Safety in South Africa

MANUTD99

The wife and I will be doing 2 weeks in SA.

4 nights in Cape Town. Traveling the garden route to Port Elizabeth. Quick flight to J'burg for 1 full day/night before driving to Krugar for 3 nights.

It is a escourted tour but still a little concerned regarding saferty.

Any safety advice from fellow travellers on. Would Cape Town be safe enough to walk around? What places would be best avoided. We are staying in the Radisson Blu Le Vendome Hotel and would like to go to the Waterfront in the evening time for dinner and entertainment

Would my wife be drawing unwanted attention to herself if wearing shorts and summer tops.

Is it better to pay with credit card rather than walking about with a lot of cash.

lolls2001

Love South Africa and i have done it twice , that exact same itinerary, You will have a fantastic time . The people are amazing. From Cape Town to PLZ where the Safaris are is approx 800KM, fantastic drive
IF you decide to drive through the Karoo its even better! We just gave ourselves lots of daylight hours to drive and we discovered so many people and places
Enjoy your trip

intheclouds

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Any safety advice from fellow travellers on. Would Cape Town be safe enough to walk around? What places would be best avoided. We are staying in the Radisson Blu Le Vendome Hotel and would like to go to the Waterfront in the evening time for dinner and entertainment

Would my wife be drawing unwanted attention to herself if wearing shorts and summer tops.

Is it better to pay with credit card rather than walking about with a lot of cash.

Are you serious?

Cape Town is totally safe to walk around. Avoid any areas that look very run down just like you would in any major city.

No more than wearing shorts and summer tops would attract unwanted attention anywhere.

Well walking around with lots of cash is not really advisable anywhere.

Wanderer2010

The fact that its an escorted tour makes me think its all planned and any potential danger areas will be avoided. Lets not be naïve though, pay no heed to the "Cape Town is no more dangerous than any major city" crowd, which would have you believe SAs crime rate is safely ensconced within a few poverty-stricken neighbourhoods. SA is extremely dangerous for the unsuspecting tourist and if you decide to wander around for a stroll at night or leave the windows open on your rental car whilst cruising up the coast, there is every chance you will be stabbed, shot, severly beated and left for dead. As a tourist you will stick out about 10 miles and gangs know exactly who to target.

As I said though, you probably wont be anywhere near those areas on a tour and I have been there already so I can confirm the scenery is amazing, just try not to flash any cash, travel ANYWHERE alone at night and just keep your general wits about you. Enjoy!

intheclouds

^^^^
This is totally untrue and very scaremongery.

If you leave your windows open while driving the garden route you will not be stabbed, shot, severely beaten and left for dead! Don't be so ridiculous.

Shefwedfan

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

The fact that its an escorted tour makes me think its all planned and any potential danger areas will be avoided. Lets not be naïve though, pay no heed to the "Cape Town is no more dangerous than any major city" crowd, which would have you believe SAs crime rate is safely ensconced within a few poverty-stricken neighbourhoods. SA is extremely dangerous for the unsuspecting tourist and if you decide to wander around for a stroll at night or leave the windows open on your rental car whilst cruising up the coast, there is every chance you will be stabbed, shot, severly beated and left for dead. As a tourist you will stick out about 10 miles and gangs know exactly who to target.

As I said though, you probably wont be anywhere near those areas on a tour and I have been there already so I can confirm the scenery is amazing, just try not to flash any cash, travel ANYWHERE alone at night and just keep your general wits about you. Enjoy!

Complete bulls**t

We flew into Cape Town and done Garden Route a few years ago. No guided tours, just a map and rental car.

Cape town was perfect, we did stay down at marina. But we took bus trips etc all around cape town and just jumped out and walked around. Like any major city we didnt get out in the real dodgy areas

As we traveled around we had no issues, included breaking down and lovely people helped us jump start.

On garden route we would stop off everywhere, just random spots and had great time.

Leaving window open and getting shot is complete crap!

Jacovs

When are you going? Keep in mind it's winter there now. Not as cold as winters here, but cold enough, so shorts and summer tops might not be a concern anyways. But even middle summer you'd stand out if you aren't wearing shorts and summer tops.
I'm from cape town if you have any specific questions, drop a PM.

MANUTD99

Thanks for the feedback all.

From peoples experience it seems Cape Town is pretty easy to navigate alone ? For example route to our hotel to restaurants is in link. Seems a pretty easy walk

How is it to hail a taxi from the Waterfront. Is there official taxis and dodgy ones to avoid. Do you agree a price before hand.

ted1

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback all.

From peoples experience it seems Cape Town is pretty easy to navigate alone ? For example route to our hotel to restaurants is in link. Seems a pretty easy walk

How is it to hail a taxi from the Waterfront. Is there official taxis and dodgy ones to avoid. Do you agree a price before hand.

Taxis have the price in the door. Good cars are more expensive than bad cars, great system. Ireland could follow suit.

ted1

Cape Town and Tge garden route is safe. Jo burg and PE not so safe, don't carry much cash in these places.

Shefwedfan

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback all.

From peoples experience it seems Cape Town is pretty easy to navigate alone ? For example route to our hotel to restaurants is in link. Seems a pretty easy walk

How is it to hail a taxi from the Waterfront. Is there official taxis and dodgy ones to avoid. Do you agree a price before hand.

God thats a bit of a walk:P

I think we got taxi one day, just got reception to get one. Was grand, not expensive. I see the comment above about better taxis etc, I have no idea. It was a new car and we probably paid a bit more for it but it wasn't as expensive as Dublin taxi's.

I think on way back we just stopped one on road. Rest of the time we used the bus, or walked and then after a few days we got our rental car so drove from then on.

MANUTD99

Few weeks away now and very excited.

Have changed some cash into Rand. Was thinking then of just using my credit card to withdraw cash from ATM or pay for transactions in shopping areas.

Any tips on best way to carry money in SA.

My card got scammed on Camden Street for a grand recently. Got it back thankfully so super sensitve on this subject. Any advice welcomed

Vic_08

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Few weeks away now and very excited.

Have changed some cash into Rand. Was thinking then of just using my credit card to withdraw cash from ATM or pay for transactions in shopping areas.

Any tips on best way to carry money in SA.

My card got scammed on Camden Street for a grand recently. Got it back thankfully so super sensitve on this subject. Any advice welcomed

Download the Revolut app to your phone and order a card. With this you can spend and withdraw in local currency at interbank exchange rates. You can also block and unblock the card as you wish from your phone and you can keep the card with a low balance and add money from your account when you need it.

Mancomb Seepgood

We visited South Africa in 2014 and drove ourselves from Cape Town to Addo National Park (near Port Elizabeth) along the Garden Route and back via the Karoo. I can honestly say that we had no problems whatsoever despite a few wrong turns. There is no question that crime is a serious issue in South Africa, however the bulk of it takes place in areas which you won't be visiting as a tourist - Cape Town has a very high crime rate but a lot of it takes place in areas such as Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha which are well out of the city and were used as dumping grounds for coloured and black people evicted from their homes near the city centre by the apartheid regime-with the predictable social breakdown. Central Cape Town is safe, although you should take care in darker streets around the city centre at night and take a taxi home. The Waterfront is perfectly safe. The fact that you're on a guided tour makes it even safer still.

Regarding ATM's, I'd do what I do here and withdraw from machines in shopping centres, petrol stations, SPAR shops etc - probably less likely to have issues that way.