Finding an adventure trip suitable for three generations of a family is not the easiest thing - but the Addo National Park in the Eastern Cape offers all we were after.

My parents were visiting Cape Town from the UK and my wife and I decided we wanted to do something special with them and our two children, aged two and five - but it couldn't involve the beach, my father hates it. Our tall order included lots of adventure and entertainment that didn't cost the earth.

Addo is the answer: beautiful chalets in the bush, wild animals and an introduction to camping for my children.

We decided life - and possibly our patience - was too short to pile the entire family into a car for a two-day drive. Instead we flew to Port Elizabeth, hired a car and within a couple of hours of leaving Cape Town, we had stocked up on supplies at nearby Colchester and arrived at our two chalets inside the national park.

Camp Matyholweni (literally “in the bush” in Xhosa) is 16km from the main game area of the park. Quiet, dense and intensely green, this corner of the bush allows you to sit on your balcony and plan the day’s game drives, or simply spot the herons, eagles and monkeys close by. There are 12 chalets; each sleeps two people with a fold-out bed and travel cot if necessary.

We set out the next morning equipped with our map and check list, anticipating what we might see that day. "I want to see a secretary bird," cried my daughter. Soon after setting off we were able to tick off warthogs from the list. Like us, they seemed to be on a multi-generational day trip.

Once we had entered the main game viewing area of the camp, it wasn’t long before we caught sight of our first big animals. No matter how old you are, there is always a rush of excitement at the sight of a herd of elephants playing and spraying each other at a water hole or a lion lying lazily in the middle of the road.

Everyone enjoyed the suspense of what may be around the next bend and then gazing through binoculars at the kudu, elephants, lions, zebras, buffalo and jackals.

We stopped for lunch at the restaurant at the main camp. Looking around us at the cars, guests, day visitors and souvenir shoppers, we felt quite smug that we had chosen to stay in exclusion at the more remote end of the park.

The Addo National Park has expanded greatly in the last few years, occupying land from the coast at the Sundays River Mouth to the Zuurberg Mountains in the north. The views from look-out points across the Sundays River valley, to the sea or the mountains are breathtaking in either direction.

Afternoons were spent reading , drawing and snoozing back at our chalets and enjoying time rarely spent altogether before we braaied under the stars each evening.

After two days at Matyholweni, we booked one night at the Narina Bush Camp (or “Narnia” as it was known to my excited daughter). Although Narina is part of the park, it is about 20km off on a rough dirt road.

You are warned of a long walk from the car to the camp and advised to arrive early and pack lightly. We imagined ourselves arriving at a couple of rickety tents, the likes used by pioneers after a long trek. But were over the moon at what we discovered.

After only a short walk we arrived at a neat collection of four tents, each with two beds (all for us, as you can only hire the camp on an exclusive basis), solar powered lights, hot showers and a balcony that stretched out of the trees and over the river. Wood was supplied and a park ranger built us a fire and kept an eye on us.

It was the perfect end to our weekend away – walks in the forest, swims in the river and sitting and gazing from the picturesque balcony. It could only be called camping-lite, but how often can a two-year-old and a seventy-year-old share the same feelings of adventure?

Prices start at R605 per night for a family chalet at Matyholweni and R640 per night for the Narina Bush Camp. 

Click here for Bush trips to suit all ages.