Talk to me about South Africa with kids please if you've been?

[plipplops]

I've posted before about trying to find a holiday that we'll all get something out of (main problems are v fussy eating DDs and DH who can't stand the idea of doing nothing). We nearly went to SA before kids but had to cancel so am wondering if we can try again now! DDs will be about 7 and 9 (not totally decided on dates yet).

Things we want to do in a 2 week holiday;
Shark cage diving
Watching wales from shore (Hermanus?)
Drive thought some nice scenery (Garden/Wine route?)
Safari (maybe only a few days)
Relax by a pool (preferably the odd day here and there rather than for a week at the beginning/end)

I want to drive myself rather than be on a coach or anything.

Has anyone done anything similar? How much dis it cost (I have no idea and it seems hard to find a package easily online, don't really want to bother Trailfinders etc until we have more idea of what we want to do)

Thanks!

Yes yes, you absolutely must. From the sounds of your description of what you want to do, I think a holiday based around Cape Town would be best. It is a very large country and you can travel around a lot to get to different places, which takes time unfortunately.

If you want to do some driving, you can drive the Garden Route, this is the route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, and it is the most beautiful scenery and places along the way. You can do stopovers over two or three days, places like George, Knysna, Natures Valley....

Whilst in CT you can do the wine routes, there are plenty of them and lots that offer entertainment for all the family (not just wine tasting for you and dh .

There are also plenty of safari type places in that area, or you could visit Kruger Park. I think you will need to fly as that is quite a trip from the Cape (about 20 hours drive), but there is an airport Skukuza, the flight is about 2 hours.

WHen you say the dd are fussy eaters, I wouldn't worry too much. You could stay in self catering places, or most places will do a basic menu for children, there is usually always a kiddies menu at most restaurants.

What time of the year were you thinking of? Will you be able to cope with the heat during the middle of summer? Most of our family come around March or April or October ish to miss the hottest part of the year. When its really hot all you want to do is laze about really, and with a busy holiday you will want to bear this in mind.

I can give you details of a local travel agent that will be more than happy to help you with some ideas. They could just book your accommodation and any internal fights for you, so that you have a secure booking for those things, but not tied to doing a tour type thing.

Oh, and you will need to have unabridged birth certificates for the dc along with their passports, or you wont get entry in SA without these documents. Its a new law just come in.

Thanks ever so much for the reply. I think we might well plan it for the Easter holidays so April-ish, probably 2016 as we've got a big trip planned already for this Nov so we'd need a bit of time to save up, although could always do late July/early August 2015 (would it be too cold then for the odd day lazing by a pool though?) April-Dec is apparently good for the shark diving (one of DH's bucket list things and one of the principle reasons for coming there).

Do you mean there are safari places within easy reach of Cape Town? That would be great although if it's worth taking an internal flight to somewhere really special we'd probably do it.

And I had just seen this morning about the birth certificates thing, not a problem

We've just come back from a three week trip, get researching what you'd like to do and just book up using websites like Hotels.com and Expedia etc, or once you've found suitable places try approaching them directly as you might be able to negotiate a good deal. It's also worth signing up to the Cape Town Groupon for special deals.

It can be cool and windy in July / August and outdoor pools aren't generally heated. We had mostly fabulous warm sunny weather, but it will be cold up in the hills and we had a couple of days of heavy rain.

We stayed in hotels, guest houses and self-catering apartments. Flights will be expensive unless you take a longer route via Istanbul or the ME.

We booked car hire from the UK direct with Avis - a Toyota Corolla was plenty big enough for 3 adults and a child, and works out at about £15 per day.

Cape Town: stayed at the V&A Waterfront, safe for walking around in the evening and lots of restaurants to choose from. Heaps of things to do - cable car up Table Mountain, trip to the Cape, planetarium, aquarium, Boulders Beach and Betty's Bay for penguins etc.

Hermanus: whales were already in the bay, and DH & DS went shark cage diving at nearby Gansbaii with Great White Shark Tours (DS was most excited that a great white bit the cage right in front of him). We stayed at the Whale Coast Hotel - SC apartments, really good.

