scatterbride

hi everyone!
i know ye are probably sick of seeing these questions but i realy could use all of your advice!therefore i apologise im advance!we were pricing south africa trip in august 08 with a few diferent travel agents and it was looking very expensive. we will be on honeymoon and after the wedding costs we have a certain budget for our honeymoon but it isnt really sizeable!
we were looking at maybe doing just over 2 weeksin S.A. we were going to spend 5 nights cape town, i night hermanus,2 nights kisna, i night tsitsikama,3 nights in hog holow and then 3 nights in kariga in the ukhozi lodge before flying home.
however i bumped into friends today who had just booked flights for their trip last year and arranged everything with local travel agents in cape town when they got there. they booked most accom as they came upon it on the garden route and really recomended the dunali lodge in sabi sands kruger. they actually got a residents rate on it as it was off peak.
do you think it is ok to just bok the flights and nothing else until we get there?sorry this is a rambling post but i would appreciate any advice!or other suggestions! thanks!

Grcxx3

My first thought is......how willing are you - on your honeymoon - to "wing it?"

Because I do travel planning for our family of 4, the thought of NOT having confirmed bookings drives me nuts. If it was just me and DH, I would be willing to have more flexibility. HOWEVER, I don't know that I would be willing to risk NOT having the accommodations firmed up for my honeymoon.

A possible compromise.....firm up the reservations for your first location (Cape Town??) and then - once you're there - work on getting the additional hotels.

In any case......South Africa (and Cape Town in particular) is one of our favorite places. I hope you have a wonderful time.

Celia

We usually book most of our hotels before we get to South Africa, but sometimes we leave a few days unbooked, and work with a local travel agent, or more often, a local tourism bureau. They've always been able to find us the kind of place we're looking for, in our price range. The Cape Town tourism bureau is one we've used.

I too would want to have the first few nights booked, and also any places that you feel are not to be missed. It's not hard to arrange the others after you get there. I'm not sure whether you'll save any money that way. But SA has such a good travel infrastructure that I'm sure you won't get stuck with no place to stay (or only a dump!). But remember that doing the bookings will take time away from your sightseeing, and you may not be able to book a place you were counting on. If that won't spoil the honeymoon feeling, then go for it.

Congratulations, and best wishes for a wonderful honeymoon and a happy marriage!

Celia

annhig

Hi scatterbride,

given that you wil be travelling in the low season, then i agree with GRCxx3 that you could wing a few nights.

however, i would want to have at least the first 3 nights in CPT booked, and the safari at Kruger.

also, if you are planning to stay at hog Hollow, you might want to have that booked too- friends of ours could only get 2 nights there, not the three they wanted, though that was in October.

personally, I would book all my nights in CPT and 5 is not too many - there is loads to see and do there, especialy if you are not going to stay in the winelands, and want to go there for a day trip.

there are a no of web-sites allowing you to search for accommodation in SA. try for example www.wheretostay.co.za - i searched and found "the potting shed" B & B in Hermanus giving rates of 240RSA pp per night. thre are loads of others too.

congrats of your wedding,

regards, ann

scatterbride

thanks so much everyone for your very helpful replies. we will definitly book our capetown accomodation and hog hollow accomodation in advance.
we were hoping to stay in one of the sabi sands dulini lodges for safari but just found out cost and it is way out of our league! would any of you recommend another safari in kruger that wouldnt break the bank?thanks again!!!!!!!!11

cary999

SB, like to suggest you get a keyboard on which you can type capital letters. Makes it much easier to read ( at least for me). That is, assuming you care about readers of your posts.

regards - tom

scatterbride

Sorry Tom but I am a one finger typer and if I have to try to edit my post with capitals as I write it takes me forever.
I am not as accomplished a typer as you I am afraid so if you don't mind I will stick to my own way of posting.
To be honest I didn't think it would bother people and didn't expect any comments on how my post was written

cary999

SB, I am also not a good typist. Although in theory I have the proper two hand technique, I spend more time in fixing my typos than getting it correct the first time. I tend to make "have" into ahve" and such transpositions of letters. Not to mention numerous misspellings. But I feel that I owe it to any reader who takes the time and effort to give them the best acceptable standard business English I can put up. Guess that's jsut me and my wya of thinking. But FWIW, I also do not generally tend to answer psots hwen the psoter does not seem to help me read tehir psots.

But peace my little SB, I may very well be the only cranky old man here that is this fussy. One of the reasons I reply to you is to try and make the point for others with the same habit. And thanks for your kind reply, usually I get a basically Fxxk Off .

reagrds - tom

scatterbride

peace tom!
I will do my best to stick capitals in here and there from now on!
My business English is a bit rusty though as being Irish , many of us have our own version of the English language , so bear with me!

