We did a 5 day/4 night safari with Tydon African Safaris. It included 2 days of drives/walks in Sabi Sand and 2 days in Kruger.  Each was exciting and awesome in their own way, and our group of 4 adults all agreed that it was a perfect experience to do both.  I honestly cannot imagine trying to navigate the park in your personal vehicle without a guide - it was clear the guide new where exciting things were (lions eating an impala!  hyena den!) and took us to see them.  Sabi is private (but that does not mean "too expensive"), so you cannot just go on your own.

One big difference between the Kruger and Sabi is that the drivers cannot go off road in Kruger.   PLEASE, bring both binoculars and a real camera, not a cell phone - you will be so happy you did.  There are some amazing things to see that you will not see well with just your naked eye and/or through your cell phone camera.

Kruger closes at a certain time, and you MUST be out of the park by then or pay a big fine; that means it doesn't matter how cool what you see on your way out is, you cannot stop and dawdle.  Sabi did not have this restriction.

There were a lot more people in Kruger than in Sabi, but not so much that it felt like you couldn't see things.

We saw many different animals in Kruger that we did not see in Sabi; additionally, the groups of animals seemed larger (i.e. maybe 3-5 elephants at a time in Sabi, but 15-20 at a time in Kruger).  This could have just been the way our luck ran, however.  Kruger does have a large river that helps attract different animals than Sabi.

We were worried we might get bored doing multiple days of safari (we did more in Botswana later, too), but it just did not get old - there was always something new to see and at no point did we feel time dragging or wish we were done.

Kruger's gift shop was large, and we purchased a few reasonably priced items.

What does one say about Kruger that is not already said , a park on steroids as far as animal sightings go , and don’t forget the birds , what I did find sad since my last visit 4 months ago was there seemed to be a lack of maintenance, lots of toilets etc Out of order and you can see the did not break yesterday , really the type of thing that can be fixed in under a hour

I just returned from a 6 night, 7 day safari in Kruger National Park, with 6 clients of mine from the United States.
We spend the first day entering at Crocodile Bridge, in the South, and traveling via Lower Sabi,and Skukuza to our final destination, Pretorius Kop, were we spend 2 nights. We saw the whole Big 5 in our first 6 hours in the park, fantastic.
We then made our way to Letaba camp, were we spend 2 nights, very dry this time of year, and the animal sightings were few, but the ones we got was good.
Then we traveled to Satara, via Olifants camp. The further South we went, the more animal sightings we had, with lots of animal and predator activities in the areas close to the rivers and waterholes. Satara camp was a treat, restaurant good, and accommodations in all the camps good. Lot of good sightings around Satara. After 2 nights in Satara, we worked our way South via Tjokwane, and Lower Sabi, to exit at Crocodile Bridge again. Our last day from Satara, we had 3 different pride of Lions a huge pack of African Wild Dogs, must have been 20+ dogs, Cheetah, Heyna and a Rhino Bull to finish the trip off.
a Great experience to my American clients, and they will most certainly return.
Animal sightings 10/10
Accommodations 7/10
Staff friendliness 10/10
Restaurants 6/10
Overall experience 9/10
Thanks to Kruger National Park and its staff for making our experience a memorable one. Will be back for sure!!