South Africa!

sellun

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Hello all! Im thinking of going south Africa for my honeymoon this year. Around 23dec to 7jan.
Afew questions for those who visit/research before.
1) Hows the weather like during that period?
2) Is Xmas/newyear a big festival there? Will there be any problems like festival closure & etc? (Wanted to go Switzerland but think Xmas will have alot of disruption)
3) thinking of doing 10days self-drive campervan & 3-4days safari tour
4) should I fly to cape town or johannesburg??

Thanks in advance!

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invisible999

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Hello all! Im thinking of going south Africa for my honeymoon this year. Around 23dec to 7jan.
Afew questions for those who visit/research before.
1) Hows the weather like during that period?
2) Is Xmas/newyear a big festival there? Will there be any problems like festival closure & etc? (Wanted to go Switzerland but think Xmas will have alot of disruption)
3) thinking of doing 10days self-drive campervan & 3-4days safari tour
4) should I fly to cape town or johannesburg??

I will be there next week for 2 weeks and write up after that.
 

belgarathc

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Hi,

We just returned from South Africa where we travelled from 20 Dec 2016 to 3 Jan 2017.

1. Weather is good. We don't get much rain.

2. Xmas is considered a big festival. South Africa in December is very busy. We started booking in November and most of the popular hotels and Kruger Rest Camps were fully booked. Also found it difficult to get train tickets. Most places including restaurants might be closed on Christmas. Our marine safari didn't run on 24 Dec, many shops were closed on 25 Dec and we only managed to get a sleeper train on 25 Dec probably because nobody travels long distance on Xmas.

3. We self drove but mostly stayed at guesthouses. Did around 4 days of Safari at Kruger too. Would like to do campervan in the future, but maybe in countries like New Zealand. We didn't think South Africa is really safe prior to visiting the country.

4. Our original plan was to fly from SG to Johannesburg, take the Panorama route to Kruger before returning to Johannesburg. Then take the overnight train to Cape Town and tour Western Cape and Garden Route before flying back to SG from Cape Town. But due to flight and train timing, we swapped the order and flew in to Cape Town, took the overnight train from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg and flew out from Johannesburg. We took Emirates.
 

sellun

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Hi,

We just returned from South Africa where we travelled from 20 Dec 2016 to 3 Jan 2017.

1. Weather is good. We don't get much rain.

2. Xmas is considered a big festival. South Africa in December is very busy. We started booking in November and most of the popular hotels and Kruger Rest Camps were fully booked. Also found it difficult to get train tickets. Most places including restaurants might be closed on Christmas. Our marine safari didn't run on 24 Dec, many shops were closed on 25 Dec and we only managed to get a sleeper train on 25 Dec probably because nobody travels long distance on Xmas.

3. We self drove but mostly stayed at guesthouses. Did around 4 days of Safari at Kruger too. Would like to do campervan in the future, but maybe in countries like New Zealand. We didn't think South Africa is really safe prior to visiting the country.

4. Our original plan was to fly from SG to Johannesburg, take the Panorama route to Kruger before returning to Johannesburg. Then take the overnight train to Cape Town and tour Western Cape and Garden Route before flying back to SG from Cape Town. But due to flight and train timing, we swapped the order and flew in to Cape Town, took the overnight train from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg and flew out from Johannesburg. We took Emirates.
Hello! Thanks for your input! Omg I have so many questions for you!
After much reading seems like your plan is the most sensible one.
1) after visiting SA do you think it's safe? I've done campervan in NZ and it was awesome you should do it!
2) I plan to go for safari in Kruger too. As it's supposed to be peak period was the park crowded?
3) did you went for public or private safari? How much did you spend on the Safari?

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sellun

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4) did you book the train tickets online? Can you share the website?
5) how much did you spend for your air tickets? Actual Ethiopia airline flies to SA at quite a low price. Now sure how safe and comfortable is it..?
6) can you share your self drive itinerary/route?
7) overall did you enjoy SA? How much did you spend overall?

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belgarathc

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Hello,

1) If you researched online, most people will advise that Johannesburg is not safe. Our exposure in the city is low because we did not venture around on our own.