Shumba

Scatterbride,

I would say to book the first part of your trip i.e. some days in CT

As for staying in the Sabi Sands, dont book anything before you go, or only very close to when you do.

use mtbed.com to give you a rough idea of pricing. The cost will be the same with a late booking on the ground.

Regards

cary999

SB - great, try it you'll like it Although I'm American my first language is "engineering". I have always been a science/math type of person and the other half (language) of my brain struggles on.

Shumba - more info please on mtbed. When I clicked there it was a very strange page about domain Name Register, Match Dating, Computer Notebooks. etc. Wrong address? Also, what you say about Sabi Sand camps. You mean camps like MalaMala or Leopard Hills have space available at a few days notice and discount it? Or if not MM can you give other examples. Like right now, today, what kind of deals can be had in Sabi Sand? If this works, my time is flexible, I could lounge around perhaps Joburg for a couple of days waiting for a half-off-cost deal at Leopard Hills

regards - tom

Shumba

apologies try

www.mtbeds.com

cary999

thanks, if I'd been half awake I'd tried the www.

It does list some deals up front like Kirkmans at less than half rack rates. For MalaMala I put in dates in Jan and it came back with rack rates. It did however indicate availability which is I believe because the MM reservation calendar shows about half occupancy in Jan. But I want MM at half rack .

Anyone used www.mtbed.com for any other Sabi Sand camps?

regards - tom

Krugerlover

Tom,

I used mtbeds to get accommadation at Kirkman's Kamp in December. Payed R1440-00 pppn and got 3 nights.

I'm also going to use mtbeds in July when I'd like to go to Exeter Leadwood, Dulini or River lodge.

Scatterbride,

Although mtbeds do not have a rate for August yet, I can say that the rates for any CC Africa lodge in SOuth Africa(Madikwe, Phinda, Kwandwe, All Exeter camps and Ngala) should be less than R1750-00 pppn.

Good luck

KL

scatterbride

Thanks again everyone!
This forum really is invaluable when it comes to great tips.
We would love to stay in a beautiful lodge on safari but the prices quoted online were scary!
I will definitly use the mtbeds website closer to the trip and chance my luck.
We would also consider a tented/camping safari in Kruger so if anyone has a recommendation we would be delighted.
I will definitly book my CT accomodation beforehand-any recommendations?
Again many thanks Annhig,
Tom,Grc,Celia,Shumba and Kl.
p.s. Tom, as a primary school teacher I am always harping on about capital letters etc so a dose of my own medicine has improved my writing no end!

Celia

Scatterbride, I've never camped in Kruger, but I've stayed in the huts/cabins/bungalows many times. If you think you would like to stay in the National Parks places in Kruger (as opposed to the private concessions) I can let you know which camps we've liked.

Celia

cary999

SB - Karma got you!!!! Yes, I can see your improvement .

Hope your remaining school year is good and fun. And for summer school YOU are to take a class in typing!!!! Way back when I took a class one summer and it has been one of the most useful classes ever. Even in the Army, when I was drafted they found out I could type, they said "You're too valuable to carry a a rifle, you're going to be a "clerk typist"". Spent my two years in a office in Washington DC. Good duty. But perhaps slightly off-topic here

regards - tom

Doogle

Scatterbride

I personally think you are taking a chance booking on arrival, but if you are willing to then who am I to argue.

Why do you not look at the following properties and see if they are in your budget:

cape Town:
Welgelegen Guest House
Lezzard Bleu
cape Cadogen

Kruger:
rhino walking Safaris
Jock Safari Lodge
Kapama
Tangala

Furthermore there is an excellent special running in the Mantis collection at the moment if you book 2 nights at Jocks Lodge you get 3 free nights in cape Town, so logically if you book 4 nights at Jocks in Kruger and pay for them then you can have 3 nights at The Table Bay/Bishops Court and 3 nights in the winelands.

It is great value for money!

scatterbride

Again many thanks for the great tips!
Celia, I would be very interested to find out with camps, huts etc you liked.
Doogle, thank you for the hotel and lodge recommendations, especially the special offers!
I will look into it straight away.
I know we could really be leaving things to chance by not booking certain things in advance but hopefully our trip falling in low season may mean vacancies in certain safaris, hotels, etc?!
Its the backpacker in me still trying to get the very best deal I think!(and a very tight budget!)

Celia

Scatterbride, it may take me a while to get all my Kruger info together. I will post as soon as I can, probably tomorrow.

Celia