My wife and I recently booked a somewhat last-minute honeymoon in South Africa. We have purchased airfare and are trying to fill the non-travel days. I have read several wonderful FT threads (a few listed below) and have narrowed my questions to a few topics.
Our flights: Arrive in CPT at 945 pm on Mar 2, Depart JNB 740 pm on Mar 11
Mar 2 until March 8 in and around Cape Town (5 full days, leave on the 8th). We plan to do Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape Point drive, a trip to the wine region (Stellenbosch?) for a night, and other activities.
March 8 until March 11. We want to spend the remainder of our time on a safari or in a game lodge of some sort. As planned we would only have 2 full days, plus a part of a travel day. What is the best option for a game reserve and/or lodge? We have heard of recent flooding in Kruger which may make getting a reservation there more difficult. What about this tree house place?
March 11. Fly out at night, perhaps do a guided day tour of Johannesberg.
Other questions:
Can we basically not miss when it comes to wineries?
For transportation when in Cape Town, is it recommended that you rent a car, hire a car, take taxis, or some sort of public transport?
In Cape Town, rent a car. No public transport worth mentioning. Taxis are either overpriced or (in the case of so called minibus taxis) dangerous. You'll find driving easy.
No vaccinations required when coming from the USA.
Not sure what you mean with Can we basically not miss when it comes to wineries?
Quick one:Not sure what you mean with Can we basically not miss when it comes to wineries?
Sorry, I meant: Are there any wineries in particular that we should visit, or are they all great? Do you recommend staying at a winery or at a hotel in a nearby city? I don't want to drink and drive.
Try the Naledi Bush Camp. It has the highest reviews on Trip Advisor, great reviews on blogs, the hosts are super great and nice. We're booked for July. The rates are the most reasonable out there for such a high quality expierience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmortens
My wife and I recently booked a somewhat last-minute honeymoon in South Africa. We have purchased airfare and are trying to fill the non-travel days. I have read several wonderful FT threads (a few listed below) and have narrowed my questions to a few topics.
Our flights: Arrive in CPT at 945 pm on Mar 2, Depart JNB 740 pm on Mar 11
Mar 2 until March 8 in and around Cape Town (5 full days, leave on the 8th). We plan to do Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape Point drive, a trip to the wine region (Stellenbosch?) for a night, and other activities.
March 8 until March 11. We want to spend the remainder of our time on a safari or in a game lodge of some sort. As planned we would only have 2 full days, plus a part of a travel day. What is the best option for a game reserve and/or lodge? We have heard of recent flooding in Kruger which may make getting a reservation there more difficult. What about this tree house place?
March 11. Fly out at night, perhaps do a guided day tour of Johannesberg.
Other questions:
Can we basically not miss when it comes to wineries?
For transportation when in Cape Town, is it recommended that you rent a car, hire a car, take taxis, or some sort of public transport?
Do we need any vaccines?
Try the Naledi Bush Camp. It has the highest reviews on Trip Advisor, great reviews on blogs, the hosts are super great and nice. We're booked for July. The rates are the most reasonable out there for such a high quality expierience.
Great find, I think we are sold! We plan to fly from CPT direct to Hoedspruit on the 8th and then Hoedspruit to JNB on the 11th. That fare is 3160R or roughly $410 per person. Kind of steep, perhaps I should try a FD...
We will rent a car in Hoedspruit as the one-way shuttle service offered by Naledi is 295R, whereas we can get a car rental for 620R for 3 days.
Thanks for the advice!
Sorry, I meant: Are there any wineries in particular that we should visit, or are they all great? Do you recommend staying at a winery or at a hotel in a nearby city? I don't want to drink and drive.
Second and third part last. You definitely do not want to drink and drive. You should look for a hotel in Stellenbosch for your stay in the Winelands.
First part, I never have a problem enjoying myself at any winery. That said some of my favorites (wines and their wineries)
Welmoed
Blauklippen
Jordan
Flagstone
Mulderbosch Vineyards
Neethlingshof Estate
Oude Libertas
Great find, I think we are sold! We plan to fly from CPT direct to Hoedspruit on the 8th and then Hoedspruit to JNB on the 11th. That fare is 3160R or roughly $410 per person. Kind of steep, perhaps I should try a FD...
We will rent a car in Hoedspruit as the one-way shuttle service offered by Naledi is 295R, whereas we can get a car rental for 620R for 3 days.
That's great, you'll have to let me know how it goes. We're booked for July. If you fly from CPT to JNB, the fare is about $100/person and you can rent a car for something like $20-30/per day. It's a five hour drive and will save you 500-600$.
I really liked Naledi bc they cater to special diets on top of everything else. Just let them know what you can and cannot eat, and they'll set it up. Plus they only have one Landcruiser for the eight guests, so the main two guides, including the owner, are on every trip, which I think is well worth while bc you never know what you'll get with employees.
