kitchen, multiple bedrooms and usually more than one bathroom. Guests can confirm bed sizes during booking, as these are available in a single or double sizes
   
• Guest houses are large, luxury units in prime positions around the camp. All come with river views. Kitchens are equipped with microwave ovens, and the units have multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as limited channel access DSTV televisions. Moni house sleeps eight people with four bedrooms, as do Nyathi and Waterkant. ABSA house sleeps twelve people in six rooms

Activities and Facilities

Skukuza camp offers adventure in the form of guided bush walks and game drives, all under the supervision of well informed and keen professional field guides. Important to note is that children under the age of six are not permitted on game drives, and children under the age of twelve are restricted from game walks.

Pre-booked, overnight activities include the Metsi Metsi Wilderness Trail. Trails such as this must be booked up to eleven months in advance to allow the camp sufficient time to coordinate and plan group sizes

The Stevenson Hamilton Memorial library, Lake Panic Bird Hide and a nine hole golf course provide entertainment for guests, along with seasonal kids educational programs and wildlife films screened daily (barring Sundays)

Facilities at the camp include information at the reception area, public telephones, a post office, a bank, car hire, two restaurants, shops, a deli with an internet cafe, shops, a laundromat, filling station, communal kitchens and bathrooms, cutlery and plate hampers available from reception, a garage with a workshop, a car wash, basic on-site first-aid assistance, auditorium and conference facilities, a day visitor picnic area outside the camp with its own swimming pool, and a further two swimming pools in the camp which are available to overnight residents only). Cell phone reception is also fully available, and limited channel access DSTV televisions in the luxury units. the Skukuza indigenous nursery is also open to visitors. 

Conference Facilities

Conference Formats and Capacity

This relatively new conference facility accommodates 180 delegates in two theater configured conference rooms - 158 in the Goldfields Auditorium, and 25 in the Diplomatic Hall.

Conference Facilities and Services

Each of the two facilities offers delegates a selection of equipment for use during their meetings, including a projector room with rear projector facilities, translation booths, microphones, TV and video, screens, flip chart and stand, and slide and overhead projectors.

Laptops and computers are not provided.

Catering arrangements can be made with the restaurant at Skukuza. 

Important Info and Warnings

Park officials warn that certain creatures which inhabit the park could prove dangerous if not approached or handled correctly. These may include bats, spiders, snakes, and scorpions.

Car Hire

AVIS Rental in available at Skukuza Camp, their office being located within the reception area.

Day Visitors

Skukuza has a designated day visitor area where day visitors and visitors from other camps can barbecue (braai) and picnic. A new swimming pool for day visitors is located downstream from the main camp.

Wildlife and Vegetation

Of the often-quested-for Big Five, Skukuza hosts an estimated 1,500 lion, 12,000 elephant, 2,500 buffalo, 1,000 leopards and 5,000 rhino (black and white). Other 
attractions include Wild dog, a warthog population, vervet monkey (from which visitors should be careful to protect their possessions). Night time visits are made by genet, thick-tailed bush baby and fruit bat, while the river front of the camp offers an opportunity to look for hippopotamus and buffalo.

Other animals to be found here include aardvark, Roan, Sable, Chacma baboon, aardwolf, lesser and thick tailed bushbaby, side striped and black backed jackal, Dwarf, Selous's and Meller's mongoose and the red and common duiker. Added to this are Angolan free tailed, Wahlberg's and Peter's epauletted bats, elephant, buffalo, caracal, cheetah, lion, and leopard, African wild cat and wild dog, hippopotamus, giraffe, Sharpe's Grysbok, Lichtenstein's Hartebeest, impala, klipspringer, kudu, common and mountain reedbuck, oribi, striped polecat, steenbok, warthog and numerous others.

The camp's plant life includes large sycamore fig trees, jackalberry and Natal mahogany, with a surrounding ecozone of thorn thicket, and prominent Knob thorn and sickle bush.

Birder's can encounter Finfoot and Half-collared Kingfisher, and, in the summer the area sees Lesser Masked and Village (Spotted-backed) Weavers, Green Pigeons, Red-faced Cisticola and Spectacled Weaver, Little Sparrowhawk, Collared Sunbird, Red-backed and Bronze Mannikin, Purple-crested Turaco (Lourie) and three bush shrikes (Orange-breasted, Grey-headed and Gorgeous). The elusive White-browed (Heuglin's) Robin-chat is another indigenous species, as well as seven species of flycatcher (Paradise , Black, Dusky, Spotted, Grey Tit- (Fantailed), Ashy (Bluegrey) and Pale (Pallid)), Bat-hawk or Eurasian Hobby, and Woodland Kingfishers hunting in the glow cast on a local fig tree by the lights of the restaurant at night.

Most Recent Sightings - Crocodile, Baboon, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Impala, Kudu, Wildebeest