Visiting South Africa--Notes and recommendations

I first lived in South Africa in 1972, married a beautiful woman from there, Estelle, in 1973, and have been back every two years or so ever since both visiting family and touring that part of Africa including trips to Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania. While I lost Estelle in 2021, South Africa and her/my family there remain close to my heart. While there is much I still haven’t seen, what I have experienced is absolutely breathtaking and a lifetime experience to visit.

For first time visitors to sub-Saharan Africa, you can’t do better than South Africa—particularly Cape Town in the American wintertime, South African summer. You should try to get a minimum of five days in Cape Town, just to make the trip and jet lag adjustment worthwhile. A week is better, particularly to experience the game reserves. There is much to see beyond that if you can do more than a week or so.

While there are many American and international tour companies who will organize tours for you, you will get better value and be able to do what you want if you just do your own bookings with local South African companies.

Getting there:

Delta direct from Atlanta to Cape Town is the best route. Long direct flight but much shorter total travel time and less risk of flight delays than connecting through Europe. That said, it also works nicely to fly to Europe or, say, Egypt, Moroco, Jordan, etc, do a week or so touring there, get adjusted to the jet lag, then fly to cape town for a week and direct nonstop to Atlanta from there.

Where to visit In the Country:

1.       First, visit Cape Town

2.       Second, visit the Game Reserve

3.       Third, visit surrounding countries of Botswana and Namibia

4.       Fourth, Johannesburg area to get a sense of the commercial side and gold history of south Africa.

Cape Town

·       The waterfront area is the center of tourism and entertainment. Large shopping mall there along with harbor tours, cruises, restaurants, etc.

·       Ride the hop on hop off red bus-- a good and easy way to get a city overview

·       Personal walking guide downtown is ideal to get culture, history, and architecture. Lesley Cox did a good job for us in 2023. https://capetownwalkingtours.com/

·       Ride the gondola to the top of Table mountain on the first clear day. It can be in the clouds a lot and you don’t want to miss it. Go as early in the day as possible to avoid crowds and direct sun.

·       The Watershed in the waterfront is the best place to find local artisan work. https://www.facebook.com/thevawatershed/

·       The Food Market in the waterfront is a good place to sample a wide range of international foods. https://waterfrontfoodmarket.com/

·       Accommodations near the waterfront are ideal. Atlantic Marina Apartments offer 1-3 BR units starting about $200/nite, https://www.atlanticmarina.com/ is where we have stayed for many years. If you prefer a hotel, the Victoria and Alfred is perfectly located right on the Waterfront https://newmarkhotels.com/accommodation/the-victoria-alfred-hotel . Others nearby include the Cape Grace, https://www.capegrace.com/ , and the Silo, https://www.theroyalportfolio.com/the-silo-hotel/overview/ .

·       Uber is safe, cheap, and easy in Cape Town no need to rent a car. You can rent one for the day easily in downtown area if needed.

·       Take a day tour or drive down the coast to Cape Point, tip of Africa. Stops in Hout Bay, Simonstown, Penguin Colony at Boulders Beach, all good along the way. https://www.wheregoesrose.com/cape-point-peninsula-day-trip/

·       Take a day tour of the winelands, Stellenbosch and Franschoek. I prefer Franschoek over Stellenbosch. The downtown is beautiful with good restaurants and a number of wineries in the area. One of them, Rupert, https://anthonijrupertwyne.activitar.com/ has a great old car museum. https://www.fmm.co.za/

·       If adventurous, hike to the top of Table Mountain and gondola down. Or Lions Head is spectacular. https://hikelionshead.co.za/about/ and https://hiketablemountain.co.za/ offer guides, which I highly recommend if you plan to hike the area.

·       Other adventure opportunities include shark (cage) diving and tandem paragliding, as well as rappelling off table mountain from the top.

·       Uber to Sea Point and walk along the coast promenade. Lilys on the beach road is a nice restaurant that is generally available. https://lilysrestaurant.co.za/

·       If in town on wed nite or weekend in summer, check out the OZCF Farmers market  https://ozcf.co.za/market-day/

·       Restaurants: Plenty near the waterfront generally available but average quality food. Lots of great restaurants in town but reservations for best ones, well in advance, even before you leave home, are a must. Here are a few good recommendations.

o   Gold    https://goldrestaurant.co.za/ A truly unique African food and entertainment experience. Sign up for the African drumming lesson before the meal!

o   FYN  https://fynrestaurant.com/

o   Pier   https://pier.restaurant/food -Probably the best on the Waterfront.

o   Chef’s warehouse (Constantia) https://www.chefswarehouse.co.za/beau-constantia

o   Kloofstreet House https://www.kloofstreethouse.co.za/

o   Magica Roma https://www.facebook.com/MagicaRomaRestaurant/   (Best Italian)

 

Game Reserve options

You must see the African wildlife if you are in South Africa. Below are some options

Cape area

If you are only in the Cape area there are a few options within a few hours drive. You will want to do at least one overnight if you try to do any of these, preferably two if at Sanbona. The game drives are early morning and late afternoon.

