South Africa -self drive Advice

Chickus

Hi, Myself and oh are trying to plan a trip to south Africa for 2-2.5wks..we are thinking about doing the Garden Coast by self drive...For anyone who has done this route, what is the best amount of time to spend on it and are there any other things to do off the route.which is best safari park along the route?we would be going in July...we have been looking at companies that organise your itinery and accommodation..We have heard that accomodation can be expensive and prices can be hard to haggle with, which is the last thing you want to be doing when arriving into town late at night..How safe is it to drive on your on there?
For some reason i'm a bit nervous about it, even though iv traveled the most of south america without fear

Civilian_Target

Heh, driving in Africa is not really that safe... but like anywhere, it will give you the freedom to do what you want when you want. If you're worried, get a tour or a guide. If you're not sure you want to drive, it's better to be driven.

mac123

Civilian_Target wrote: »

Heh, driving in Africa is not really that safe... but like anywhere, it will give you the freedom to do what you want when you want. If you're worried, get a tour or a guide. If you're not sure you want to drive, it's better to be driven.

South Africa is fairly safe to drive as long as you dont drive into a shanty town in a bmw looking for directions...

You should be fine, Accomadation can be expensive, depends what type your looking for. Food and petrol are cheap.

The roads on the garden route are great too.

As for safari, the best is probably Kruger, not sure if your going to drive all the way up there though!

Anyway enjoy...great country!

maggiemissy

its pretty safe on the main route, there are other options if you don't want to drive, we got the baz bus, it stops pretty much everywhere on that route. Either way, you'll have a great time.

Framed10

Ive been to SA 3 times in last 5 years.
Ive driven the garden route twice, 3 of us female and we got on fine.
Its probably a safer part of the country.
you can do it in 1 week-10 days.

Along the garden route Id recommend Knysna, book ahead here as its a beautiful town but busy and we had to book a boat to sleep on which turned out fine.
There was a marathon and oyster festival on at the time!

You can do shark diving in Hermanus bay.
Jeffrey's bay is also nice in a different way. Its a big surfing capital so its busy in july. Beach here is fabulous and great for chilling and people watching.

At Stormsriver / Tsitsikamma you can do the biggest bungee jump in the world, worth even stopping off the main road to watch those brave enough to jump.
If into zipping through the trees and canopee tours theres a great place in Tsitsikamma forest
l
There isnt alot to Port Elizabeth, industrailised and not for the tourist,
I went to a great Elephant park about 90mins-2hrs from port eliz, it was called Addo elephant park. It had other animals there not many cats, not the big 5 but lots of elephants and other common SA wildlife.
You would def want to book this well in advance as its popular.
Worth a trip for sure

Ive been to many parks, game reserves there and Kruger is by far the best, Its worth going if you can, But given that its in the north it might not be possible. you can fly from Port Eliz to joberg and take a tour from there for 3 nights or 5 nights.
there are many other small game reserves along the route which are privately owned with small amounts of animals (kind like fota in cork)
they can be expensive but an option is you cant make kruger


oudtshoorn was also nice, the ostrich capital of SA.
A very pretty place.
there was races and tours which was well worh it.
Also great caves there called the cango caves.
we also visited an elephant sanctuary near here, cant remember the name.
Got to feed, walk out and play with elephants. If you like animals Id recommend it, one of my memorable moments.

The route through the mountains was more stunning for me.
We stayed in inexpensive stunning accomodation with breathtaking views, roads are good. Like going through the alps in a way.

Loved Boplaas, situated near Calitzdorp. Its the port capital of SA, we went wine and port testing here in a small wine cellar, It was fabulous. The pink port is yum!

In the wine area Franschoek is gorgeous, very postcardesque. book accom ahead for better choice of prices.
Stellenbosch fab too, big student city,
Im envious, would love to be going again.

On driving. Never leave ANYTHING lying on the seats, HIde all bags etc in boot.
Try not to look like a tourist, maps, guide books etc, try keep them low profile.

