SANParks Week 2017

The annual South African National Parks (SANParks) Week (18 – 22 September 2017) gives all South Africans the opportunity to explore their local national park for free. All you’ll need is your South African ID as proof of citizenship.

This year’s theme for the SANParks Week is still “Know Your National Parks”. The objective of the week is to grow a culture of pride in our relationship with the country’s natural, cultural and historical heritage.

Celebrating our natural heritage

Lombard Shirindzi, General Manager of the Northern Region Parks said, “We are hoping to see an influx of people at all our parks, especially as Sunday the 24th of September is Heritage Day, which is all about celebrating our heritage and culture and what a better way to celebrate than spending a day in a national park” 

The idea of a national parks focus week is a world-wide campaign and was conceived in South Africa in 2006, after realising that a vast majority of South Africans weren’t  accessing the national parks.

SANParks encourages school groups, community members and higher education institutions to use this opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge about the deep heritage entrenched in our national parks. All you need to do is produce your ID (green bar-coded book or new ID card).

National Parks in the Western Cape

Grab the opportunity that SANParks Week provides to get out and explore the national   parks in the province:

• Agulhas National Park
• Bontebok National Park
• Garden Route National Park
• Karoo National Park
• Table Mountain National Park
• Tankwa Karoo National Park
• West Coast National Park

Some of the parks will be extending the week to include the weekend. For individual park dates please visit the SANParks website.

Please note that free access to the parks doesn’t include:

• accommodation,
• any commercial activities in the park such as guided safaris in vehicles or guided walks,
• access to certain parks in the province, namely Namaqua National Park, Boulders Beach Penguin Colony and Table Mountain Aerial Cableway (both within Table Mountain National Park).

What you can see and do in some of the National Parks

Some of the parks will be extending the week to include the weekend, so to find out more you can refer to the individual park dates.

Alternatively, you can also visit the SANParks website