There are loads of private game reserves, from cheap and cheerful to luxury and expensive - it depends what you want to see. We stayed at Nyaru near Mossel Bay and had a fab day doing game drives and quad biking (we were the only people staying so got exclusive tours). Nearby Gondwana is apparently very good (when they're not losing lions!) and Buffelsdrift at Oudtshoorn was also recommended to us. If you can make it as far as Addo then go for it - you'll see elephants up close, as well as lots of antelope and zebra etc. You can stay in the park (book via Sanparks), the restaurant at the Main Camp is very good. Shamwari is close to Addo - expensive though - and our guest house also recommended nearby Schotia (you can book day drives if you don't want to stay overnight). These are all malaria free areas.

Closer to Cape Town there is Fairy Glen near Worcester, and Inverdoorn and Aquila. Sanbona has children's activities.

The Daniell Cheetah Project is also worth dropping into - not often you get the chance to tickle a cheetah and make her purr!

Plettenberg Bay is worth staying at, as there are loads of animal things to do - Monkeyland was good fun, there are also elephant parks and big cat sanctuaries there.

Don't miss Storm's River Mouth and the rope bridges, and your DH can do the bungy jump off Bloukrans Bridge.

You can probably tell that we had a fab time!

And just to add - the food is fab and am now having to wean everyone off fillet steak. Everywhere does the usual children's food, and for adults there is a huge range of steak, game and sea food. If you want to push the boat out for yourself and hubby, try The Test Kitchen or The Round House in Cape Town, or The Tasting Room in Franschhoek - you'd need to book ahead (several months ahead for The Test Kitchen).

Thanks Squirrelled, the more I think about it the more exciting it seems! Do you mind me asking how much you spent in total(ish)? We'd need direct flights as I can't face lengthy changeovers with the kids, and I think we'd look at April 2016 now as the weather should be better than July August next year (do I have that right?)

Hi pliplops, weather in April should be a bit warmer and drier than in July / August, and the sea will be a bit warmer too.

We pushed the boat out a bit this time (we usually go to Portugal for a couple of weeks) as DS1 has turned 16 and we thought it might be the last family holiday he'd come on (although he's now decided that if we carry on doing holidays like that he'll keep coming).

We flew BA from Aberdeen to LHR then direct to CPT and it worked out at £1080 pp economy. Using Skyscanner for flights next April as an example (they usually release flights about 11 months in advance), direct flights are coming in at around £1100 per adult (children may get a discount) for BA and £935 pp for Virgin.

For accommodation, we generally stayed in 2 bedroom SC apartments or took two hotel rooms or a big family room in a guest house. These generally worked out at about £80 to £100 per night (the hotels and guest houses included breakfast) for all of us (effectively 3 adults plus a nine year old that eats like an adult). The Waterfront apartment was more expensive (£150 per night) but it was HUGE, I could have lived there quite happily, and 5 minutes walk to the V&A.

Eating out is good value - main courses at about £4 to £8, starters and desserts £2 to £4, bottle of wine £5 or £6, beer about £2 a pint.

Entry fees to places are also way less than you would expect to pay in the UK - for instance the aquarium was £7 for an adult and £3.50 for a child, in London you'd pay £25 and £19. The bungy jump was £45 and shark cage diving was £60 per person.

For safaris, do lots of research and decide what you want to do. You could fly to the Kruger or you could go to Addo (which also has the Big Five). You can self-drive or do the big full-on experience, or mix and match. Look at the private game reserves too, there is a huge range out there, some do accommodation only and others include all the game drives. Some of lots of just a few species, some have just a few of lots of species. We went cheap and cheerful, 3 hr game drive was £25 per head, 3 hr quad bike safari was also £25 per head (I was going to do a horseback safari, but unfortunately it was too windy).

We took 3 weeks and generally stayed 1 or 2 nights in each place, with about 100 miles between stops, although we had two long driving days to get back from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town - you could drop the hire car in PE and fly back for around £100 per person.