- Our hostel provided a free pickup from the train station. Well, we still have to wait outside the train station for like 10-15 minutes. The area is supposed to be safe and patrolled. We did get approached from beggars. But otherwise, it's okay.
- We organise a private day tour of the city including Soweto Township. When we remarked that why we didn't see any whites on the streets during the whole day, our guide (black) chuckled and said that even though Johannesburg is considered very safe now, the whites are still afraid to come to the city.
- We did not self drive in the city as we heard stories of carjacking. After two nights in Johannesburg, we took a taxi from our hostel to the airport to pick up our rental car for Panorama and Kruger. After a few days, we returned via Cullinan to the airport directly for our flight home.
- Along our drive throughout the country, we passed by some townships and black hike hikers. One of the guesthouse owners (used to be ex mountain police) told us that as tourists, we should never pick up any hitchhikers be him/her be black or white. It's mostly harmless but you don't want to pick the 1%.
- Otherwise, we never felt unsafe in South Africa. Probably some cautions in Johannesburg and general common sense will do.

2) Kruger is huge, it's about the size of Belgium and we took 5-6 hours to drive from the south to the north. I do not consider it as crowded.

3) We went public even though we did read many recommendations on the private reserves before the trip. We are not big on luxury and wasn't sure how much we will enjoy a safari before the trip. But Kruger was a great experience and we enjoyed it a lot. You can get a sense of the prices at the national park website. I find it very value for money.

4) Check out seat61.com for more information.

5) We booked rather late in Nov so prices are expensive at around 1.6k each pax. Generally flights to South Africa should cost 1.1-1.3k via Emirates. You can easily check the prices online now.

6) Read http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/105660825-post13.html

7) Yes, we enjoyed SA and will recommend it to anyone. We spent around 3.3k SGD each including air tickets. But how much you will spend is hugely dependent on your style of traveling and what you want to experience.

Enjoy your trip and share your New Zealand itinerary too! :)
 
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sellun

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I'm thinking of doing something like that. Please give your feedback
Day 1-4 - Sg to Johannesburg. Maybe 3 day if guided tour to Kruger?
Day 4-5 - Johannesburg train to cape town
Day 5-12 - campervan around cape town
Day 13 - cape town back to SG.

Alternatively can rotate and do cape town first then Johannesburg (safari).

We're both okay with budget travel and not particular with food. We are both nature lovers and I particularly love mountain sceneries.

There's alot of info in the NZ south island thread and I regularly post there! You can take a look at the campervan thread in Australia sub forum for campervan info!

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deodorant

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Thanks in advance!
I used to go south africa for work last time. based in Joburg primarily, but also went to cape town, kruger, etc on weekends.

Cape town itinerary: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2014/06/six-days-in-mother-city-cape-town-south.html

capetown1-1.jpg


Joburg itself frankly nothing much ba. I guess you could go to a few apartheid-related stuff like nelson mandela's house in soweto, apartheid museum etc. Or go visit the casino (most famous one is montecasino). Or the lion park.

Kruger I only went once, but that one is my colleague booked the chalets and did all the driving so I can't really comment on how to go as a tourist.
 
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sellun

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I used to go south africa for work last time. based in Joburg primarily, but also went to cape town, kruger, etc on weekends.

Cape town itinerary: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2014/06/six-days-in-mother-city-cape-town-south.html

capetown1-1.jpg


Joburg itself frankly nothing much ba. I guess you could go to a few apartheid-related stuff like nelson mandela's house in soweto, apartheid museum etc. Or go visit the casino (most famous one is montecasino). Or the lion park.

Kruger I only went once, but that one is my colleague booked the chalets and did all the driving so I can't really comment on how to go as a tourist.
Awesome photo and details! Thankssssss!
My friends advised me against going SA for honeymoon claiming that it's not safe especially for two Asians. We would be like a walking target. Is that true?

Would we be safe to do self drive around capetown/garden route area? For Johannesburg and Kruger we would be taking tour, so shouldn't be a problem.

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deodorant

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My friends advised me against going SA for honeymoon claiming that it's not safe especially for two Asians. We would be like a walking target. Is that true?

Would we be safe to do self drive around capetown/garden route area
Is SA less safe than SG? Most definitely.

But to say it's "not safe" is, IMO, paranoia. Cape Town and the surrounding areas are (relatively) safe. I've visited the city 3 times and done the drive to cape point and back twice (once with a group of colleagues, once with just my wife), at no point did we ever feel that it was risky at all.

Having said that, Johannesburg, certain times yes I've felt "unsafe," and certain areas of the city even the locals consider unsafe and wouldn't step foot in :)
 

invisible999

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My friends advised me against going SA for honeymoon claiming that it's not safe especially for two Asians. We would be like a walking target. Is that true?

I answered you about this in another thread. Would you mind go and read?
 

invisible999

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Yep. One of them is a steward, flies there often.
So he goes there for a job, not for fun, correct?

People who are in this thread been there for fun. Multiple times.

But if you already had your opinion formed, nobody is going to spend their efforts to change your opinion. To each his own.
 
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