Do they have availability for those days? It's a small place, so might not have any open rooms
Great find, I think we are sold! We plan to fly from CPT direct to Hoedspruit on the 8th and then Hoedspruit to JNB on the 11th. That fare is 3160R or roughly $410 per person. Kind of steep, perhaps I should try a FD...
We will rent a car in Hoedspruit as the one-way shuttle service offered by Naledi is 295R, whereas we can get a car rental for 620R for 3 days.
btw, do you have any BA points? We're using 4500 Avios to go from CPT to JNB. Also using 12k to go from Vic Falls to CPT (connection in JNB increases points a bit), but not bad for a $400 ticket!
You can go from CPT to Hoedspruit for for 9k Avios (4500 to JNB + 4500 to Hoedspruit). I have plenty of Avios, so maybe we can work something out. PM me.
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Hiya. You'll love South Africa.
If you haven't already booked then I would recommend staying in a hotel in Camps Bay rather than Cape Town itself. Beautiful views and some fantastic restaurants.
I have two favourite wineries in Stellenbosch. The first is Spier, where the wine isn't world class (still good though) but they have a cheetah rescue centre where you can pet cheetah cubs and a birds of prey sanctuary. My other favourite is Uva Mira. It's the highest winery in the Western Cape and has views stretching from Cape Point to Robben Island. If you are off the main roads then you can't really go wrong with the wine, but for me, location counts as highly as the wine when I am visiting and not just guzzling. If port is your thing then go the other side of Table Mountain to Groot Constantia and bring me back a bottle...
My favourite restaurant in Camps Bay is The Codfather. It sounds cheesy but the food is absolutely awesome - fresh fish chosen yourself from the deli and cooked to order. There's also some great pub food restaurants in the V&A waterfront.
Take a drive over Chapman's Peak Pass to Boulder's Beach to see the penguins. Great views on the way.
If you only have two days for safari then don't go to Kruger. It's a long trip from the Western Cape unless you spend 2000+ Rand each on flights. Instead, I'd head to Addo Elephant Park just north of Port Elizabeth. Stay at the Elephant House if you want to be out of the park (our choice) or spend 3 or 4 times as much on decent accomodation inside the park. The food, accomodation and welcome at Elephant house is amazing (ask if they can put you in room 8).
If you want a really good safari day trip and have had a good day of elephant watching in Addo then head to Schotia private game reserve to see many of the other animals. Good tour with a good braai (barbecue) afterwards, plus definite lion sightings. The locals would probably say that Addo is not a good substitute for Kruger, but we love it and if you only have two days then I think it's the best choice. There is also a brilliant reptile rescue centre next door to Elephant house (ever cuddled a meerkat and an albino python?) and an elephant back safari 40 minutes up the mountain (take the minibus transfer if you do go though - the road is... erm... scary).
Have fun guys. Our honeymoon(s) there were awesome.
We have yet to finalize our lodgings in Cape Town. I suppose I should have mentioned we are on somewhat of a budget as I am a graduate student and my wife recently graduated. Here is our current (tentative) itinerary:
Arrive the night of Mar 2, stay in Cape Town.
Mar 3-5 tour Cape Town, including Robben Island, Table Mountain, and others. We are renting a car upon arrival Mar 2.
Mar 6 stay the night in Simonstown.
Mar 7 tour a couple wineries, stay in Stellenbosch.
We're not sure when we'll make it back to South Africa, so we wanted to see Kruger even though it will cost us some time (due to additional travel) and money.
Mar 8 Fly out of CPT into JNB at 615, arrive at 815. We are booking this on the SAA website for 1000 ZAR each (roughly $130). It looks like it is a 40 minute drive from Stellenbosch to CPT. How early do we need to arrive at CPT?
Upon arriving in JNB, rent a car and drive to Naledi Bushcamp (approximately 5.5 hours). Hopefully get there in time for the evening game drive.
Mar 8-11 stay at Naledi Bushcamp.
Mar 11 after morning game drive, return to JNB for flight at 7:40 pm (JNB-FRA-IAD).
Any comments on this itinerary are greatly appreciated!
Regarding the time from Stellenbosch to CPT-- the drive time is short BUT we had a difficult time with our car return with Europcar in Dec.- a long story but upon inspection they identified some rather invisible "damage" and we had to take time while the rep filled out an incident report and we disputed the claim. Not to worry- but it took more time than we anticipated to get to the gate for our CPT-JNB flight-- Just a caution
Your trip sounds great--
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Naledi is not so far from a most interesting place if you are into conservation and rare species - the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, which has been in the fore of conserving cheetah and African painted or hunting dog (Lycaon pictus, nearly extinct in much of its former range). If driving by / nearby (353 km from Naledi), worth a stop IMO (advance bookings strongly recommended).
You will see animals here you are not likely to see whilst on safari, and you will support conserving some of these amazing species.
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353 km is not far? Ha, that is darn far. Anyway, OP, please do tell us how it went when you came back. I have a trip to Naledi in July and would love a short report!
