Conservation fees and the “Wild Card” grrrr.

With South Africa’s rising popularity as a tourism destination, the government is quickly wising up to international fee structures for national parks. A conservation fee has replaced traditional admission fees as a way to relieve weary travellers of their burdensome cash.

If you are planning to stay for a reasonable amount of time and/or intend on seeing more than a couple of listed parks, it would be worth your while investing in a “Wild Card” which allows you free entry into the “cluster” of your choice (for SA residents only, international visitors have to choose the “all clusters” option). Strange choice of word, but hey, that’s what they get paid for.

Unfortunately as of yesterday (1 Nov 2007) the prices have gone up by about 5%, but if you are coming with strong bwana currency it’s not too terrible and may be very worth your while.

There is a huge list of participating national parks, and you will quickly recoup your card fees. You will also be contributing to the conservation of our national parks and not a few BMW Z5’s

NATIONAL VISITORS	Individual	Couple	Family
All Clusters	R205	R350	R460
WAS	R195	R335	R440
Bushveld Cluster	R180	R310	R420
WAS	R170	R295	R395
River Cluster	R180	R295	R320
WAS	R170	R245	R265
Dry Cluster	R180	R310	R420
WAS	R170	R295	R395
Cape Cluster	R180	R310	R420
WAS	R170	R295	R395
Swazi Cluster	R180	R310	R420
WAS	R170	R295	R395
Ezemvelo KZN Cluster	R180	R310	R420
WAS	R170	R295	R395
INTERNATIONAL VISITORS
ALL Clusters	R840	R1 475	R1 990
WAS	R795	R1 395	R1 795