Would you go to South Africa alone?

[Cheeseandcucumber]

I have some experience travelling around Europe and South East Asia alone and am wondering about booking a trip to SA next year.

I've encountered a couple of sticky situations in my past travels, like men cornering me (Madrid) and being stuck without any way of contacting anyone for a week (Borneo), but not enough to put me off.

I plan to join a tour group for two weeks that takes in Cape Town, the Garden Route and stops at Addo. I'd then stay there alone for a couple of nights before going on to Kruger alone for a short stay there. So I'd probably be alone for just one week.

I'll be finishing my degree next year which I've worked bloody hard for so want to treat myself. DH is not a traveller and my friends have no interest in joining me.

What do you think? Would you do it?

I was in SA last year (albeit with my partner). I generally found it quite safe as long as you are sensible.

I have done it, it is reasonably safe if you are sensible as the previous post pointed out. I have driven there many times and never encountered any issues - only baboons not people!

If you go to Kruger, you are not really facing any problems with unwelcome attention. You could fly there from Port Elizabeth (at the Eastern End of the Garden Route) and make sure your camp picks you up from the airport (Nelspruit - but I think it has another name now) for Southern Kruger and the private reserves around there. Alternatively, why can you not book a tour to join in Kruger and vsit a couple of areas within the park? The Bush Camps are fantastic and obviously it is a wild area unlike Addo which is a restocked area.

If you do go make sure you use ATMs in a bank they will have guards it's much safer. I had an incident where two men were "helping" me to get money out of a machine outside of McDonalds on Long Street in Cape Town I was by myself and felt very intimidated thankfully nothing happened and I walked away.