Another South Africa Post

Hi

Ok I know there has been posts on South Africa before and I have read them all and gained some knowledge from them

However we are looking to do the below trip and looking if anyone has done it
Hope to go for 3 weeks in Feb

We where going to book with Slatterys but going from a SA local who I work with said they are not worth it and better off flying from London for comfort value. Checked the net and they are cheaper including flight to London

Thinking of flying to Capetown and staying max of 4-5 days and doing all the tours etc. Then thinking of flying up to Port Elizabeth What is the Ryanair of South Africa and do they have a website ?
Not thinking of hiring a car until we get to Port Elizabeth & will try to do Capetown by taxi bus walk is that wise ?
Dont want to waste money on hiring out a car for such a small time

When in port Elizabeth thinking of driving up to Addo Elephant National Park or Shamwari Game Reserve
Anyone been there worth it ?

Then driving back to Capetown via Garden Route staying in a combination of either Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Wilderness or Sedgefield.

How long does it take to drive back approx & what are these towns like

Any info would be helpful

Thanks

Was there 5/6 years ago and would definately reccomend Plettenberg Bay and Knysna. Plettenberg Bay is a very busy seaside town and can be difficult to get accomadation, Knysna is great, there isn't much there (might be different now...), we stayed in a hostel built into the forest overlooking a beautiful lagoon, one of the niceset places i've ever been to.

I was there in March and loved it. I think a car is essential in Capetown, it makes life so much easier instead of relying on taxis and they aren't that expensive either. It's not safe to walk around Capetown at night so you'll need to have a car or take taxis. Places worth visiting are the wine regions, Cape Point, Camps Bay and Botanical gardens. It is possible to do these on tours, but it's much nicer to drive yourself.
Two internal airlines are http://www.kulula.com (www.kulula.com) and
1time won't accept a foreign credit card which is a headache. not sure about Kulula though.
We flew with Slattery's on the way out and came home via London. The flight out was less than half full so it ended up being very comfortable whereas the entertainment system broke down on the way home so that was a disaster. You just don't know which is going to work out better!
Haven't been to the other places so can't help there.
Check out the thorn tree posts on www.lonelyplanet.com for more information.

Enjoy!!

Port Elizabeth is a bit of a dump - we only used it as a base to go to Shamwari and Addo Elephant park so I wouldn't stay any longer than necessary here. Shamwari was fantastic, would really recommend the day tour (depending on the time of year, we were there in Nov). By comparison Addo was very tame, it's government run and the guided tours are in big jeeps on tarmac roads as opposed to 6 seater landrovers on dirt tracks in Shamwari. Still, seeing the elephants so close up was fantastic. The parks are very near each other so you might be able to do both the same day.

The scenery on the Garden route is amazing, get the Greenwood guide for interesting B&Bs to stay in on the way - I would recommend Fairhill game reserve in Stanford if you like peace and quiet and great cooking. Hermanus, Plettenburg Bay and Knysna are very nice, would recommend staying there. We would hired a car in Cape town, it's easy enough to drive around and you could go to places like the winelands with it's amazing scenery and Cape Hope (some fantastic scenery on the way to this).

A car does make life easier around Cape Town and the surrounds, and could well work out cheaper than taxis depending on what you want to do while you're there. Also consider that taxis are far fewer on the ground in Cape Town thatn they are in Dublin, and that public transport stops running about 9 at night. If you want to head out on the wine route, it's generally nicer if you go with a tour as it means everyone in your tour party can join in the tasting at the various estates. Heading down to Cape Point can be a nightmare with tourist traffic, but it shouldn't be too bad in February.

I'm not sure how long it takes to get from PE to Knysna, I suspect you could do it in about two and a half hours. It depends on whether you want to do scenic travelling and stop at the tourist spots, or whether you just want to drive straight through. How long fo you want to spend travelling the Garden Route? There's enough to keep you occupied for quite a while. Driving time from Knysna to Cape Town is about 4 hours with no stops. Plettenberg bay is about another 45 minutes from Cape Town. Wilderness is about 45 minutes past Knysna towards Cape Town. There's plenty to keep you occupied around the area. You might like to consider spending at least two nights there to give you some time to explore the area. Last time we were in that area, we were staying in Knysna. We took a daytrip through to Plett, and sat on the rocks near the Beacon Island hotel watching the dolphins go by. They quite often frequent that end of the beach.
You might also like to stop off at Storms River mouth. Ther are some cottages on the beach. I'm not sure who you'd need to contact to rent them. I think they're run either by the provincial administration or the Parks board.

A couple of web sites you might find useful
http://www.shellgeostar.co.za/ - allows you to get the distance and approximate travelling time between two places.
http://www.sa-venues.com/maps/garden_route_atlas.htm - has loads of touristy information about the garden route.

Thanks for the advise

Looks like a car is a necessity for Capetown but may just do the organised tours as wont to taste the wine
We hope to do the Garden Route in a week so plenty of time to stop off
Hopefully we can use port elizabeth as a base for trips to the safari

Going to check out prices with Trailfinders as they where helpful on our last long haul trip

Im off to South Africa for 3 weeks in Oct / Nov, spent a lot of time on the net researching it before i eventually booked and have to say we found Trailfinders the cheapest, we are flying into Capetown have 7 nights there, have hired a car for the last 2 days and plan to drive up the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth, we are then doing a 2 night safari in the Kariega Game reserve befire flying home from Port Elizabeth via Johanesburg.

The whole trip is costing €2100 each which includes, flights, car hire, accommodation in Cape Town and the safari (which was the most expensive), we havent booked accommodation for the Garden Route because we want to basically see where we end up when we get there but have budgeted for €200 for the 9 nights which seems to be more than adequate......cant wait to go now, Oct seems so far away!!!

