Stewie Mac

Like Roger, I have been using a phone for directions for a while (iphone 4s, just using apple maps - I have inclusive roaming in SA for data). Around Johannesburg and Durban areas only, but no problem at all.

flatlander

I just got back from several days in SA, renting in Jo'burg and driving around Pretoria then to Kruger NP and around there.

I rented from Avis (booked via Rentalcars.com), got the Mercedes C-Class I booked (had a choice of a CLA instead, but the C-Class was better equipped). It was this year's model with only 7000 km on it and no faults except a very small dent. The staff were helpful and efficient when picking up, and had no problem giving me an extra day's rental when I realised I had messed up the reservation and made it from the day after I arrived. On return they were also efficient and very friendly, and did not take exception to the car being absolutely covered in dust (or battered underneath by occasional rocks and deep potholes in dirt roads). I would rent from them again.

I had a GPS with SA maps, borrowed from a work colleague, but didn't use it. I got a prepaid data SIM from the Vodacom store in the airport and used Google Maps on an iPad to navigate and this worked fine. The only places without good mobile coverage were in the Kruger NP (which has a simple enough road network that their paper map is sufficient) and a couple of spots on main roads west of Hoedspruit in deep valleys, which didn't cause a problem. Between the good mobile coverage and some offline maps from Open Streetmap (I use the "OSMAnd" app on my phone) for backup, as well as paper overview maps from the car rental agency, I had more than enough mapping available. SA also has fairly good signage on the roads. I definitely would not pay for a GPS unit with the car.

I avoided traffic stops, mainly by slowing down to obey the speed limit when it dropped suddenly 120-80-60km/h just before a bend in the road - and a couple of times there were police pulling people over just past the bend. It's an obvious place to set a speed trap. Other than that I just kept within 10-20km/h of the speed limit, which isn't hard - the speed limits outside towns are pretty high. So fines didn't come into question, but I was advised by a tour guide I met at the safari lodge we stayed at that if I was asked to pay immediately I should politely suggest we go to the police station so I could do so (if I had time, obviously if close to a flight deadline, I might have to pay up ). He stressed that I should always avoid handing over cash if possible, since I might get fined anyway and would have to pay again later. This all seemed quite logical to me.

AirD0c

Thanks for all the feedback!

I will not get a GPS. Regarding rental car companies, given the heterogeneity of experiences reported here I'll likely just go with the least expensive rental (currently Europcar).

jsnydcsa

In the past I've been an Avis / Europcar renter (price was the differentiation). Recently, I went with Hertz. On arrival in CPT, Hertz tried to hit me up for MORE THAN the full rental estimate and insisted on insurance coverage. Luckily, I had double booked (sorry, awaiting flame), I walked straight over to Avis and subject to a small rigamarole about vehicle choice (not vehicle availability), I was on my way.

dvs7310

I've done this now in countries all over the world, far less developed than SA. If your phone is fairly recent then the GPS should work even without a cell signal, so as long as your phone has already downloaded the base maps then you're fine even in desolate areas.

Personally in SA I like MTN best. I think Vodacom is just as good but I couldn't get their SIM card to work in my Galaxy (it's unlocked but is temperamental with a few companies' cards. This last trip MTNs computers were down so they couldn't sell a card when I arrived so I went with CellO... it was bloody awful. 2G through most of the eastern part of the country which is ridiculous when you need your map to update.

Agree, there is little difference in the service I've gotten from various rental companies. One huge difference though is cross border charges. Some are cheap, some are not and when it comes to Swaziland and Lesotho, those, while technically independent countries, are not really any different than South Africa (although a bit less crime). A few companies have free or very cheap cross border charges for those two countries while still being higher for other neighboring countries. Some companies don't differentiate and charge the same high cross border charges for those. Since your journey will pass near Lesotho, it's worth considering if you'd like to see it or not. I'd recommend it though if time allows. Europcar is one that if I recall correctly has a fairly high cross border charge for these two (in excess of $100 I believe). We used Budget this last time because it was either free or extremely minimal for Swaziland.... pretty sure it was free.

flatlander

The danger of relying on cached maps is that if your phone clears its cache - which can happen almost randomly - and you have no mobile signal then it can't fetch more maps and you're in trouble. Obviously this does not apply if you're using a true offline maps solution (Google Maps offline, Open Streetmap maps downloaded to your device, TomTom app, etc).

I chose Vodacom because I was going into the Kruger NP and other rural areas where coverage could be marginal, if you're not going right into the edges of mobile coverage than MTN would be fine - I was just trying to get the best coverage I could.

I found that the 2G coverage was often quite workable, unlike in Europe where 2G usually means you're at the edge of 3G and 2G coverage with 3G failing just before 2G. In South Africa I often had solid 2G coverage that would transmit data at 2G rates, good enough for maps, in rural areas.

dvs7310

I guess my statement was a bit ambiguous. I am not advocating caching the maps on Google Maps at home and then heading out on the road, unless using one of the other solutions that you mentioned, that would certainly be trouble. What I meant is that there are A LOT of dead spots in African countries, including South Africa (just on the pretty main highway between Piet Retief and Hluhluwe my signal dropped countless times... granted it was on that crap-o CellO card), so someone using Google Maps whose signal drops out will be fine for quite a while since the maps for the vicinity will have already loaded while the signal was live.

Agree, the 2G signals I've had in South Africa (and other African countries) has been much better than in the USA (never dealt with 2G in Europe), it's still painfully slow if you're trying to change map detail (zoom level) and waiting for it to reload.

I still would never pay for a navi rental in a country I can get a decent data coverage but I've certainly learned to anticipate my needs well ahead of time when on 2G signals.

If someone is going for Vodacom with a Galaxy S5, I'd see if the shop will check an already activated card in your phone before buying one. I wasted about 150 Rand by not checking first (they're also perhaps the most expensive in SA), Vodacom is the only carrier I've ever had an issue with this phone but it seems to be limited to my specific version of the Galaxy because I can't find anyone else on the internet complaining about it. Voice worked fine, it was just data, their preset downloaded settings didn't work nor did any APN that I had found on my own. I've started carrying a slightly older HTC I have as a backup just in case this comes up again, but so far every other carrier has worked fine (not necessarily SA, various countries.)

flatlander

The caching on Google Maps is good enough to ride through shorter periods of no mobile coverage, agreed.