Originally Posted by
Ditto
Is 500$ for 4 nights in CPT only for the hotel only or meant to also cover everything else during those days? It can be a bit tight if the latter.
I would advise looking at AirBnb apartments as an alternative to hotels, the price can be significantly lower based on how many PAX you are, you can easily find an apartment with 2 bedrooms for the same price of a single hotel room.
The $500 is just for Cape Town hotels; 2 people/room, so essentially $1000/4 nights/room.
In general, I hate dealing with Airbnb because I feel like as the owner of the property has more leverage than the renter (e.g. being able to cancel last minute and causing the renter to scramble to find a place, which has happened before) and hotels are just easier to book/cancel/etc.. I'll look into it though to see if the discount is worth the possible hassle.
After looking at the tour company
sooge_sj recommended, I worked up this quick itinerary:
1. SFO to Johannesburg; 1 night
2. Non-stop flight ($125-150) to Victoria Falls to join the tour
3. 14 day tour (reverse direction from the recommendation)
4. Extra night in Swakopmund at the end of the tour to see Namib-Naukluft NP
5. Non-stop flight ($125-150) to Cape Town; 2-3 nights
6. Cape Town to SFO
Trans-Atlantic flights - $1000
Intra-Africa flights - $300
Tour - $1000 (inclusive of accommodations and most meals)
Accommodations in Johannesburg/Swakopmund/Cape Town: $700
Meals and such: $500
Estimated total: $3500, but would budget for $4500 just in case.