Useful Tips for a Family Holiday in South Africa

Renting a car is the most common way to travel in South Africa. We didn't need one in Cape Town, but if you plan to travel between cities, you need to rent one. Remember the traffic is on the left side. Even though my husband never drove on the right side of the car, he got used to in no time. So there is no need to worry about it. The roads are fine and signaling is good.

It is very easy to drive on the intercity roads. There is one extra lane for emergency on each side, called "Yellow lanes", so if you need to overtake in the narrow roads, the car in front of you moves to the yellow lane and you go ahead without changing yours.

By the way, as it was holiday season when we were there, the roads were full of cars. Naturally, there were frequent police controls on the way. We were caught one time when driving from Plettenberg Bay to Georgetown. The fine was not a killer, about 100 Rands = 10 USD. But we lost some time, stopping at Port Elizabeth and finding a bank to pay it. So, do not speed over 120 on the intercity roads.

Now this is an important thing to know: After you pass a car, that has given you the way by going into the yellow lane, you light your four-way flashers to show your gratitude. When the drives sees your flashers, he will blink his headlights to accept your thanks. It is commonly used through the country. So do not hesitate to show your appreciation to other drivers.

There may be very strong winds at Cape Town due to the changes in the climate and ocean. At our third day my daughter's eyes got wet and sticky. If you already have a medication for it, I suggest you include it in your medicine bag.

If not, you can go to a pharmacy like we did and tell your problem. As they know the effects of the wind very well, they are used to this problem and the pharmacist will give you some medicine. You can ask for Clicks Pharmacy. It is a common store and pharmacy at Cape Town.

As we had rented a car beforehand, we decided to take our daughter's cot with us. Although at many of the places we found one ready in the room, it is helpful to have one with you. At two of the hotels we stayed, there were none.

In one of the hotels, although we had one in the room, the management asked us to give it back because almost all the families had children - some more than 1 - and there were not enough cots. So we gave it back and used the one we brought with us for the rest of our stay.

As we were mainly at the Western Cape, we did not need any kind of vaccination. But if you will spend some time on the eastern parts of the country you definitely need it against malaria and some other diseases. If you are traveling with a small child, you are not recommended to go to the east anyway.

The plugs used in SA are different from the ones we use. They have three pins instead of two. You can easily buy an adapter from any store. Although we had one with us all the time, we did not used it once. They provide the adapters at the hotels. Some of the hotels even have two pinned plugs. But still good to have one.

The best side of South Africa is that the prices are really down. And the currency is easy to calculate as 1 USD equals to 10 Rands (ZAR).

As we would be driving and buying gas, we took about 2.000 USD with us for 16 days. Counting our meals, drinks, gas and some other extras like shampoo, toothpaste etc, we spend about 500 USD for two adults and one child (2,5 years of age). We spent another 500 USD on curios and gifts to the family members and brought the remaining 1.000 USD back. The prices are very very reasonable for a family holiday. Here are some examples:

1 full tank gas: 130 ZAR = 13 USD (In Turkey we pay some 100 USD per tank. It was like a dream to us :)

1 dinner for 3 incl. fish, calamari, salad and beer: 180 ZAR = 18 USD

T-shirts - Jeans : Around 80 - 100 ZAR = 8 - 10 USD

Wild park entries: Around 200 ZAR / person = 20 USD

Besides, you can use your credit card everywhere. We preferred to do so and keep the cash with us.

If you are planning to make your hotel reservations and flight from a local travel agency, you have to make all your payment in advance, which requires bank transfer.

Although there were absolutely no problems in making our arrangements, things got difficult when it came to make the money transfer. As ZAR is not one of the common currency used by the banks, we had to change Turkish Liras into US Dollars, then made the transfer. But as the agency did not have a USD account, our bank had to give an order to the South African bank to change the money into ZAR. This way we lost some money during the exchange process. And it takes some 3 days for the transfer. If the currencies change in these 3 days, you have to pay a little more to complete the payment and guarantee your reservations.

As the currency of USD / Turkish Lira and USD / ZAR changes every day, it may cause some trouble. But don't worry, it will be over. Relax and think that you will have your dream holiday in a few days.

Although Malaria is a common disease in South Africa, the Western Cape is said to be clean and has no more dangerous mosquitoes. Actually we did not see even one through our trip, even in Kwandwe Game reserve, located in the Eastern Cape.

When we were there in December, it was still spring in SA, so the weather was not too hot. Maybe during the summer months, January, February and March, you can come by a few of them. You can always buy protective sprays at the local stores.

Another tip I have learned from a travel agency is that in order to visit the east of the country or to go to Kruger National Park without being bothered by the mosquitoes, you should go there during winter months, which are June, July and August for us living in the northern hemisphere. It could be a different experience, because the winters are also warm in SA, at least it doesn't snow and get below zero. Also in winter, you can see whales swimming in the ocean on the Atlantic seaboard.

Agghhh, this was the most bothering question everybody asked me before going there. People made jokes about us eaten by cannibals. It is really sad to hear these comments from the people who have no idea what they are talking about.

IT IS SAFE TO TRAVEL IN SOUTH AFRICA.

We had absolutely no worries about our security all through our holiday. The cities are safe, walking around is safe. Of course like in every city, there are some unsafe neighborhoods, but it is almost impossible to find them if you are a tourist. Believe me Istanbul or New York are not safer than South Africa.