Kruger Mpumulanga International Airport (MQP)

 

Planning a trip to Kruger National Park, South Africa? If you are flying into the country may I strongly suggest you consider using the international airport located near the park. Many reasons for this…but let’s start at the beginning.

Most likely your international flight will land in Johannesburg. (Most international flights do. You have to make a special effort to make a different South African city your point of entry.) Once in Johannesburg you have the option of renting a car and driving to the Kruger Park area OR  flying from Johannesburg to the park area. By “park area” I include the park itself, Hazyview, Sabie, White River, Nelspruit, etc.

We rented a car in Johannesburg thinking that it would be nice to see the countryside as we had never been in South Africa before. However in hindsight I wish we had flown on to the Kruger Mpumulanga  International airport and rented a car there.

 

The drive is long (took us about four and a half hours). Drivers we met tended more to the daredevil  rather than the cautious side of the spectrum. Numerous signs along the highway caution “Speed Kills”. N4 is a toll road so make sure you stop somewhere in the airport to get some rand (the South African currency) as there is very little opportunity to safely get cash once you leave the airport. The toll fee was less than 100 rand but I do not recall the exact amount. The toll booth accepts credit cards but none of our North American cards worked at the booth. Locals told us later that they use what they call their “gas card”.

The scenery is interesting but unspectacular…huge tracks of farm land, changing to bush covered land as you get farther north. When the sun sets the darkness is quite intense so plan arrival at your destination during daylight hours.

On the plus side…the highway itself is paved, wide and well maintained. It is a toll road with at least one pretty rest stop complete with a safe gas station, restaurant, gift shop, coffee shop, and washrooms. (Gas stations in South Africa are an experience unto themselves but I do not want to get started on that! Just note the word “safe” in the description of the station on the toll road.) There are a few historical markers along the way. Once we left the immediate Johannesburg area there was not that much traffic until we got near Nelspruit.

Flying to the park area would have been the wiser choice (for me).

We dropped the car off at KMIA when we left the area to fly to Capetown and were most impressed by the car rental/parking arrangements right at the airport.

KMIA (Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport) MQP

MQP is the official airport code you will find on your boarding pass. Locally it is know as the Nelspruit airport as it is just north of the city of Nelspruit.

Many brochures refer to it as KMIA… Kruger (because of its close proximity to the Kruger Park area) Mpumalanga (the province) International (scheduled flights mainly go to Johannesburg, with  less frequent but regular service to Cape Town and Durban…but there are also flights to neighboring African countries) Airport.

Hazyview (very near one of the park gates) is a leisurely 45 or 50 minute drive from the airport. Locals will likely tell you it is about a 30 minute drive, but I like to plan on a bit of extra time. Good thing as we had to stop to top up the gas tank, took a couple of wrong turns, got behind a slow bus, etc.

 

 

KMIA is a smaller, very modern airport cleverly designed to blend in with the landscape. It is situated on a large flat topped hill so one gets sweeping views of the area while waiting for your plane. There are restaurants, a huge open air outdoor patio area with  tables and decorative metal chairs (covered to protect you from the sun), a quality souvenir shop called Out of Africa, car rental booths, etc.

 

Approaching the airport (last five kms or so) there are numerous pottery and ceramics workshops/stores and several roadside stands selling local crafts. If we had known this we would have allotted more time so I could have browsed through some of them.

Rental cars…In the large parking area stalls are marked with signs from many South African car rental companies: Hertz, Avis, Budget, Thrifty, 1st car rental, EuroCar, Tempest, and Dollar. So obviously many people know about the advantages of flying into this airport and driving on from here!

 So if the question is “Do I drive from Johannesburg to the Kruger Park area or do I fly?” there is only one right answer.

Fly.

Just one person’s opinion.

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