I really want to ask how much is a ballpark, reasonable cost (5K, 10K, 15K, etc) for a couple for 2 weeks in SA, Capetown, game parks in/near Krueger, possible Victoria falls trip, medium quality of accommodations, going with tour agency such as go2africa. But since I realize that is impossible to answer, as it is so variable, I won't ask it.

Instead, I would ask how much you spent on your land portion of your SA trip, if you would be kind enough to say. Many thanks.

I've booked my trip but haven't gone yet. For one week in South Africa, 3 days in Botswana and 3 days in Zambia it cost about 3K for the land, hotels, and flights within Africa. Only the Botswana portion includes full board, the other hotels only breakfast is included. I'm using frequent flier miles for the international airfare.

Thanks, RBCal. I assume your figure is for 1 person.

Indeed, "land" includes everything except the international air.

Jed,

There are two ways of doing things...it appears that RBCal may have very well booked a group departure with set dates. While there are cost advantages to this, the exclusivity goes out the window compared to booking a tailor-made safari where you are free to choose the accomodations and departure dates, and it will just be you and your travel companion(s)...or, if you are a solo traveler, it will be just you.

For Cape Town there are options for guesthouses/bed and breakfasts/mid range hotels/luxury hotels.

For Kruger area private game reserves, you would be able to book a lower cost lodge like Elephant Plains in the Sabi Sand for a very reasonable, or you may choose to splurge a bit for a place like Simbambili at about $625 per person per night, but worth every penny and still about half the price as the most expensive.

However, if you are going to Victoria Falls, you may want to consider doing your safari in Botswana or Zambia, as these would both make easy connections to Victoria Falls.

Finally, you need to consider what time of year you wish to visit. You will be able to get some incredible pricing to Botswana and Zambia between December - March, while this will be high season pricing in South Africa.

On the flip side, you will be able to get better pricing for a South African safari between May - August, but this is when Cape Town will be in its winter. However, this is the time of year that Botswana & Zambia will be in its high season (June - October).

Personally, I think early December would be great for a very nicely priced safari to a place like Kwando (www.kwando.co.za), although this would not be the opportune time to see the falls. December would also be great weather in Cape Town and even in high season you would be able to find very nicely priced reasonable accomodations. A true expert on Cape Town for suggestions would be Selwyn Davidowitz, who occasionally posts on this board, and is a personal tour guide in Cape Town (and a lifelong Capetonian). His website is:

www.ilovecapetown.com

He would be able to help you find some real hidden gems in Cape Town, and he would likely be able to refer you to a good safari operator, as well.

Best of luck with your continued planning!

Cape Town Question:

Out of curiosity, if you wanted to stay as close to possible to the Jackass penguins, where would that be?

Is there a hotel, motel, B&B, rooming house, etc. where you can walk over to where the penguins hang out?

Thanks if anybody has an answer!

Yes in Simonstown there is a few guesthouses, Just google bolders beach or simonstown guesthouses & I am sure you will find something.

My trip is not a group departure and the cost is per person.

Hello,

Asking how much a trip should cost is like asking how long a piece of string is...it all depends on your standard of accommodation (five-star, three-star, no-star) and where you want to go,

If you are trying to keep the cost down, I would recommend saving money on your city stay and splurging in your safari. Cape Town has many small B&Bs and guesthouses which offer very good value for money, and you will be able to enjoy everything Cape Town has to offer regardless of where you stay. Selwyn has some excellent recommendations.

For your safari, you are wise to choose the private game reserves, which while expensive on a per-night basis offer very good value for money -- accommodation, food, and excellent guiding are all included.

I've done several trips to SA of varying lengths, and cost has varied as widely as the length of the trip. As an example, a one-month trip in August 2004 (Cape Town, Garden Route, Panorama Route, and safari (Londolozi and Phinda) cost $6000 per person. My one week all-safari trip (Mala Mala, Singita, and Londoz) in SA in July 2006 would cost about the same amount at normal client rates (I'm an agent).

