South Africa Itinerary Advice

[Vespasia]

We are going to South Africa for about two weeks at the end of June. We had to change our safari lodge, which has really thrown off my planned itinerary because it we had to move both the dates and region. I could use some help figuring out our Plan B.

Right now we land in Cape Town on a Saturday afternoon. I expect the first day to be a wash because we’ll be exhausted. Friday we will fly to Port Elizabeth and spend 3 nights on safari in the Eastern Cape region. We’re supposed to fly home from Johannesburg the following Thursday. (We were originally supposed to safari in Kruger, fly to JNB, then fly home).

We have a few different options, none are ideal.

Option 1:
5 full days Cape Town.
Fly to Port Elizabeth
3 nights safari
1-2 days in the Port Elizabeth area
Fly back to Cape Town
1-2 days Wine region
Change flight and fly home from Cape Town Friday. (The JNB flight was direct and we’ll have to pay $150 change fee so I don’t love this idea)

Option 2:
5 full days Cape Town.
Fly to Port Elizabeth
3 nights safari
Fly back to Cape Town
1-2 nights Wine region
Fly to Johannesburg, spend 1 full day. (These tickets are less than the change fee)
Keep original flight home from JNB.

Option 3:
4 full days Cape Town.
1 night (partial day) in Wine Region.
Fly to Port Elizabeth
3 nights safari
1-2 days in the Port Elizabeth area
Fly to Johannesburg
1-2 days Johannesburg
Keep original flight home from JNB.


The third option is the most straightforward but I don’t think it will give us enough time in Cape Town. I hate being rushed and the first option gives us an extra day. I really wanted a full day to do the Wine Tram in Franschhoek. I think there is enough outdoorsy stuff near Port Elizabeth to keep us occupied for a day or two but it is their winter.


Also, we are thinking of renting a car in Port Elizabeth to get to the lodge. Any thoughts on this? It’s a lot cheaper than the transfer but MH is nervous about driving on the opposite side.

[sakoro]

Hi there,

I was born in Port Elizabeth. It’s a nice beach town but June will be winter and too cold for swimming. A lot of the tourist activities will be closed or have reduced hours. I would rather spend more time in the wine areas in the Western Cape and explore Stellenbosch/ Paarl.

Where are you doing your safari? Addo National Park? Shamwari? I would rent a car— you can adapt to driving on the other side relatively quickly and it will give you some flexibility to stop and see places. If you have some additional time, you could go to Tsisikamma National Park, which has amazing tide pools and sea life. Be forewarned that the standard rental cars are stick shift. If you want an automatic, you will have to reserve in advance.

Have fun!

[dreamcrisp1]

I would do option 1 or 2. The wine tram is so fun and you’d get to spend time in Stellenbosch. I have only been to Cape Town but I loved it a lot!

[Vespasia]

Thanks sakoro , I was hoping you would reply!

We're staying at Hlosi Lodge in the Amakhala Game Reserve. I would have preferred Kruger but the canceling of original reservation put us behind schedule so everywhere I looked was $$$$$$$, self drive, booked, or allowed limited hunting (that last one was a surprise). The only real upside to the change is that now we'll be arriving on my 40th birthday.

If we do stay around Port Elizabeth a few days I was definitely thinking of basing ourselves in Storms River. The park you mentioned looks great. Seeing a lot of outdoorsy stuff was one of the main reasons I picked SA. 

Good call on the car. MH can drive a stick and often does when we travel but I think the combination of stick and left-hand drive might be too much for him. 

[sakoro]

Storms River is really scenic and it’s not too far from Tsitsikamma, which is one of my favorite places. You could also check out Jeffrey’s Bay (very famous surf spot) and Cape St Francis (thatched roof houses).

I would get an automatic even if your husband knows how to drive stick shift. The shifting happens with your left (opposite) hand. That’s just an extra layer of thinking on top of learning how to drive on the other side!

According to the school calendar for 2019, there may be some families with kids vacationing June 15-July 8. Although it probably won’t be too bad— most people vacation in the summer around Christmas.

[sakoro]

Dec 27, 2018 10:13:27 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

Thanks sakoro , I was hoping you would reply!

We're staying at Hlosi Lodge in the Amakhala Game Reserve. I would have preferred Kruger but the canceling of original reservation put us behind schedule so everywhere I looked was $$$$$$$, self drive, booked, or allowed limited hunting (that last one was a surprise).

