Has anyone done South Africa?

[puzzledout]

Recommend it?

Where would you visit?

Many times and all over. I would recommend the Cape and particularly the Western Cape. It's very safe, clean and well run. Obviously the usual rules about personal awareness apply as for everywhere. Hire a car and drive the coast road as far as Hermanus.
The exchange rate is very favourable and you will feel very rich indeed!

@EffortlesslyInelegant thank you!

3 times to Cape Town. I love it!

Great! What's your best bits?

For me the actual city itself is neither one thing nor the other. It's a city. It's busy. The V & A Waterfront is a massive mall/complex with all the shops and restaurants. It's ok but only if you like that sort of thing.
The little towns on the coast are the best for me. Hermanus, Gordon's Bay, Simon's Town, Boulders Beach (for the penguins) and lovely independent shops and restaurants.

Cape Town is fabulous - and, yes, do the obvious tourist stuff like Table Mountain and Robben Island.
Separately, the best holiday we ever had was a safari in the Kruger area. Go on the best possible one you can afford (sell a kidney, if necessary!). You won't regret it.

South Africa is a large and diverse country and there are lots of different types of holidays you can have while there. So it does depend what you're looking for.

Cape Town is a vibrant and fun city, with great beaches, amazing food, incredible views. Shopping and nightlife is good, but there's also load of outdoor things you can do. Or you can spend just days lying on a beach.

If in Cape Town, and you have the time and inclination, visiting Franschoek or Stellenbosch to visit the winelands is a great option.

If you want to see wildlife, there are multiple amazing places to go on safari, depending on time of year, budget etc.

If you want something a little more chilled, you can travel up the garden route (east) or go up the west coast from Cape Town to one or more of the many beach towns.

If you are going on Safari, while many people don't choose Johannesburg for a holiday, I think a day or two in Joburg is interesting. It's a modern, exciting African city and has its own options for a "city break", including the Apartheid Museum and some incredible food, art, shopping and entertainment options.

I enjoyed drinking a glass of wine in the wine farms outside of Capetown. They are kid friendly. Those farms sit in a very green mountainous area and it is all very beautiful and the landscape is not parched like other surrounding areas.

About 8 years ago we did the garden route and safari near Port Elizabeth. Loved the wine region, Stellenbosch was great. Felt very safe, though we were careful, didn't drive at night, used sat nav, asked our accommodation in Cape Town where was safe to walk etc etc.

The food was lovely. Loved Cape Town. Wish we'd researched the safari a little bit more as might have chosen a different one...but really for our first safari it was ace.

We used Trailfinders and they did everything for us. Chose great hotels.

We intend to do a safari at the end!

Thank you all so much!

Super excited with all the ideas.

Once you have decided where and when you are going, post again. Lots of people can give more specific recommendations. eg, I probably have a post saved somewhere I can track down that includes useful info on Cape Town for children, if that's something that is useful. Others can offer detailed thoughts on the winelands or safaris.

@puzzledout You cannot “do” South Africa without multiple visits!

Some suggestions would be; Cape Town and Garden Route. Whales can be seen in our Autumn. Lots of them around Hermanus. Garden Route is safe and easy driving. The Wine area around Stellenbosch has fantastic places to stay and the wine estates are beautiful. Driving around the Cape is also fantastic.

We have also been to Kwa Zulu Natal. The Drakensburg mountains are fantastic and the Hluhluwe Imfolozi game reserve is first class. Don’t miss it.

For wildlife, the reserves around Kruger are fantastic. Sabi Ssnds is wonderful.

So many areas of SA are fantastic. The west first too and south of Durban are amazing. So take time to consider what matters to you. Then plan it but stay long enough to get to know it. Stay safe by following simple rules. South Africans will tell you!

Yes, its one of my favourite places on earth.

Perfect weather
Stunning scenery
Incredible food
Great wine
very affordable
Easy driving
Friendly people

Cape Town/Camps Bay > Franshoek > Constantia > Hermanus

And if you want to go further afield

Garden route > Wilderness / Knysna / Garden Route /Plettenberg Bay / Safari

For safari look at Shamwari. Private reserve but very, very good. 2 full days was enough though.

