Honeymoon in South Africia

thumper10

so folks we've decided to book SA for our honeymoon, we're thinking of flying into port elizabeth, then do a safari and over to oudtshoorn, on to plettenberg, from there to cape town and finishing in stellenbosch, flying out of cape town

so my question, can anyone recommend which safari to do, would the addo elephant park be worth it, or should we do the kuzuko one??? then where is the best hotels/restaurants that you've experienced...

would you just book port elizabeth, when we arrive and kinda wing it until cape town/stellenbosch??

love to hear your recommendations and thoughts...thanks guys

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

pwurple

We had a fantastic holiday in South Africa. We used a south african travel agent called Southern Destinations to plan it. They were great, organised car hire, a wine region driver for us so we could taste the wine and a fantastic safari. We could have used an irish travel agent, but when we travel we prefer to use someone local to the area. They arranged everything via email once we told them our travel dates, and a couple of things we wanted to do, which was handy. http://www.southerndestinations.com/

We went to Shamwari on their recommendation for the safari. It's a bit more expensive than your standard bus-type safari, but it was absolutely amazing and I'm glad we did it that way. We were never in groups of more than 4 people plus guide in the jeep, so we felt we had the place to ourselves. The facilities there were fantastic, we did 4 days on safari, and the guide was very knowledgable and great fun. Couldn't recommend them enough. It's near Port Elizabeth. Here's the link.
http://www.shamwari.com/propertycontent.asp?pageID=115


I agree with poster above, don't wing anything in south africa. Keep your head screwed on and keep to the beaten path.

thumper10

thanks for those...travel agent came back

Port Elizabeth -WINDERMERE hotel to KUZUKO GAME RESERVE (Safari)
Plettenberg – PERIWINKLE B&B then to PEARL OF OUDTSHOORN Guest
From there to SPIER HOTEL, Stellenbosch and finish up in CAPE RIVIERA, Cape Town

SUPPLEMENT per person to stay 2 nights at Kariega Safari Main Lodge instead of Kuzuko Safari

so now confused, suppose everyone has there own opinion and experience, anyone been to the above places?? looking into the shamwari safari...suppose your right we should book everything, less money then on us to be worrying about,

sillysocks

We did the trip the opposite way , so from CapeTown and ended on safari near Port Elizabeth.
We went for 2 different safari places. Gorah in Addo, and Shamwari (Eagles Crag). Without a doubt Gorah was the better of the two, an amazing place, would go back in a heartbeat. We were there first and maybe that just gave Shamwari too much to live up to (because everyone else seems to love Shamwari), but I wouldnt be bothered going back to Shamwari. They are both quite pricey, we were there in low season which helped, but Gorah was worth every cent.

We didnt stay in any of the places you have mentioned. We did stay very near Plettenberg though in a hotel called Hog Hollow which was fab.

Our itinerary was

Cape Town
Hermanus
Stanford
Kynsna
Plettenberg
Addo
Shamwari

If you want any recommendations from those places let me know.

totallegend

thumper10 wrote: »

thanks for those...travel agent came back

Port Elizabeth -WINDERMERE hotel to KUZUKO GAME RESERVE (Safari)
Plettenberg – PERIWINKLE B&B then to PEARL OF OUDTSHOORN Guest
From there to SPIER HOTEL, Stellenbosch and finish up in CAPE RIVIERA, Cape Town

SUPPLEMENT per person to stay 2 nights at Kariega Safari Main Lodge instead of Kuzuko Safari

so now confused, suppose everyone has there own opinion and experience, anyone been to the above places?? looking into the shamwari safari...suppose your right we should book everything, less money then on us to be worrying about,

Hey Thumper,

I stayed in Spier Hotel in 2008, it's a really nice place but it's a bit outside Stellenbosch so you'd need a car or taxi into town; it's a good option if you want to combine a winery with a higher end hotel.

In Plettenberg, I stayed in a B&B called Halcyon House, it is still the best B&B I've ever stayed in.

We just did Oudsthoorn as a day trip from the Garden Route and did a safari up at Kruger Park so no help to you there.

mav79

Hey Thumper, we stayed three nights in Kariega in 07 and absolutely loved it. One of the things that stood out for us in Kariega is when you go out with the rangers they go off-road so you can really get up close to the animals instead of watching them from a road and hoping they will come close.