South Africa – Safari and Capetown

June 1-10, 2012

Our South Africa trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We never thought we would ever have the opportunity to go on a real safari, much less make it half way across the world to Africa. This trip really expanded our travel horizons and inspired us to want to explore more of the world.

Because I was in the middle of my anesthesiology residency, I could only take one week vacations at a time. Initially, we didn’t think it would be worthwhile to go to Africa for just one week. However, we made it work and it was definitely worth the trip. Our itinerary gave us 3 nights in the game reserve and 3 nights in Cape Town. We got in a total of 5 game drives and were able to explore much of the capital of South Africa. Here was our itinerary:

South Africa Itinerary

Friday, June 1 (Travel)

7:30 PM Departure from DFW

Friday, June 2 (Travel)

10:45 AM Arrival at LHR (Heathrow)
7:10 PM Departure from LHR (Heathrow)

Sunday, June 3 (South Africa Safari)

7:00 AM Arrival in JNB (Johannesburg Airport)
9:00 AM Depature from JNB to MQP (Nelspruit Airport)
10:00 AM Arrival in MQP
11:00 to 2:00 PM road transfer to Arathusa Safari Lodge
- driver provided by lodge at cost
3:30-6:30 PM afternoon game drive
7:00 PM pre-dinner snacks and mingling
7:30 PM dinner

Monday, June 4 (South Africa Safari)

5:30 AM wake up call
6:00 AM – 9:00 AM morning game drive
9:00 AM breakfast
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM free time
- trail hike with guide
2:00 PM lunch
3:30 – 6:30 PM afternoon game drive
7:00 PM pre-dinner snacks and mingling
7:30 PM dinner

Tuesday, June 5 (South Africa Safari)

5:30 AM wake up call
6:00 AM – 9:00 AM morning game drive
9:00 AM breakfast
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM free time
- massage
2:00 PM lunch
3:30 – 6:30 PM afternoon game drive
7:00 PM pre-dinner snacks and mingling
7:30 PM dinner

Wednesday, June 6 (Cape Town, South Africa)

2.5-3 hour road transfer to MQP
10:15 AM Departure from MQP
11:15 AM Arrival at JNB
1:00 PM Departure from JNB
3:10 PM Arrival at CPT (Cape Town International Airport)

Thursday, June 7 (Cape Town, South Africa)

Friday, June 8 (Cape Town, South Africa)

Saturday June 9 (Cape Town, South Africa)

8:15 PM Departure from CPT

Sunday June 10 (Home)

6:45 AM Arrival at LHR
11:45 AM Departure from LHR
3:35 PM Arrival at DFW

South Africa Trip Details:

Flights

Our tickets to and from South Africa cost about $2100 each. It’s not a cheap flight at all but June is supposed to be the low season for tourism. I would expect higher prices during their summer (December to March). Our trip there was pretty long. We left DFW Friday night and flew 9 hours to London. Then, we had an 8 hour layover in London followed by an 11 hour flight to Johanessburg. We arrived into Johannesburg at 7AM on Sunday morning. If you wanted to switch up the order and do Cape Town first, there are flights from London direct to Cape Town as well.

The layover in London is quite long but you can shorten that layover by flying direct from Atlanta to Johannesburg on Delta or Lufthansa. South African Airways also flies direct to South Africa from D.C. Emirates has a flight from DFW to Johannesburg via Dubai. These details are from my hubby, Mr. Jo, the airline nerd. We flew OneWorld carriers for mileage earning purposes, so our flights were on American Airlines and British Airways.

As you can see from the itinerary above, ours was a grueling trip to get to the game lodge (2 international flights, 1 domestic flight, and a 3 hour drive). However, there are flight options as well to fly straight from Johannesburg to the small airstrip near the game lodge. This would have cut out our domestic flight to Nelspruit and the 3 hour drive. These flights can be booked through the safari lodge because they are more like private charter flights. Due to costs, we opted for the flight then road transfer. I want to say the more direct option from Johannesburg cost about double. The cost per person for our flights from JNB->MQP (Nelspruit), MQP->JNB->CPT was about $400 US.

When to Visit South Africa

We visited South Africa in June, which is winter in the southern hemisphere. The weather during the day time was mild and pleasant during our vacation. At night and in the early morning, it would get chilly. We brought beanies, scarves, and jackets with us on the morning game drives since the temperature got as low as the 30’s Fahrenheit. It definitely warmed up pretty quickly as soon as the sun came out. We were in short sleeves by the afternoon game drive.