In 2023 my partner, Sarah and I did Sanbona -Dwyka Tented lodge which I can highly recommend. A huge, 200+ sq mi reserve that only has about 50 guests at any given time. https://www.sanbona.com/accommodation/dwyka-tented-lodge/ Expensive but the best in the Cape I believe.

Other popular game reserves we’ve not visited are described here: https://www.safaribookings.com/blog/best-game-reserves-for-safaris-near-cape-town

Kruger Game Reserve area (in Northeastern part of South Africa)

If you can spare an extra day or two on your trip you will likely be much happier to fly up to Kruger and do your safari there, particularly in the May-September months.

Kruger https://www.krugerpark.co.za/ is the jewel of Africa when it comes to wildlife. At over 7500 sq miles, twice the size of Yellowstone, it is one of the largest in Africa. You can visit it on your own and stay in park accommodations, and drive it yourself, like American National parks. However, if you try to do that you should allow at least 3-4 days in park because the game is very widespread and you can easily go a few days or more without seeing some of the big and exciting African cats like Lion, leopard, and cheetah.

If you have less time and a little more money, I’d suggest booking with a private reserve lodge. These border the Kruger park, have access to the same animals, which roam freely through the private reserves, and have expert professional trackers and guides to help you have the best possible safari experience.

There are many of these, such as one of the oldest, and best known, MalaMala https://www.malamala.com/ . Which I visited in 1972.

In recent years we have preferred lodges in the Timbavati https://www.visittimbavati.com/index.html   game reserve area, adjacent to the Kruger, which provide great value and great experiences. I can highly recommend Simbavati Hilltop Lodge, https://www.simbavati.com/lodges/hilltop-lodge-local-is-lekker/ and Motswari https://newmarkhotels.com/accommodation/motswari-private-game-reserve for good value and experience.

You can get to these Timbavati private reserves by flying directly from Cape Town or Johannesburg to Hoedspruit https://www.visittimbavati.com/how-to-get-to-timbavati.html  and the doing a one hr shuttle to the reserve lodges.

Johannesburg/Pretoria

Unfortunately, compared to Cape Town and the Kruger Park, Johannesburg can often been considered just another big city. However if you have been to the Cape and Kruger, and/or are passing through Joberg in any case, you can have some interesting experiences there.

Accommodations: Most likely you will want to stay in the Sandton area of Joberg and will find some ot the best restaurants in that area as well.

Sightseeing: You can do city tours as well as Soweto township tours with organized tour companies, which I would recommend vs exploring Joberg on your own. Trip Advisor is a good place to look for some of these type companies. https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/Attractions-g312578-Activities-c42-Johannesburg_Greater_Johannesburg_Gauteng.html

Outside the city you can do day trips to the Cradle of Humankind https://www.maropeng.co.za/   where some of the oldest hominid bones have been found, as well as a nice, small, game reserve, Pilanesberg. https://www.pilanesbergnationalpark.org/ .

Pretoria is the executive government capital of South Africa and interesting from an historical perspective but can probably be skipped without missing out on a lot.

Other countries in Southern Africa

Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe/Zambia is one of the wonders of the world and worth either a day trip from Joberg or a stop on a trip for a Botswana safari.

Botswana is the top Safari opportunity in Southern Africa if you have a week or so to dedicate to that experience. You can do tented camps or cross-bush mobile safaris where you will see more elephants than you can ever imagine, particularly along the Chobe river. https://www.andbeyond.com/destinations/africa/botswana/

Namibia has a very diverse touring opportunity, offering amazing game experience in the Etosha Pan https://www.etoshanationalpark.org/etosha-pan  as well as bushman cultural experiences, and amazing sand dunes at Sossusvlei.  https://www.sossusvlei.org/

 

Hope this is of some help to you. You can ​Follow my photos on Flickr here  You are welcome to email me with more questions at dlc@condra.com.