To ask which trip of a lifetime you would choose?

[MotherOfDragons90]

Hi all - I know this isn’t an AIBU but we are really stuck. DH and I are trying to plan a once in a lifetime type holiday for next year (he has a big birthday).

We have narrowed it down to two - either a USA road trip type holiday (we were thinking west coast) or South Africa (including Safari).

Has anyone done both these sorts of holiday and would/wouldn’t recommend it for any reason? What would you pick?!

Tia!

It's just taken me two weeks to road-trip the Western Cape alone, with a brief sojourn into Eastern Cape - fantastic trip, so much to see, do, hear about, learn. Hotels real quality, food outside of Cape Town and Hermanus a bit so-so but come on! - baby warthogs all over the place, what's not to love.
I stayed on the Aquila Reserve which is a conservation centre so got to see the Big 5, and stayed at Addo National Park, amazing place, so plenty of wildlife.
(And no anti malarials)

Road trip.
We’ve done San Fran to Vegas and back again with various stops and doing it again next year but would like to do Route 66 some day

I really want to go to the Pacific North west and also California, so USA west coast road trip gets my vote!

We've done both and it's a close call but South Africa would win out for all of the reasons above. So cheap too with amazing beaches, scenery, wildlife and culture. The main tourist route is the Garden Route - it's amazing. We loved Franschoek and spent far longer there than we intended to eating great French food and drinking lovely wines and horse riding even! A safari is a real one off experience too. Accommodation in SA is stunning - look up the Portfolio Collection. Last, but not least, it's only two hours ahead so no jet lag which means you can hit the ground running.

I haven't done a US road trip so can't be fair about this, but our South Africa road trip was my best holiday ever. The food and wine was amazing and cheap, the hotels were very good value too, and the safari experience was just incredible - I'm so grateful I got to do that at least once in my life!

We started in Cape Town, drove to Franschoek then along the Garden Route to do a couple of different safaris near Port Elizabeth. One of the safaris was at a place called Sibuya which was just magical.

Road trip, have done a few long trips to the USA & love it. Yosemite is one of my favourite places in the world. Planning another trip when I retire .

Done neither but I'd choose American road trip!

I’ve done both and safari is just so magical, I’d do that

South Africa safari over road trip , have done both

however we stayed at a private game reserve , and although we had a great time , you were very aware it was a man made set up , next time we will do a reserve further north
Alaska is amazing , we did a road trip ( diy not organised ) then did a weeks cruise via the inside passage to Vancouver , where we stopped for a few days

I haven't been to South Africa (although it is on my wishlist!) but I've done a road trip along the west coast of the US and it was absolutely amazing! You can cover so many different places, from massive cities to national parks. We included LA, Vegas and San Fran which were all really good and completely different to each other, but I think my favourite parts were the 'in between' stops. We did a bit of route 66, monteray is incredible for whale watching and yosemite was really good as well.

We travelled the west coast of the USA the other year and loved it. Ended up in Vegas. So much fun!

Done both - SA trip was for DH's 50th and was an amazing holiday, which our teenagers also loved!

Some special memories - Singita Boulders lodge in Sabi Sands, flying up to Victoria Falls and going to Livingstone Island, private tour of Johannesburg with Spear of the Nation (Robin Binckes), Cape Town. Just loved it.

Not done either so can't really advise but driving the Pacific Coast Highway is on my bucket list and something I'd love to do (if I had plenty of time and money.) Friends did South African safari, garden route etc. as a once in a lifetime trip a couple of years ago and haven't stopped talking about it since. They absolutely loved it.

100% South Africa, a week of safari then a week of driving through the wine country. I did this with my family as a teen and it is my favourite ever trip. America is meh in comparison, and I've done road trips on both coasts, done the theme parks and big cities. A road trip in the US means doing a lot of stuff that's not very different to what is available in the U.K. Although the white stallion ranch is amazing if you like horse riding. That's the only thing I'd go back to America for.

South Africa - it's so beyond spectacular that I struggle to find words to describe it.

Easily South Africa. But its in no way cheap?? Don't fly up to Kruger, go first class on the State railway over night, its bloody epic.

I would go to South Africa. I used to live in both though longer in the US (I am a US citizen) and I don’t find travel in the US enjoyable at all, certainly not in the crummy bits in the middle you’d have to drive through to get to the interesting stuff.

I would also consider other places in Africa, particularly East Africa.

South Africa. I'm not a fan of spending hours sitting in a car.