Never drive after dark.
Carry minimal money on yourself.
On renting a car the main thing to watch is that the insurance doesnt really cover wheel issues and we got caught with this. You might end up going off main road at times and somethings roads can be bumpy, we had a hubcap damaged and got done for it!

if any questions dont hesitate to ask.
Its my favourite place in the world.
and the food...well its just stunning.

sarkozy

I lived in Lesotho for a year and a half, so I know South Africa well, and some other surrounding countries.

Having spent time in Lesotho, I would highly recommend visiting it and driving around for a couple of days. The Maloti mountains, making up two-thirds of the country, are spectacular. Top sights include Semonkong where the world's highest commercial abseil is (you climb down into a canyon right beside a waterfall and you can do a 'donkey pub crawl' there, drinking with the locals). If pressed for time, a drive up the country's excellent roads to the Mohale dam is spectacular. There's a five-star lodge, Maliba Lodge, in the north-western Tsehlanyane national park which is easily accessed from the Ficksburg/Maputsoe border crossing if coming from the Bloemfontein direction. On the eastern side, in the Drakensberg mountain range are some wonderful places to stay and hike, but this is catered for more on the South African side of the border (an escarpment 1000 metres skywards). I loved Lesotho, it's safe, the people are great and it's so totally different to South Africa, which I liked, but always found a bit broken.

As for things South African.

Safety: simply, you use your common sense. Big cities, especially Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban have a reputation for crime. If this happens, most likely it would be a bag-snatch, but the average urban South African is very security conscious so, when in Rome ... just don't have valuables in sight. Once out of the cities, everything is fine. Really, the amount of times (even in some 'safe' parts of Jo'burg) when I was drunk with cash in my ass pocket and nothing happened to me. In fact, nothing ever happened me.

Driving. Yes, there are bad drivers but in South Africa, the police enforce the rules of the road. You're very unlikely to be stopped and bribed. Never happened in all my time there. But if you're caught speeding or drink driving, they will come down heavily. Beyond that, all I can say is drive defensively, traffic is not very heavy and the roads are very good anyway, unless you want to take backroads for fun. As for Lesotho, many, many roads are very good, you can drink and drive all you want, the police don't care and if they ask you for a fine, 30 rand is the going rate. Smile and be very nice, make them laugh, they'll let you off.

Accomodation: I found it cheap. Of course it depends where you stay, but you'll find lodges everywhere and they're generally fine or nice and affordable, especially off the tourist trail. Even in Cape Town, compared to Ireland prices, staying in basic but very comfortable city-centre trendy hotels like the Art Hotel is fine when you're sharing. Food and booze is cheap.

Highlights/Overrated things: I'm not big into safari. Obviously Kruger is the big one to go for, but it's so big and if you don't want to spend your time sitting around doing nothing most of the time, there are other options. Hluhluwe nature reserve, near Durban/Petermaritzberg, is great in that it's a natural habitat with indigenous animals but they're there in much higher concentrations. The big 5 are there and the 2 hours I was there, I saw most of the 'Big 5', except for the big cats. If you do go to Kruger or further east, I'd suggest going to Swaziland - there's some good nature-watching in one of the reserves in the Ezulwini Valley. There's a hostel/lodge inside the reserve where you can watch hippos drink from the river at sunrise.

Cape Town is fantastic (totally anomalous compared to anywhere else in the country). It's really worth driving around the cape and you can even swim with sharks. If you're into food and wine, it's great, too.

I wasn't overly enthused by Port Elizabeth ... just some annoying wealthy coastal resort town. That's how I felt about it. The 'Wild Coast' is worth exploring a little, though. However, having lived in the country's interior, I'd highly recommend you drive more inland just to taste the variety the country has on offer. The nice thing about Free State, KZN, etc, is that when in rural areas, you can so much more interact with people just going about doing their daily thing. South Africa is still racially divided and it'd be a shame not to experience all the diversity and energy the Rainbow Nation has to offer.

I love Southern Africa. OK, I found lots of South Africa bland and generic and just boring. Then there's the legacy of the past to get your head around. But I would love to explore more in the future. Oh, and if you are brave and have time, why not go to Maputo in Mozambique. It's soooo cool. Remarkably safe. Actually, so is Zimbabwe. If you're up in the north east of SA, I hear Zim is amazing, loads of my friends went to visit there.

Feel free to ask any questions. Enjoy your trip, you'll love it.