Travellers' overview

Visa requirements

British nationals visiting South Africa on holiday for less than three months do not require visas. For longer visits, you should contact the South African High Commission in London.

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Getting there

International airports: Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Land borders: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe.

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Ideas & things to do

• Visit Cape Town
• Cage dive with sharks
• Highest bungy in the whole entire World
• Whale-watching in Hermanus
• Climb Table Mountain
• Visit Kruger National Park
• Follow the Garden Route
• Visit Robben Island
• Prepare for the future...

More ideas and things to do >>

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What's on, where & when

• March - Cape Town Festival
• April-November - Appletizer Summer Sunset Concerts - Cape Town
• April - The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees - Outshoorn
• April - Oppikoppi Music Festival
• April-May - Splashy Fen Music Festival - Port Elizabeth
• April-May - Prince Albert Olive, Food and Wine Festival
• May - Pink Loerie Festival - Knysna
• June-July - Grahams Town Arts Festival - Grahams Town
• July - North Sea Jazz Festival - Cape Town
• July - Knysner Oyster Festival
• August - Oppikoppi Bushveld Festival
• September - Natal Witness Hilton Arts Festival - Durban
• September - Hermanus Whale Festival - Hermanus / Cape Town
• New Year - Ox Braai - Bathurst

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Recommended routes

South Africa is enormous in size, varied in landscape and packed full of things you won’t have seen or done before. So the itineraries below are always going to be fairly flexible. Take the general route as a guideline and stop wherever takes your fancy really.

Short term

- Arrive in Cape Town, acclimatise and see the sights - including Table Mountain.
- Head off on a whistle-stop tour of the Garden Route. First stop could be Hermanus for some whale watching.
- Get on the Garden Route proper - take a look at Mossel Bay
- Carry on your Garden Route journey. Next stop Knysna? It has got a lagoon after all...
- Next stop really ought to be Plettenberg Bay - lovely beaches, all kinds of nature stuff and it’s not far from the spectacular coastal scenery of the Tsitsikamma National Park and the Bloukrans Bungy.
- The end of your Garden Route tour will probably be Port Elizabeth - or ‘The Friendly City’ as it likes to be known
- Spend the long hours on the bus to Jo’burg International Airport wishing you’d allowed yourself more time in South Africa.

Medium Term

- Start off in Jo’burg this time. Don’t hang about too long, head for Nelspruit, Kruger National Park and all the beasties it contains.
- Go to the mountainous country-within-a-country that is Swaziland - the Switzerland of Africa.
- Zululand - our suggestion would be to stay in St Lucia, check out the wetlands, enjoy a braai (that’s a barbecue to you and I) on Mission Rock and immerse yourself in a bit of Zulu culture.
- Head off to Durban once you’ve had enough of that
- Go to the Transkei - might we be so bold as to recommend the Coffee Shack as a place to stay? From here you can experience some Xhosa culture, chill out on pristine beaches etc
- Go to Port Elizabeth and do the short term itinerary in reverse, ignoring the final point of course.

Long Term
All of the above, taking a bit more time about it this time - other things you might like to include are:

- Cage diving with Great White Sharks
- An ostrich farm - well, why not?
- A theme park - not a traditional African thing, but it’s fun anyway.
- Monkey Land - better than Monkey World in the UK apparently, but it doesn’t have the donkey. It’s quoted as "currently the top eco-tourism attraction on the Garden Route."
- Kite Surfing - popular around Cape Town
- Addo Elephant Park - The Addo Elephant National Park was established in 1931 to protect the last 11 wild elephants from extermination. Today the park offers excellent viewing of black rhino, Cape buffalo leopard, and over 350 elephants

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Climate advice

South Africa has a pleasant climate and is in the Southern Hemisphere so has seasons opposite to the UK’s (their winter is during our summer, etc). Along the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique you’ll find a tropical climate: hot, muggy, with a high humidity, whereas the areas around Cape Town experience a Mediterranean-type climate (hot summers and warm, wet winters). The areas around Durban experience a wet season during the months of October and April with high temperatures and humidity. The eastern interior (the areas around Johannesburg) experiences warm but rainy summers and remarkable drops in temperature during the winter nights. However, these areas have a pleasant climate due to low humidity levels and long sunshine hours. Deserts and semi-deserts are found in the western interior and there is rainfall during the months of November to April, although rain is quite rare in these dry areas!

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Help and assistance

British High Commission in Pretoria:
Address: 255 Hill Street
Arcadia 0002
Pretoria
Tel: (27) (12) 421 7733
Fax: (27) (12) 421 7555

British Consulate General in Cape Town: Street Address: 15th floor,
Southern Life Centre
8 Riebeek Street,
Cape Town 8001
Postal Address: PO Box 500
Cape Town 8000
Tel: (27) (21) 405 2400
Fax: (27) (21) 425 1427

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Ideas of cost

The South African currency, the Rand, has collapsed against the US Dollar and the British Pound in recent years. At time of going to print it was possible to get ZAR 6.9 for your dollar and ZAR 13.7 for your £. With this you could buy a 50g chocolate bar, a can of coke and a packet of crisps and still get change (although not enough for the bus ride home.)

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Etiquette

South Africa has a relaxed and informal atmosphere with people introducing themselves by their first name. Clothing wise: it's quite acceptable for both sexes to wander around in shorts and t-shirts. The occasional restaurant, bar or club may have dress requirements, however.

Don’t walk around the streets of cities on your own after dark and don’t go flashing your cash or expensive jewellery and watches!

You are expected to tip waiters, waitresses, and taxi drivers 10% - 15% and if you do make sure you give the tip directly to the person.

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Staying healthy

You can drink the tap water in South African towns but it's an idea to stick to bottled mineral water when heading off the beaten track. It's also worth noting that you can only buy alcohol on a Sunday in licensed restaurants with a meal. Most bottle stores are open regular hours Mon - Fri and on a Saturday until 2 or 4pm.

Also, the usual warnings about salad and ice cubes apply: try to avoid them and don’t drink the water directly from streams, lakes, etc, even if it looks crystal clear - there may well be something nasty lurking! If you must have water from these sources then purify it.

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Staying in touch

If you are going to be in SA for a few months you should look into buying a SIM card for a mobile phone or a World Call card for pay-phones. Otherwise internet cafes are very easy to find. Generally staying in touch is not a problem.