Hi everyone,
Hope you can help. We will be flying into Cape Town and have two weeks to make our way up to Johannesberg. We would love to see Cape town and some of the garden route and go on safari. Also the Drakesberg mountains seem enticing. The main questions:
Will we have time to see the best of Cape town, travel across the garden route, go trekking in the mountains and get a safari in, all inside two weeks?
Is it possible to trek in Drakensberg and the move straight on to a safari?
What are the conditions like for trekking in July?
What is a reasonable daily price for safari, including transport and accomodation?
The trip means moving from Cape Town to Johannesberg in exactly two weeks. Any possible itineraries would be much appreciated!!
Cheers, Brian.
It is winter down here. Unless you like trekking with temperatures down to freezing and below at night, I would give that a miss.
And Cape Town and surrounds - including the garden route - is a winter rainfall area. Bring your brolly.
Having said that, I would suggest that as you only have 2 weeks, you split that between Cape Town (5 days), the Garden Route (2 to 3 days) and then fly up to Johannesburg, hire a car and do a self-drive tour of the Kruger Park (4 days). The last 2 days can be spent in the Mpumalanga Panorama route around Sabie and Pilgrims Rest, and getting back to Johannesburg for your flight home.
Make sure you make bookings for Kruger in advance (www.Sanparks.org) and don't bother to try to get accommodation there before 16th July, when the school holidays end.
A good suggestion, but Swaziland is also an alternative! If you follow Rudi's plan: 5 (perhaps 4) days in the Cape, 2 or 3 days on the Garden route (you'd need to hire a car to do this justice, starting in Cape Town and either returning to Cape Town or arranging to drop the car in Port Elizabeth - I'd strongly recommend the latter!), see Hermanus if you can; fly to Jo'burg, hire a car for 4 days in Kruger, and return to Jo'burg via Swaziland. It's very little extra mileage, and Swaziland in July can be heavenly!
Leave a personal message if you want more!
Ndlovu
Hi again,
Thanks so much for your opinions. I was thinking of spending three to four days in Cape Town and making our way to Port Elizabeth by bus or train. I hope to spend just less than a week on this part of the trip. We could then fly from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg. Using Johannesburg as our base for the second week of the trip.
Hopefully we could do Kruger and see much ,ore in this week before returning to Johannesburg.
If you have any more ideas I would appreciate them. Cheers, Brian.
P.s I have another three weeks in South Africa, it is my friend who must return after two weeks.
What is a brolly?
In March, I spent four and 1/2 days in Cape Town, then picked up a car and drove to Cape Point, Boulder Beach, Swellendam, Agulhas, and the Garden Route as far as Knysna, then drove to Oudtshoorn, then dropped the car in George and flew back to JNB and drove to Kruger via Dullstroom, Pilgrim's Rest, and God's Window. After I left Kruger I went to a private game reserve for a couple of days and then drove back to JNB where I spent a couple of days, including a visit to the Cradle of Humankind which I found fascinating. I did this over three weeks but you could shorten it by including Cape Point in your four days in CPT and leaving out some of my driving around. I even think you could skip the Garden Route entirely--there are pretty parts, yes, but much of SA is beautiful, less touristy, and far more interesting. However that may be a heretical point of view.
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