This article is intended for people from outside South Africa who are coming here for the first time, native South Africans who are welcoming guests from abroad and are planning their travels here, and native South Africans who are looking to plan for a local holiday.
So Much to Offer
Our basic approach here is that South Africa has a multitude of travel destinations. So, even though we enjoy a trip to a casino from time to time, and even though South Africa has upwards of twenty excellent casinos, we suggest that you plan to visit other fantastic holiday spots whilst here and leave your slots play either for your favourite online casino or, if you must play at a land based casino, choose the one that is closest and most accessible to the main destination you want to go to.
The centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth will be celebrated in grand style throughout 2018 all over South Africa and in many points beyond. You can coordinate your holiday to coincide with one of the events sparked by Mandela’s legacy and memory.
Cape Town
Year after year, Cape Town is named the world’s top city by British travelers. This year it came in ahead of Vancouver and Tokyo. Whether you’re planning your own trip or a guest’s holiday, you should try to schedule some time in Cape Town.
Cape Town is also apparently very popular with the French as French tourism there increased by 35% in the past year alone to 75,000 travelers.
Hopefully, the drought will soon end as it is causing severe restrictions on water use by both locals and visitors. Despite the drought, Cape Town and environs remain a wonderful travel destination. The city is surrounded by nature reserves. West Coat National Park is just up the coast and Table Mountain National Park is within the city limits. The city and region are host to many wine estates.
Stellenbosch
There are about 100 wine estates and wine cellars in and around Stellenbosch. The village is only one hour’s drive east of Cape Town so you can make it a day trip or stay in Stellenbosch overnight. There are many excellent hotels and restaurants in town. If you’re planning a safari at some point in your holiday, you may use Stellenbosch as your base for flora and sky-ward fauna. The wonderful Stellenbosch University botanical gardens are a favourite amongst travelers and bird watching is also a highly popular activity there.
If you want to combine wine tasting and bird watching, the Spier Estate runs displays of birds of prey in action to go with their wine.
Safari
People from outside South Africa think most often of safari when they think of a South African holiday. We call them game reserves. Some game reserves are national and some are private so it behooves you to learn the main differences and choose accordingly.
The first and most obvious difference is that the national reserves are far more modest than the private reserves. Essentially, private safaris offer luxury accommodations with many amenities. The drought may cause some of those luxury amenities to be unavailable such as a hot tub but they are certainly still a great way to see South African fauna up close.
The vehicles at national reserves may be more crowded than at a private reserve. In fact, this is usually the case as the private reserves use special vehicles that limit passengers to perhaps six per vehicle thus enabling each passenger to get an unobstructed view.
In some private reserves, the chances of seeing one of the big five big cats is better. Lions and leopards don’t just walk up to you and say “look at me”. Private guides may take their vehicle off track as they look for the shy cats.
Private reserves also run night trios so you get to see those animals that sleep during the day and come out at night.
One aspect of private reserves is that they limit viewings to three vehicles at a time. This makes viewing shorter but even as few as twenty minutes makes for many memorable moments on safari. The twenty minute limit also means that cars are often waiting away from the viewing area and their passengers are getting antsy as they wait. It’s likely that if you’re on a private estate run that you will be both in the queue for a viewing site and also disappointed by how quickly twenty minutes pass when you’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
On the other hand, a national safari such as at Kruger gives you much more land area to traverse and survey. This leads you to see more diverse natural habitats within the less-limited confines of the National Reserve.
Small Enough to Combine Nature and City
There are a few cities that are well-known to tourist such as Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg. We also suggest you check out interesting but less well-known cities such as East London and Bloemfontein.
Come to the New South Africa
South Africa has so much to offer. So plan well and plan ahead. You’ll not regret a South African holiday.