I hear from local people that the lodges attached to Kruger are getting too crowded. For local people, the reason to go in safari is to feel that you’re in the middle of nowhere, just you and the animals. Now with the lodges and multiple guides connected by radio, a whole bunch of vehicles full of tourists will roll up whenever there is a thing interesting to see. A little more like the zoo than a David Attenbourough documentary! I am not familiar with Hlosi, but I haven’t been on safari in a long time.

[dutchgirl678]

I haven't been on safari but have visited SA years ago. I was used to driving a stick shift and it took me all of ten minutes to get used to driving on the wrong side and shifting with the other hand. It really was no big deal. I would prefer to do 5 days in Cape Town. There is so much to see and do around there. You could go to Robben Island, drive to the southern-most point and stop in Simon's Town / Hout Bay, hike up Table Mtn and do the gondola.

I am a bit puzzled by your statement about limited hunting? I didn't know that safari parks allowed for hunting, is that what surprised you as well?

[Vespasia]

Dec 27, 2018 14:32:19 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

I haven't been on safari but have visited SA years ago. I was used to driving a stick shift and it took me all of ten minutes to get used to driving on the wrong side and shifting with the other hand. It really was no big deal. I would prefer to do 5 days in Cape Town. There is so much to see and do around there. You could go to Robben Island, drive to the southern-most point and stop in Simon's Town / Hout Bay, hike up Table Mtn and do the gondola.

I am a bit puzzled by your statement about limited hunting? I didn't know that safari parks allowed for hunting, is that what surprised you as well?

Yes, some of the private concessions attached to Kruger allow limited big game hunting. This includes Timbavati and Klaserie, both of which I had originally been looking at. It's definitely not something that is widely acknowledged. I know the issue isn't 100% black and white but it's just not something I wanted to support. 

[dutchgirl678]

I totally agree with you. I wouldn't want to stay at a place where they endorse wildlife hunting.

[mich1]

I’d probably do a modification of #1. I’m not sure I’d spend the time in Port Elizabeth, I’d fly back after your safari and use the extra time to hit more vineyards around Cape Town. BTW....make sure you hit Waterford, and try their Jem. If we hadn’t been going to Dubai afterwards, I’d have thrown out clothes in my luggage to bring back bottles of that wine!

We had a car in Cape Town, but the days we went wine tasting, we hired a driver for us. We only got one day of tastings in, hitting 4 vineyards and it was a fantastic day. I wish we got a second day of it. The van and driver only cost about $50 (I forget what it was in rands) and it was the smartest move we made.

DH did all the driving. We went from Johannesburg to safari to Durban by car, then dumped the car in Durban and picked up another after flying Durban to Cape Town.

[sakoro]

Dec 27, 2018 14:55:36 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

I totally agree with you. I wouldn't want to stay at a place where they endorse wildlife hunting.

A lot of the big game hunting is something called “canned hunting”. They put geotraxking collars on the lions or zebras, drive you over to exactly where the animal is, practically put the gun in your hand and tell you when fire. And then you have a trophy lion head or whatever to hang on your wall. It’s really disgusting/ lame/ disturbing. I don’t care if people want to hunt deer and eat the meat but this canned hunting isn’t a fair fight.

A lot of the lions used in canned hunting were originally lion cubs in wildlife scantuaries where tourists bottle-feed the cute cubs. When they grow up, they aren’t cute anymore and are too accustomed to humans/ don’t have the survival instincts to be released into the wild. So they are used for canned hunting. I would suggest not going to one of those bottlefeeding places even though the animals are cute.

[dreamcrisp1]

Dec 27, 2018 19:24:13 GMT -5 sakoro said:

Dec 27, 2018 14:55:36 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

I totally agree with you. I wouldn't want to stay at a place where they endorse wildlife hunting.

A lot of the big game hunting is something called “canned hunting”. They put geotraxking collars on the lions or zebras, drive you over to exactly where the animal is, practically put the gun in your hand and tell you when fire. And then you have a trophy lion head or whatever to hang on your wall. It’s really disgusting/ lame/ disturbing. I don’t care if people want to hunt deer and eat the meat but this canned hunting isn’t a fair fight.

A lot of the lions used in canned hunting were originally lion cubs in wildlife scantuaries where tourists bottle-feed the cute cubs. When they grow up, they aren’t cute anymore and are too accustomed to humans/ don’t have the survival instincts to be released into the wild. So they are used for canned hunting. I would suggest not going to one of those bottlefeeding places even though the animals are cute.

This is so horrible.