SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA
We visited South Africa in December 2007, a special holiday for us as we celebrated our silver wedding that year. We had wanted to go there for many years and our expectations were far exceeded.
We had 3 weeks which we split as follows: 5 nights Camps Bay, Cape Town; 3 nights Franschhoek; 1 night Swellendam; 2 nights Knysna; 1 night Port Elizabeth; 2 nights Bukela Safari Lodge (Amakhala, Eastern Cape); 6 nights Tamberskloef, Cape Town. This worked out really well for us, although we were pretty much on the go all the time.
We hired a car from about our third day in Camps Bay, drove along the garden route, then flew back from Port Elizabeth. There are several South African budget airlines to choose from for internal flights. We initially booked with Kulula but received an e-mail from them a few weeks before we were due to leave advising us that their flight times had changed. The new times were no good for us so we advised them and promptly received a full refund. We then booked flights with 1Time and had no problem with them. This page is quite useful and gives links and information on these airlines and others that offer flights within South Africa.
When we were there, in December 2007, food and drink were incredible value and very good quality. There are so many excellent restaurants and it made a pleasant change being able to buy a bottle of wine in a nice restaurant and not be charged a ridiculous price like in the UK! Most restaurants even let you bring your own wine and charge a minimal corkage fee.
The standard of accommodation is also very good. We stayed mostly in guest houses and found them excellent value and of a much higher standard than the average guest house in the UK.
We know that the crime problem in South Africa can put people off visiting, but we loved our holiday in South Africa - it was one of our best ever trips - and we certainly hope to return in the not too distant future. We were actually victims of crime when our room in our guest house in Camps Bay was broken into while we slept. We felt very uncomfortable when we realised what had happened, but we made sure that this experience did not spoil our holiday, and we were able to put the experience to the back of our minds and enjoy the rest of our trip. We found the people very friendly and didn't every feel threatened or in danger in any way.
For more information on the following areas, please click on the links below:
