South Africa

I am probably setting myself up to be burned here but here goes...

I found this really lovely organisation that offered a lot of low key interesting volunteer ideas around the world that had this great one for South Africa. It was where your funds paid for medical equipment and petrol for a car to deliver to hard to get to aids affected communities and you got to tag along for the ride helping out where you could. It was a low budget site with a lot of text. What i liked about it was that it…

I'm struggling to find a camping spot somewhere close to the most western gate of Umfolozi (Cengeni Gate) or Ulundi. Can anyone help?

For the eastern side, or near Memorial Gate, I found Hluhluwe Backpackers (reeaally laid-back email responses, not sure what to make of them, but ideally situated 2km from the gate) and Isinkwe Backpackers (more organised, better first impressions but 30km from Memorial Gate).

Has anyone used either of these two places and would you recommend it?

I feel that we…

I have read some very negative posts by SportsArtist ( Christiaan Bekker) - he sounds like an Ex-South African with a chip on his shoulder.

They are :

..in short! South Africa is not a safe place to travel and it doesn't matter where you go in that country! I lived there for a very long time and my advice will be for you to look somewhere else to travel...

... do your homework first! SA is the crime capital of the world!...

He then writes on the American post

Hi everyone

I need some advice with…

Has anyone travelled between Pretoria/JHB to Gaborone (Botswana) on the Intercape Bus recently? If so, how did it go in terms of reliability and safety.
Shellie

Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can get my hair braided in Cape Town? I am really not keen on having to look after it while I'm travelling!

Cheers

Hello fellow travelers,

My sister and I (both early-to-mid 20s) are planning a weeklong trip to Western Cape in mid-September. For reasons too complicated to explain here, we have to stay at the Strand Pavillion, which is in Strand, about 50km from Cape Town center.

Has anyone on the board stayed there before? How was it?

This is my sister's first trip abroad, but not for me. Most of my international travels have been through studying abroad or backpacking - I'm used to being…

Since I actually quite like surveys, travel in general (incl. ecotourism) and South Africa travel in particular as well as the global ecotourism website planeta.com, I thought I might share this link with others who also enjoy an occasional short survey especially if it is about a topic we like: South African Travel in this case.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Planeta.com is conducting the South Africa Travel Survey to assess what travelers want from a trip and what locals recommend to visitors. Answers…

Hi,

my irlfriend and I are planning a trip to SA over the Christmas period. We have put together an itinerary and wondered if there was any good avice - Does this look a good trip for the time we have? Can you suggest any good places to stay in any of the stops? Or advise of places not to stay! As a treat we are thinking of staying at the phantom forest in Kynsa (v.expensive but recommended). We will be travelling around in a hire car.

Itineray: Cape Town 1 night; Franschoek 1 night; Montagu…

Looking for inexpensive safe car hire from either Hermanus or Caledon so can drive down to Cape Agulhas as there seems to be no public transport to there

Hi everybody.

Do you know if people from Spain need an international driving licence to drive in South Africa? And, what do you think about it? is it a good idea? I mean, what about roads, southafrican way of driving? is it dangerous?

Is is better to rent a car from Spain, with an international company, Avis, Hertz, and so on, or, should we go for a local company? What about fares?

Thank you very much. Looking forward to your replies.

Rocimari