The Rand has strengthened considerably over the past two years, and prices rise on average about 10-15% per year, so that $6,000 2004 trip would probably cost about $10,000 today. It was about 1.5 weeks in Cape Town/Winelands; 1 week on the Garden Route; 4-5 days on the Panorama Route; 6 days on safari. I stayed primarily in smaller boutique hotels in Cape Town, the Winelands, and the Garden/Panorama Routes (with the occasional splurge at places like the Mount Nelson).

Cheers,
Julian

Hello,

Forgot to mention that travelling in August was one of the things that kept the trip cost so low in 2004 -- it's low season (winter) and particularly in Cape Town and the Garden Route there are a lot of very good accommodation deals. However, the weather wasn't ideal, so it's a trade off.

The weather at Phinda and Londoz was excellent, as was the game-viewing. I forgot to mention that I also stayed at Ngala for 1 night during that time due to availability problems at Londoz. I got a winter special at the safari lodges as well -- these are still a great deal, though much less common than they once were as SA becomes a more popular destination.

Cheers,
Julian

Thank you bots. Here 2 more questions. How far away are the penguins from Cape Town? Could you easily get to the great white shark trips from Boulders?

Thank you.

Lynn,

I did the penguin thing.....from CT. Not far at all (20 mins?).........they take you near the beach area and then you have a 10 min trek as that area is protected from vehicles. Then you just get up to the penguins and spend as much time there. Absolutely, can do the diving and penguin visit from your base in CT.

Hari

We spent 5 weeks in South Africa in 2004 but we didn't book through an agency - we planned our own itinerary after some extensive research (and dithering ) and we booked car rental and accommodations directly. The only exceptions were an internal flight in SA, a stay at a single Wilderness Safaris camp in Ndumo and flights from SA to Botswana which we booked through the agent dealing with our 3.5 weeks in Botswana and Namibia - these followed on from the 5 weeks in South Africa. Same agent booked the international air fare too.

The SA trip started with just under a week in Cape Town, then 3 nights in Franschhoek followed by just over a week along the Garden Route across to Addo. We stayed in lovely B&Bs (guesthouses) that I'd negotiated excellent rates with. At Addo we stayed in a large self-catering chalet and self-toured the park. That was 17 nights. Then we flew from Port Elizabeth to Durban and picked up another rental car. We spent another 17 days before dropping off the car at Jo'burg and flying to Botswana for the luxury portion of the trip. For these 17 nights we did self-drive, self-catering safaris in Hluhluwe, Imfolozi, Ithala and Kruger, a B&B in St Lucia and the WS camp in Ndumo.

Meant to add, don't have exact costs to hand anymore but average price per night for SA accommodation was £40 UK between the two of us including breakfast in the B&B places but self-catering in the parks.

Rental car hire was a larger expense than we'd expected on initial planning but at least it was offset by cheap price of petrol.

Thanks for the penguin advice, Hari!

We visited the Boulders Beach penguins too - we had a hire car so we scheduled one day for a self tour of the peninsula - we drove down the East side to the tip and back up the West side.

We missed the first turning into Boulders Beach - the one where the visitors centre and the main boardwalks are (but hadn't realised we'd done so) and took the second marked turning instead. This meant we had a lovely, quiet approach - firstly a beach with no other people on it and a few penguins pootling about and then we walked along a long path spotting several penguins along the way, many of which were nesting right next to the path, until we reached the visitors centre and main beach. We enjoyed that too but were overrun with a large and particularly loud and rude bus group which wasn't ideal but waited them out and were able to enjoy the penguins once they had left. But the first beach was more fun as there were no boardwalks and it was open to visitors to walk on the sand with the penguins themselves.

So we went, 2 weeks, SA, Namibia, Botswana - cost around $9K/pp, excluding international air.

Any chance of a report?

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35086423