IS THE WILD CARD WORTH IT?
South Africa is known for some of it’s rugged natural beauty and incredible National Parks and so it is no surprise that a big trip to South Africa likely includes paying a visit to these natural wonders. If you are planning a South Africa trip that includes any National Park visit (places like Kruger or the Cape of Good Hope) then you are probably wondering if the SAN Parks Wild Card is worth it.
I spent too long sorting out the Wild Card membership system, and contemplating whether or not to get it. Ultimately I purchased the International two-person membership, valid for one year, for my 3 week trip to South Africa. I will share with you my honest review of whether or not the Wild Card was worth it and help you decide if it is right for your trip to South Africa.
So… is it worth it?
What is the wild card?
Let’s start with what the wild card is and isn’t.
The SAN Parks (South African National Parks Service) Wild Card is a one year membership (digital pass card) that offers you unlimited entry to over 80 national parks, reserves, and resorts around South and Southern Africa, including all of popular destination parks like Kruger National Park, Cape of Good Hope & Cape Point, and Boulders Beach. This means that you do not have to pay any of the daily conservation fees while your membership is active. The conservation fees vary between parks.
The Wild Card membership does cover all of your entry/daily conservation fees into all the parks during your year of active membership, but it does not cover any additional expenses like the guided game drives, or accommodation at rest camps.
There are a few different levels of membership, but really, as an International visitor you are only eligible for one tier which is the full International All Parks Cluster. The pricing of that is then determined by how many people will be using the membership.
Your Wild Card is connected to your name and ID and is not transferable, so whoever is the owner of the account will always have to be present and it cannot passed between family and friends. Take than into account as your choose your membership tier and whose name it will be under.
The Wild Card can be purchased on the SAN Parks website. Once you sign up for the membership you will receive a digital card with your unique account details and from there you are free to visit all of the incredible National Parks in South Africa for the year.
My dad and I opted for the Couple Wild Card which netted out to be ~$250 CAD per person – and with each visit to Kruger National Park costing over $40 each and our big South African adventure ahead, I calculated and determined that we would just meet the threshold to make the Wild Card worth it.
THE MATH
So how did I come up with the calculation that we would hit the threshold…
To calculate whether the Wild Card is worth it for you, you will first need to have a good understanding of your plans and your itinerary for your trip to South Africa.
- Do you know how many days you are planning spend in Kruger? Check out my thorough guide on visiting Kruger National Park for my recommendations.
- Are you going to do a day trip down the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Beach?
- Are you road-tripping along the whole Garden Route? I also have a post highlighting all the best stops on the Garden Route.
- Will you be going to the West Coast National Park during flower season?
These are all things you need to figure out before you can really decide if the Wild Card is worth it for you.
I wished I would find a helpful online tool like the JR Pass Calculator for the Japan Rail Pass but I couldn’t find one (and I couldn’t build one) so you’re going to have to do this old school and pull out your calculator.
Open this document of SAN Parks daily conservation fees (2024/20205) and start tallying up all the fees for the parks you intend to visit, for how many people, and how many times you plan to enter. If you are not a South African national make sure you’re looking at the Adult International Visitor column. These are the most popular parks but if you are interested in visiting other parks you can refer to this document.
Once you’ve tallied up the total that is what you should expect to pay if you are paying out of pocket for each entry.
So, is the wild card worth it?
higher
Once you’ve added up all the conservation fees for all your park visits, compare that total to the Wild Card tier that best suits you (or your group).
If the total you came up with while adding up all the fees is ↑HIGHER↑ than the Wild Card membership price then this is simple and obvious: the Wild Card is worth it!
lower
Now, if the total fees add up to be ↓LOWER↓ than the Wild Card membership price you have two options… Either you don’t get the unlimited membership and pay for each park entry at the time of entry, OR you still get the Wild Card anyways.
You might be thinking “why would I still get the Wild Card, isn’t the math clear?” This will be a decision you have to make for yourself based on your budget, but I genuinely think this is an important consideration:
If the cost of the Wild Card isn’t thaaaat far off from the conservation fee total you calculated (but still within a close enough range), you might find it beneficial to opt up to the unlimited membership. And I say this from experience.
As a super Virgo I thought I had clearly planned all of our days and accounted for all possible park visits and yet once we found ourselves in South Africa’s stunning nature we were so motivated to stop at more parks or return to others (which obviously I didn’t include in my conservation fee tally) just because we could.
Our membership went from being comparable in price paying visit by visit, to actually saving us over $100. Plus we got to see even more gorgeous parks than we first imagined. Maybe we it was an subconscious get our money’s worth mentality, but I would certainly say we got our money’s worth, plus some!
Obviously, this is all assuming the price difference is relatively small AND that you will have some flexibility in your travel itinerary. If there is multiple hundreds between your tallied conservation fee sum and the price of a Wild Card membership, then it’s pretty clear it is not worth it for your trip.
IT WAS WORTH IT FOR US
Ultimately it will be up to you to decide what parks your plans include and make the decision around cost and flexibility to decide if the Wild Card is worth it.
If you were to ask me I would say 100% it was so worth it! Having the SAN Parks Wild Card made each park visit incredibly simple, it expedited that check in/registration process, and allowed us to experience even more of South Africa’s incredible National Parks!
Happy trip planning!
From one traveller to another, I hope this guide provided helpful information about the SAN Parks Wild Card membership as you make your South Africa trip plans!
If you read through this guide and still have questions about the membership or have other park questions… fear not because I can still help! I have a personalized trip planning and advice service available to all Everywhere Travel Club readers. I’d love to chat for an hour with you and help answer any questions you’re working through, share fun ideas, and help bring your big trip into reality! For more info about the one one-on-one call for advice check out the details of my Personalized Travel Planning Sesh.
Let me know what you think about this guide or if it helped you – I’d love to hear from you! You can find me everywhere on the Everywhere Travel Club Instagram, TikTok or Twitter!