Did you book your accomodation through Trailfinders ?

We hope to book our own accomodation on the net
found this website www.roomsforafrica.com

We want to back pack rather than stay in 3-4 star hotels but talking to a few ex pats its just as cheap to stay here Also we are travelling in high season

You think Oct is so far away not as bad as Feb but it gives me time to check everything out

we just booked the hotel in Cape Town for 7 nights because we wanted a nice start to the hols and a base to plan things from, and then the 2 nights Safari are also booked, we dont have anything else booked because, like that we want to back pack a bit too, will check out that website now!!

The Slattery's Travel flights have the advantage of being direct for sure (in previous years they used to stop in Palma or somewhere to refuel but I believe they are non-stop now)

Disadvantages though are

- The flights are daytime (in both directions) - this wastes a day of your holidays at either end you could argue. Also if you can sleep on planes a 10 hr night flight is a lot shorter feeling than a 10 hr day flight. Most scheduled flight from London etc. to SA depart in the evening arriving in SA the following morning ... timings for the flights back up to Europe are also overnight for most airlines.
- The aircraft used is a charter configured aircraft so less comfortable (tighter seat pitch etc.) than most of the scheduled carriers (It's chartered from the German firm LTU)
- The flight only operates once a week - so you're locked into going in multiples of one week.
- The flight is to/from Cape Town only - so it's not really possible to do into CPT and out of Jo'burg for example - which depending on your itinerary might work best (especially if you were going to the Kruger etc.)

We managed to fly direct to Capetown with Slatterys and they organised for us to fly out of J'Burg on a scheduled flight on our selected day. It ended up being the most price efficient option for us and one of the only agents that accomodate us on our chosen dates.
The point of the direct flight being during the day is definitely one to take into consideration.

now we are thinking of flying into Jo'burg & straight onto Kruger Park spend a few days there then fly down to Port Elizabeth and doing the garden route to capetown

so in this case we can chill in capetown at the end of the holiday

however we dont want to spend any time in Jo'burg

anyone ever done this route?

Have to check with travel agents for prices

Done a variation on this last year - Flew Virgin to Jo-burg, then hired car and drove up to Kruger for 3 day safari. Back to Jo-Burg and flew to Captown with Kulula (local low fares airline). Spent week in Capetown area and then week driving along the Garden route to PE. As mentioned above Hermanus, Kynsa, Storms River are all worthwhile stops on this route. PE is a bit of a dive. Flew back to Jo-burg from PE and then back home via London.
Great trip - did not want to come home

I would say don't fly from Jo'burg to Kruger - flights are pretty expensive (no lo cost flights - really only tourist route) and to get the most out of the Kruger you're probably going to have to rent a car anyway .... it's really not that far to drive and the road quality is really excellent ... you're better off renting at Jo'burg airport and driving down (the airport is on the right side of town for Kruger) ... it's 3+ hours drive to the park (how much + depends on which gate you are going to )

Just one word of warning - when you are arriving make sure you get to the entrance gate of the park with sufficient time to drive into the rest camp you are staying before sundown (some of the rest camps are quite a distance into the park and the speed limits are very low to protect the wildlife and are quite rigorously enforced - 30km/h maybe - and you are not allowed to drive around after sundown). Each gate has tables saying how long it takes to get to the various camps in the park from that gate - if you're late they will not let you in (so speaks the voice of experience!)

well it cost €926 flying into jboro and coming back via Capetown with BA via London

Do none of the no frills airlines fly up to Kruger ? Not to keen on driving up there going by what you said as knowing my luck will end up lost..... Also don't want to drive straight after landing or stay overnight

Checked with Slatterys if I they can arrange the fly back home on the charter
and they have to come back to me

IrishGunner said:

Do none of the no frills airlines fly up to Kruger ? Not to keen on driving up there going by what you said as knowing my luck will end up lost..... Also don't want to drive straight after landing or stay overnight

Click to expand...

I don't think they used to but maybe they do now - http://www.kulula.com and www.1time.co.za are the Ryanairs of South Africa.

There's an airport at Nelspruit (close to the bottom of the Kruger) and also one further north at Phalabowra (half way up it) - both certainly have flights by South African Airways regional arm - but you pay handsomely for them.

SA roads are really pretty good - I wouldn't worry about getting lost ... I agree staying in Jo'burg isn't a great idea (though there's plenty of affluent suburbs with lots of hotels etc.) ... Pretoria is only a fairly short drive from the airport and it's probably more manageable.

Came across another airline Nationwide



Their website only takes SA credit cards, but I know a guy who has one so may work out cheaper. Otherwise you have to ring them
They fly from Jboro to Nelspruit on wed/fri/ sat. Then we can fly with them back but have to go via Jboro. They seem pretty cheap
So may take that option other than driving from Jboro up

Still checking out flights now the cheapest is through Frankfurt.....

Gas you have to fly to around the world to get to one place just so its cheaper

Also found few good hostels on the below link

[broken link removed]

It will come together eventually

FYI Driving from JBurg to Hoedspruit took 6 hours non stop! Then another hour inside the park to get to the Satara restcamp. The roads are excellent but it is a long drive. If you're going to drive, then go to one of the lower gates.

Just rang Slatterys and they could not do a one way flight??

I was told I would have to do a return flight not very helpful??

Will have to search around for others but looks like jBoro via Frankfurt and flying home from Capetown is my option

We're flying out in December. The cheapest option I found when I was looking was KLM. That's flying into Cape Town and back from JHB.

Where did you come up with Jboro? The standard abbreviationas are either Jhb or Joburg.