Any suggestions for South African safari with 2yr old?

[FriedGreenTomatoes]

I've got a work trip to South Africa in May and was thinking about getting DH and DD to com and join me afterwards for a week's vacation.
Can anyone recommend any good wildlife reserves for a safari? Need to be easy enough to get to from Cape Town (i.e. short flight or not more than 3-4 hour drive).
Thanks.

Now the last we spoke you were going to be based half a mile from home in big multi-national (that I won't mention by name) doing not very exciting things... sounds pretty damn fine for a not very exciting life

by the way, I took your recommendation and have just dropped 10KG on the Cambridge diet, so I owe you another lunch for that one..

Your thread has really made me nostalgic, by the way. These days we just travel round Europe... sigh.

Wow Squiffy - 10 kgs is fantastic!!

So far my "local" new job has involved 2 weeks in KL and 1 in Costa Rica (and with so many trips to London I have only spent 3 days locally). Next month I am in Cape Town, KL and Brazil, then Cape Town again in May and Costa Rica in June - and those are just the trips I know about. I am having an absolute ball and am so, so pleased that I left you-know-where!

would recommend shamwari, although expensive, and i'd check their policy on kids...

Thanks. I have looked at the policies for most of the game parks and none will accept DD on their game drives. I can understand this froma safety perspective - and am now feeling like a bad mummy for even considering taking DD on a safari!

what a shame, but there are other lovely places. Hog Hollow may be a good alternative for you, if you're going to have a family holiday in SA anyway (I sound like a tour guide ). It's hardly lions and hippos, but we had a monkey on our porch every morning and beutiful birds in the trees.

You can absolutely have a wonderful safari with a 2-year-old in South Africa! All of us in Ghana take our young-uns down there for safari, and it's easy as can be, and very safe. We're actually going again in May with ours (4 years and 10 months). Most places let you self-drive, so no one but you has to worry about her antics in the car seat. You can also take a morning game drive while DH watches the toddler, and he takes an evening one while you sit with her. South African families do this all the time and the big publicly run game parks are geared up for families, with self-catering chalets at really reasonable prices.

From Cape Town, you could try Addo Elephant Park near Port Elizabeth. Pilanesburg near Pretoria is a very good possibility, and NOT malarial as someone said earlier. Kruger is the only major park that's malarial. There are one or two private parks near Cape Town that are expensive but allow self-drive daytrippers, too.

Remember she will need a yellow fever shot for South Africa.

Do it. You'll have a wonderful time. And so will she.