Winter is actually a great time for the game drives because the brush is not as thick and you don’t have to deal with the summer heat. We were told that the morning game drives during the summer leave an hour or two earlier to avoid the heat. A huge benefit of going in the winter is that there aren’t any mosquitoes. The game lodge had mosquito nets around the beds, but we didn’t really need them. We didn’t even apply bug spray.

On the other hand, the benefit of going on safari in the summer is, as our safari guide put it, “the bush comes alive with activity.” Mainly, there is a lot of reproduction, new babies, and predators hunting the newborns. On our trip, we did see leopards reproducing but we missed out on the blood and guts.

It was much warmer on the western side of the country near Cape Town. The lows were around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. There wasn’t much rain on the game drive but it pretty much rained every day while we were in Cape Town. It’s definitely the luck of the draw because there wasn’t any rain a few days before we arrived in the capital of South Africa. There are fewer tourists, however, in the winter, which meant better rates on lodging.

Arathusa Safari Lodge

For the safari half of our trip, we stayed at the Arathusa Safari Lodge. We chose this one more or less because our friend stayed here the year before and enjoyed her stay. There are many private game lodges to choose from so we went with the personal recommendation from our friend. In addition, it was one of the cheaper private game lodges on the Sabi Sands Game Reserve even at over $600 per night based on 2 person occupancy. Our price included all game drives and meals. What we had to pay extra for was drinks, spa services, and an optional tip to the staff. There are also suites available for families.

Despite it being one of the cheaper lodges at Sabi Sands, we didn’t feel like we were giving anything up. The lodge had very nice accomodations and the food was prepared by an on-site chef. We ate gourmet meals that were absolutely delicious. The views across the watering hole were amazing. We saw giraffes, zebras, elephants, etc. right from our room. And, the staff were extremely attentive.

Also, it was a huge plus that Arathusa was located on the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. The Sabi Sands are often thought of as the best private game reserve for animal viewing in the greater Kruger Park area.

I should also help make the distinction between staying in Kruger National Park and a private reserve. The private game reserves, such as Sabi Sands, are on the outside edges of Kruger National Park. On each of the private reserves are several game lodges such as Arathusa. The game lodges are allowed access to any part of the game reserve they are located on, including off-road. However, they cannot go beyond the borders of the game reserve.

On the other hand, regular game drives within Kruger National Park are not allowed to go off road. So, unless animals are right along the road side, you are viewing them from a distance. On a private reserve, the only other vehicles driving around during game drives will be those from the 3 or 4 other lodges. We hardly even encountered any other vehicles during our drives. When there was a big sighting, we were competing with 2 or so other vehicles in the area. In Kruger, it would have been a frenzy of vehicles once a big animal sighting was transmitted across the radio.

Staying on a private reserve also comes with better accommodations and service. Of course, it is more expensive, but we thought it was worth the premium paid. As I mentioned, Arathusa was on the cheaper end of the spectrum. If you are looking for an even more luxurious experience, even higher end private lodges are available. Check out Lonely Planet for more information on this topic, specifically #3, which discusses private reserve vs. Kruger.

The meals at Arathusa were fantastic and the chef was quite a character. Breakfast and lunch were served family style with several plates of salads, appetizers, and main courses with all guests seated at one large table. Since this type of adventurous vacation attracts very interesting people from all over the world, we met some very intriguing people and had great conversations at our meals. The food was insanely good. Everything was prepared fresh and fresh game was usually served at dinner. If you like farm-to-table type restaurants, that’s what it was like.

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town is a beautiful city, probably much more capitvating when it’s not raining. Unfortunately, it rained every day except our last day. The showers definitely affected our activities and how we scheduled them. There were a few things we wish we could have done but weren’t able to do, mostly because of the weather. We found that things are relatively cheap in South Africa after the conversion between the Rand (ZAR) and USD. I was pleasantly surprised at the reasonably priced quality meals, taxi fares, and souvenirs.

Table Mountain

Table Mountain is the flat-topped mountain on the western coast of South Africa, just south of the city of Cape Town. The main part of Cape Town is nestled between Table Mountain and the ocean which creates an incredible view. We were planning on going up the mountain earlier on during our stay, but it was too cloudy. We finally went up on the last day. It was still cloudy, but we still got to see a few glimpses of the famous view. There is a cable car that takes you to the top. You can leisurely walk around and check out the view from different directions.