We'll be going again this year. Cape Town - Knysna - Addo - Oudtshoorn (just a stopover so we can drive more leisurely) - Worcester (Aquila Private Reserve).
The coastal route is great but I like to also drive the drier, dustier and more isolated route too. (Warthog ahead! Mind that huge tortoise!)
I especially love the Cape Peninsula (dodge the baboons) and love staring out thinking 'nothing till Antarctica).
People are often amazed at actually how simple it is to just go.

Done Kruger twice and Cape Town once.

Would put it in the top 3 places I have visited. I struggle to decide which is the number one. Simply amazing!

Currently in South Africa right now! Have family just outside Johannesburg so visit every year but it’s very much suburbia with strip malls, restaurants, etc. (a bit like US big cities except I wouldn’t wander far alone - don’t mind getting an Uber to the mall or similar though).

Have visited Sun City a few times and would highly recommend, also it’s very close to the Pilanesberg National Park which has some really nice lodges (recommend Bakubung - we paid £250pp for 2 nights dinner, bed and breakfast with two game drives).

Just tried Cape Town for the first time last week but hadn’t factored in enough time to explore. The cable cars weren’t operating (wind), couldn’t do the wine tour (fully booked) and couldn’t get out to Robben Island (technical issues). So advice would be allow more time/days than you think you’ll need so you can go back the next day - and always pre book in advance!

We did instead do an animal safari boat from the harbour (for adults with drinks rather than for kids) and had a whale alongside us for hours - absolutely amazing! Also saw dolphins and seals but no penguins.

As others have pointed out, the exchange rate is phenomenal right now! We had a steak meal for 6 people including sides and desserts, wine beer and soft drinks for £76 total!

Agreed! I'm starting doing a summer visit, January. So working round that.

It all sounds amazing.

It will be very hot in the Kruger area in Jan. The whales won’t be in Hermanus but the beaches will be packed as it’s SA school holidays. End of Jan is a bit quieter. My DDs when at school in SA (KZN) had huge thunderstorms at that time! It was hot so the schools had a big break at lunchtime! I’m not a huge fan of Jan but of course if you cannot go at any other time, then Jan it is. December is also busy of course.

Other times have much lower prices and better availability. Guest houses in SA are super. Often beautifully fitted and designed with very helpful owners. We don’t stay in hotels. Hospitality in SA is outstanding. We also like bush camps and not glamorous places with a price tag to match.

Self catering is all very well if there is a back up generator. The load shedding (scheduled power cuts) were dreadful when we were there last year. We were in Natal for a week, the Cape Town for 10 days, you can go hours every day without electricity. No cup of tea first thing in the morning made me very sad! Cape Town’s load shedding was worse than Natal actually.

As others have said, it’s amazing!! Cape Town is stunning, boulders beach for the penguins, kalk bay, driving along chapmams peak, cape point, Llandudno, camps bay! Franschoek and Stellenbosch and the wine tram are fab. Love the drive to Hermanus and garden route. Wilderness is stunning and storms river, plett bay and knysna.
we have also had amazing hols in Kwazulu Natal- St Lucia for hippos and snorkelling, manyoni private game reserve has stunning lodges. Food is fab, and it’s really really reasonably priced. Cannot wait to go back hopefully next Feb!

@MissyB1 Who said anything about self catering? Guest houses and bush camps aren’t self catering. Bush camps have generators anyway. It’s also a reason to go slightly out of high season.

I think we may move it back to Feb, it was for a special birthday but I'd rather be comfortable and less busy! Thank you so much for the advice.

I've visited Cape Town about 30 times, I absolutely love it! There is so much to do.

A lot of what I'd recommend has already been mentioned, but can I also add that on the AirBnB website, even if you don't want to stay in an AirBnB, there are lots of activities on offer by local tour operators and even just local people.

For instance, next time I visit, I've already signed up to visit a township with a lady who lives there. You pay her a fee (£21 I think), and she takes you home, cooks you lunch/dinner and introduces you to her friends and family. I'm really looking forward to meeting some locals.

I'm also going to do a walking tour of District 6 with a guy whose parents were separated by apartheid laws and go snorkelling in the kelp forests off Muizenburg beach.

If you're fit enough, I recommend walking up Table Mountain and getting the cable car back down. The views are amazing.

Go to Camps Bay for sunset too. Also, my favourite vineyard in Constantia is Steenberg, they have a lovely bistro there where you can easily spend an afternoon over a lazy lunch.