A holiday in South Africa is the stuff of dreams for anyone. There is no country in the world that can
provide as many different experiences and it would take many months to see everything. The two
most popular destinations are Kruger national Park for big five game viewing and Cape Town for
incredible views and wonderful life style and with direct flights between the two of them you can
combine safari and beach in one South Africa Holiday.
If Cape Town and Kruger are the most popular, they certainly aren’t the only options. Probably third
on the list is the combination of the beautiful Garden Route and the malaria free safaris parks of the
Eastern Cape. Keep going up the East Coast (for about a 1000km!) and you will come to the sub-
tropical coast around Durban and then on up into the wetlands of St Lucia and the Mozambique
Border, another great area for game viewing.
But don’t just stick to the coast. Inland from Durban
are the majestic Drakensberg Mountains and then in your in the famous battlefields of the British,
Boer and Zulu wars where you can see the battle sites and hear the extra-ordinary stories behind
them.
Also from Johannesburg there are options other than the Kruger for great South Africa Holidays.
Head north to the pleasure zones of Sun City and then on up to the malaria free Madikwe game
reserves just a couple of hours away. Finally to the west of the Country on the borders of Botswana
and Namibia you enter yet another terrain with the dry zone of the Kalahari desert.
But a holiday in South Africa is really a holiday in southern Africa. Johannesburg in particular acts as
a gateway to many other countries. It is an easy connection to Victoria Falls and Okavango Delta to
the north and west or to the south and west there is Swaziland and the barefoot luxury lodges of the
Mozambique islands. Also Namibia can be reached from South Africa although there are also direct
flights from Europe to Windhoek which might be easier.
As you can see the choices are endless and you should really talk to someone who knows the area
before booking a holiday to South Africa. There are combinations that work well together such
as Cape Town and the Eastern Cape, or Kruger and Mozambique, otherwise you can spend a lot
of time (and money) travelling. Distances are large but there is good network of domestic airlines
connecting all the major centres many times a day.
With all this diversity of holidays another factor to consider is the time of year to visit. Cape Town
is at its best in the European winter but the other destinations can be visited at all times of the year
– in fact for many of the game parks and the tropical coast the Northern hemisphere summer is the
best time and often you get lower rates as well
Whatever you do and whenever you go, getting there is easy. There are daily flights into
Johannesburg and Cape Town from many European airports and it pays to shop around to get the
best deals. Many of the flights are over night and you can leave Heathrow in the evening and be on
the beach starting your South Africa Holiday by 9am the next morning. Exploring the area you are
staying is easy and we’d advise anyone to rent a car. For the British it is particularly simple as driving
is on the left and the major roads are well signposted and in good condition.
Another consideration for taking a holiday in South Africa is where to stay. There are plenty of big
hotels but the best in our view is to use the network of privately owned guesthouses or if you are
going to Cape Town or the Garden Route, rent a villa or apartment for more space and better value.
Wherever you stay you will be faced with an array of eating options and dining out is good value
and a highlight of South Africa holidays. Whether it is seafront restaurants watching a magical
sunset, a hillside winery in the Western Cape or round the braai at your game lodge. The quality of
ingredients and professionalism of the preparation will spoil you for anything else.
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