Robben Island

Robben Island was the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela, as well as many other political prisoners, were incarcerated during the time of apartheid. The tour guides are former prisoners at Robben Island. It was incredible to hear their first-hand account about everything from why they were imprisoned down to what they ate, what they wore, and how they spent their time. It’s quite a unique experience to learn about apartheid in this setting since apartheid ended less than 20 years prior to our visit.

This tour is quite popular, so it’s necessary to book at least one day in advance. We booked it through the concierge at our hotel. Tours depart every two hours starting at 9 AM. There are 3-4 tours per day. You need to budget 4-5 hours for the whole trip, including the ferry ride. The ferry is 30-45 minutes each way and it isn’t exactly calm waters. Our friend got motion sickness on the way there and back, so if you’re prone to nausea, I would put a scopolamine patch on the night before or bring some anti-nausea medication with you. A cool anesthesia trick is to sniff rubbing alcohol. Weather is an important factor here as well since they will cancel the tours if the waters are too rough.

Cape Point

We spent one full day on a Cape Point and wine region tour. Most people do this through a tour company but hiring your own driver or renting your own car are options as well. Our tour company was called African Eagle tours and the tour was called Best of the Cape Tour. The Cape Point is one hour south of Cape Town. There are half and full day tours of Cape Point.

Most tours will include stopping at the Cape Point and going up to the lighthouse, which is beautiful. We also drove through the towns that line the coast around the Cape and saw the cute little penguins waddling around the penguin colony. Ours was a full day tour which combined the half day Cape Point tour and the half day wine region tour. The highlight of the cape tour was seeing the southernmost tip of the Cape of Good Hope where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

Wine Regions

The greater Cape Town area includes some popular wine regions including the areas of Stellenbosch and Franschoek. Stellenbosch is the more popular of the two. If you’re into wine, then its a fun trip with half and full days options. Our half day tour took us to Stellenbosch region, visiting two wineries with a stop in the town of Stellenbosch. Both the wine tours and the cape point tours run rain or shine.

We got to taste different wines and cheeses. Mr. Jo and I are not really wine people, but we did appreciate the experience. Plus, I could eat cheese all day. I did purchase a cute little cheese board with a painting of the Stellenbosch region on it.

V & A Waterfront

The V & A Waterfront is a popular area in Cape Town, South Africa along the waterfront. It reminded us of the San Francisco pier. There were restaurants, shops, malls, hotels, etc. We went down to the waterfront several times for meals, and it is a neat place to walk around. Robben Island tours launch from here too. There is also a nice aquarium which we explored when our options were limited due to the rain. Two large craft markets nicknamed the Red Shack and Blue Shack sold many different types of souvenirs and trinkets. I am guilty of spending way too much time and money here.

Lion’s Head and Signal Hill

These are two peaks next to Table Mountain that we hiked. Definitely doable for a novice hiker!

Green Market Square

For someone who loves a good deal, this flea-market type outdoor bazaar sells many of the same items you would find at the V&A Waterfront, but for better prices if you haggle. I bought some nice elephant book ends made from stone that look like they’re from Restoration Hardware. I still have them displayed in my home today.

Shark Cage Diving

The thrill-seaker in me wanted to do the very popular shark cage diving that I had heard so much about. Cape Town is one of two places in the world where you can see great white sharks. This excursion requires a full day because the tours launch from Gansbaii, which is a decent drive from Cape Town. After a short boat ride, you begin to chum the water for sharks. You can either view the sharks from the boat or enter a cage attached to the boat and view them from under water. You don’t need to know how to dive; it’s more like snorkeling. One of our friends did not know how to swim and was scared of the sharks, so we did not end up seeing them. Maybe next time!

Accomodations in Cape town, South Africa

We traveled with a husband and wife pair and the husband works for Hilton, so we got a discount rate at the Hilton City Center. It was a decent hotel and not too far from the waterfront. The city center and the V&A Waterfront are good places to look for hotels. If you’re looking for something really fancy, the Mount Nelson Hotel would fit the bill. Dinner there, we hear, is also very nice.

Check out our other vacations:

Grand Canyon, Page, and Sedona, AZ

Prague, Czech Republic

Kiawah Island, South Carolina

Cotswolds, United Kingdom

Chiang Mai and Koh Samui, Thailand

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South Africa