I reckon all-in-all it will probably work out at about £9500 for all four of us - and that was doing pretty much everything we wanted to do, staying in fab places, eating out all the time (I cooked once in 3 weeks!) and including all spending money.

PM me if you would like some ideas on accommodation.

Just occurred to me - if you're thinking about April you'll still be mid-season rates, low season seems to start on 1st May, and you'll be too early for the whales, which appear from about June onwards. August also seems to be a good time for game viewing, especially in the Kruger, as the vegetation has died back. You might also be able to pick up some low season deals in August.

Looked at this myself for next year, have been before pre dc. But the driving distances are big and we only had 2 weeks, wasn't sure how my 7 year olds would enjoy the long drives every few days. How have other peoples kids got on?

We planned our trip so that we were generally covering 80 to 100 miles between stopping over points. Roads are good so the driving is easy, and you could drive from Cape Town to PE and then fly back to save doing two longish days of driving (although it's a good chance to see the Karoo).

Yes that is what we did last time, cape town to port Elizabeth and flew back from there but was still a lot of driving. We stopped 3 Places in between.

We've been to Cape Town in April a couple of times and had a real mixed bag of weather. Some days scorching heat, lounging-by-the-pool, and other days cold, foggy and pouring rain.

But you must go, it's fabulous.

Heels would suggest more stops - we did Cape Town - Hermanus - Swellendam - Mossel Bay - Plettenberg - Jeffrey's Bay - Addo, and then back to CT via Oudtshoorn (that was the long stretch).

Yes more stops good idea and we would fly back from PE to UK prob via
Jo berg. How was it packing up and moving on every couple days, did the dcs mind?

I tried to book 2 night stop overs where possible, and the DCs (16 and 9) were fine about packing up. We didn't have too much stuff with us as I'd made sure we had a washer / dryer available every 5 days or so. I got good at doing a final sweep to make sure we had everything (16 yr old was good at just emptying his entire bag and scattering everything under beds).

I agree with what others are saying - April is a bit iffy. Have you thought about October? It's really lovely, you can still see game and I think that the whales are still out and about (you might want to check that).

If you go in season, flights are very expensive but if you can work around that you'll sometimes get ones for as low as £750. Don't count on that though as you do have to be flexible with dates and with dc that can be difficult.

www.2waytravel.com - local travel agent who definitely does things like organise shark diving etc. But not sure about flights and the like. Definitely hire a car - it's an essential and driving is very easy in South Africa with good roads etc. As for eating, most restuarants will have very simple menus for kids and generally are pretty flexible - ask them to remove anything interesting from the food and they will.

With the current exchange rate, it's a good time to go. I think it's something like R18 to £1. Not sure how long that will last but it does mean that a pizza that costs R100 will only cost you about £4.

Also, one nice thing about SA is that hotels, self catering etc all tend to be large and for a good price you can get ones with pools etc. So there's no reason why you can't stay somewhere with a nice pool, enjoy some sightseeing one day and then a day sitting by the pool the next.

We're a bit stuck with when we go - we need to stick to UK school holidays so it has to be Christmas (too hot?), Easter (so first 2 weeks in April) or August (too cold?)

We could maybe maybe do two weeks spanning October half term so only taking DDs out of school for a week, but as they get older it depends so much on what the school thinks .

If you do anything safari ish make absolutely sure your DC are allowed to go on game drives. Many places say kids under twelve can't go on game drives. Not all, but you have to shop around to find kid friendly safaris. Also, I wouldn't go to Kruger with small DC as it's in a malarial zone and they would have to take anti malaria pills everyday. There are plenty of great game reserves within driving distamce of Cape Town, and the Cape is a malaria free zone. Addo is a wonderful safari destination.

