SA Car Hire: 200km/day or unlimited mileage?
 

PLEASE HELP!

I am trying to work out whether 200kms/ day will be enough or whether we'll be better of choosing the unlimited mileage option. The advantage of 200kms/day option is that the excess payable in case of accident is much lower for some reason.

This is what we're doing:

23-May Arrive Durban and drive to Ballito
24-May Ballito to 2 nts Umfolozi
26-May Umfolozi to 1 nt Ubizane
27-May Ubizane to 3 nts St Lucia
30-May St Lucia to 2 nts Ndumo
01-Jun Ndumo to 3 nts Ithala
04-Jun Ithala to 1 nt Berg en Dal
05-Jun Berg en Dal to 3 nts Olifants
08-Jun Olifants to Jo?burg, return car that evening and fly next morning

That's 17 days of hire with the above itinerary. Where we're staying put we'll still be driving ourselves on game drives except for at Ndumo where we won't drive at ALL between arriving and leaving.

I have a good map but am still struggling.

Thanks for any help

Kavey

Dear Kavey,

If I would be you, I would take the unlimited mileage option for the reason, with the 200km free, that could get very expensive, should you exceed that. Have a look at this webpage: www.africarhire.com
They also have unlimited mileages.

I hope that helps?!
Enjoy your holiday in South Africa!

Thanks Stern!

i'm probably coming in too late in this conversation, but I agree that you should go with unlimited mileage.... Last year around June I went to Hluhluwe, Ithala, Durban etc and we racked up the miles...(i should change my name from safari newbie...it's not very correct). THe roads were also terrible in places and we busted a tire and rim- NOT normally covered in car insurance (small print), so we were obliged to buy a brand new rim from the car hire company National (400$)....Put a bit of a dent (don't mind the pun) in our hols...

By the way, Ithala was very cool, we had the whole place to ourselves. Didn't see as many animals as Hluhluwe, but that's a give there....

I have booked the car for the Durban to Jo'berg segment already now and did indeed go for unlimited mileage and also for super cover for theft and damage though that still won't cover gravel roads and since most roads in reserves are gravel...

:(

I still need to book car hire for the Cape Town to Port Elizabeth segment.

On the plus side we just received confirmation that we did get our reservation at Thalu Bush Camp in Ithala - they don't take bookings till 3 months before hand so we'd originally booked a regular chalet in main camp and put ourselves on the waiting list. Thalu is a private camp which means we get it ALL to ourselves...

:D

I know Ithala has less dense game populations and viewing is less than elsewhere but the landscape itself looks breathtaking...

Can't wait!

Well I too am in the midst of the joy of booking a car for both our Joburg-Kruger and our Cape Town legs of our holidays. What the heck is a Toyota Condor anyway???

A mistake I made last year was to not waive the collision and theft insurance: my American Express and Visa cards have this coverage for car rentals- are you doing the same? Saves a bit of money if the coverage is good. Last year we were a bit stressed about the no gravel road clause as well and there really is no getting around driving on gravel roads, so we just crossed fingers and drove slowly.....(the rim damage happened on a highway with a HUGE pothole near Piet Retief- KZN is full of them....)....we brought the car back filthy as could be and they didn't care about that.

I love Ithala, the staff there really are excited about visitors! Hilltop is great as well.....I hope that Kruger park public lodgings are as nice as the KZN lodgings....The only thing we suffered a bit from was being COLD....I ended up buying a scarf and a hat...