We went to Cape Town 4 years ago during Feb half term (lovely weather) for 9 days with our DC and it was my fave holiday ever. We had a car and went out every day and then spent a couple of hours by the hotel pool in the afternoon. We then mainly went out for dinner to Camps Bay or the Waterfront or on a couple occasions ate at the hotel. We visited Table Mountain, did the Chapmans Peak drive, Spiers Cheetha outreach centre in the Winelands, Stellanbosch, Simon's Town and Boulders Beach to see the penguins (twice), Botanical Gardens, Cape Town castle and Planitarium, Cape of Good Hope, V&A Waterfront lots of times and quite a few beaches. It's really good value when you are there, the food and wine amazing and I can't describe how beautiful it is.

We went to Cape Town in March this year - it was FAB!
No children with us, but if we had, they would have enjoyed the beaches (Camps Bay) and the cable car ride up to Table Mountain.

We also went on a safari, day trip from Cape Town, collected in a mini bus from the hotel and taken to the Aquila Game Reserve - we saw all the big 5 and much more, it was a fantastic trip. Breakfast and lunch were included together with a champagne reception and a stop off on the safari for more. There was a pool at the resort, shop, bar ., restaurant etc, all very nice. Also lodges there if you want to stay overnight. I also went on a horseback safari which was really good. Aquila was around 1 1/2 hours from Cape Town. There were children at the reserve, but none came on our safari, but I am sure they must be able to.
March was nice and hot, but the sea was absolutely freezing, not sure it warms up much all year round.
Boulders beach was great for the penguins - I couldn't believe how many there were.
Things were very reasonable, steaks I think were about £7 each. Taxis back to the hotel about £3.
The open top bus round Cape Town was great, hop on and off wherever you like.

Go at Christmas if you can. It won't be too hot as Cape Town mostly has a breeze and it can get surprisingly windy even on the nicest of days. We rented a house in Camps Bay for 3 weeks over Christmas a couple of years ago and it was one of our best ever holidays. I'd plan a couple of days in CT at the beginning of your trip to get over jet lag etc. then I'd tour winelands/Hermanus/Garden Route (stopping in Kynsna)/Safari (have a look at Shamwari or Addo Elephant Park) then fly back to CT for a few days of R&R.

Even if you don't tour round there is loads to do on day trips from CT - winelands, Hermanus, Boulders Beach, Cape Point, Robben Island, Table Mountain, V&A waterfront, wonderful beaches, fabulous restaurants etc. Look to rent a flat in Camps Bay to be close to the beach. Everywhere else is easily drivable.

You would not get guaranteed good weather during any of the other school holidays except February half term which is probably not long enough.

What a fab thread with some great advice...I'm hoping to go to SA for my 40th birthday year (in 2017) when ds will be 6.5 so I have made a lot of notes from this thread for future planning!

Yes, some fantastic advice on this thread. Is great for me to read too, as i really don't always appreciate what is right in front of me...

Regarding the time of year, if your two options are April (Easter) and December (Christmas) they are unfortunately the busiest and most expensive times, but will school age dc, we all get caught out in that respect.

Addo is has been mentioned a few times. Proud to be very good friends with the family of the original owners of all that land, and also one of the very first blue diamonds was found there, by Cecil John Rhodes and friends family member.

It is close to Port Elizabeth, I cannot recommend the Garden Route enough, i think it has to be one of the most beautiful areas.

Safari places are plentiful. No matter where you are, there will be a safari option not too far. Of course, some are better than others, but some are quite overpriced in my opinion as they cater for tourists.

With regards to driving, yes it is a big country and depending on what you want to do, you may need to travel quite a distance. You will also need to cater for the toll fees if you drive as they can mount up quite quickly so you need to budget for those so that you don't get caught short. There is always an alternate route though, usually more scenic, but the roads will not be as well maintained.

I think you should first work out how much you will be able to spend, and then work out what you would like with this in mind. It is very easy to spend a lot, although eating out is much cheaper here than in UK, it does all add up after a few weeks. Self catering is always a better option with children. Flights internally can also add up as a child over 2 pay full price on domestic flights. I really would be more than happy to give you details of travel agencies that are here who could do an itinery etc and pricing. I find that a lot of sites that do this for you, the accommodation and car hire etc is so much more expensive if booked through them.