Hi All

We have decided on South Africa and Maritus for our Honeymoon in Early September.

Our flights will fly us into Johanasburg and from there we will have either 8 or 10 Nights depending on $$ and some advise.

This is what I am thinking so far..

8 Nights
1 Nights Sun City??
3 Nights Kruger?
4 Nights Capetown?

OR
10 Nights
1 or 2 Nights Sun City? Depending on $$$$
3 Nights Kruger?
5 Nights Capetown? maybe have a night in the winelands??

I did have another option of maybe 2 nights in Vic falls at the start but it seems to expensive and may through our budget right out.. We will then be going straight to Mauritus from capetown for 9 Nights before heading back home.

Thanks for your help everyone!!

Rose

Rose,

Forget Sun city.......

Do Safari and cape town, including the wine lands/garden route for your 8 to 10 nights......

A minimum of 3 nights on safari at any of the private game reserves surrounding the Kruger area.....

Hari

Another vote to forget Sun City. Don't know from where you're traveling, but does "Las Vegas" sound familiar. Well, Sun City isn't quite "Sin City", but if looking for a place to relax after the long flights, spend it in the winelands and CPT, then safari in Kruger. I have to believe you're visiting South Africa for the beauty of the country and game, not gambling.

Make CPT your first stop for 4/days, where you can, if you wish o/n 1 or 2/nts in the winelands, 2/nts in CPT proper (or 4/days CPT, with day trip to the winelands) and then 4-5/days in Kruger split between two areas/camps/lodges. Then go off to the beach for R&R.

Hello Rose,

Another vote in favour of dropping Sun City. As Sandi said, it's basically an expensive Vegas version of Africa -- and when you're coming such a long way, wouldn't you rather see the real thing?

I'd definitely recommend staying in the Winelands rather than just doing a day trip, particularly if you enjoy food and wine -- a day trip just isn't enough to explore the area.

For your honeymoon I'd recommend looking at the Sabi Sands, the private game reserves adjoining Kruger, as mentioned by Hari. The lodges are exclusive and very luxurious, and the game-viewing is generally excellent. I've stayed at several reserves in the Sabi Sands and would recommend Mala Mala, Londolozi, and Singita.

Mala Mala is best for those for whom game-viewing is their top priority. The sightings and guiding are amazing. http://www.malamala.com

Londoz is wonderful for those who want a more rounded bush experience, and is known for its leopard sightings. http://www.londolozi.co.za

Singita combines ultimate luxury and service with excellent game-viewing. If I ever get married, I'm going to Singita for my honeymoon. http://www.singita.com

Something like this might work:

Cape Town x4
Winelands x2
Sabi Sands x4

With 8 days you could cut the Sabi Sands and Cape Town back to three days each.

Cheers,
Julian

Rose you have elected some great areas to visit, which I am sure will be a memorable honeymoon.

To keep the costs down it would probably be wiser to stay in the north west for your safari experience since I notice in both your options that you include Sun City.

I would look at the following routing:

Arrive in JNB, but continue straight on to Cape Town. On completion of the Cape fly to Sun City. In the past Nationwide Air fle from Cape Town to Sun City, however I am uncertain that this route is still flown, if not undoubtably you'll need to route through Johannesburg.

Sun City is just a few minutes drive from the Pilanesburg National park and about two hours drive from the Madikwe Game Reserve. I would suggest that instead of heading to the Kruger that you look for a safari experience in either of these two parks. In both there is great variety of accommodation and a range of prices to appeal to all budgets.

You could connect to Mauritius through Johannesburg. Madikwe Air has daily flights out of the game reserve, which get into Johannesburg. I am uncertain of the flight schedule out of the Pilanesburg (Sun City) airport back to Johannesburg, however the drive time from SC to JNB is close to a two hours.

Let me know if you need additional ideas on the routings etc.

Rose1979,

I am also one of those who would advise you to forget about staying at Sun City. Its a mini, mini Las Vegas that always has sun and a casino. It simply represents plastic glitz. I know the place like the back of my hand and I definitely would not recommend the experience to visitors to SA.

Sorry Mkhonzo I have to agree with Julians advice in a past mail somewehere else on this board when I say that I think Pilanesberg game park is a waste of time. I have been into the park on two occasions and I rate it as being a couple steps up from a zoo. I have never been to Madikwe so cant comment on this one but have read some great reports.

Rose1979 my feelings are equivalent to what Julian has suggested and that is that you give up on the Sun City idea and swop it for a day or two in the Cape Winelands. This plan of action would represent honeymooning of the highest order.

Hope you enjoy whatever you decide on doing when you visit our great country.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Selwyn,

If you compare the experience in the Pilanesburg with Singita and the likes, then YES you and JASHER make a sound point. HOWEVER after reading Roses post, she does not appear to be looking for a safari experience in the price range that can sustain 3/4 nights at Singita Londoz etc.
Her comment below, for me was telling. And in an attempt to assist her to a) make the budget work & b) allow her a tremendous safari experience I made my recommendations.

For now and in this post I do not stand in judgement of any reserve, but will disagree entirely with you and ASHER in that the P'berg is nowhere near a zoo. It is an entirely viable unsupported environment that hosts a broad spectrum of species including the rare and endangered wild dog, brown hyena, black rhino and others.

If she were to exclude Sun City, then I believe my advise would have been different. In this instance she appears to want to go there. Maybe she knows of its features, perhaps she enjoys the Vegas feel, I certainly never got the impression that you, asher sandi and others have, that she was questioning Scity...

just my thought, hope I have helped, Rose.

"I did have another option of maybe 2 nights in Vic falls at the start but it seems to expensive and may through our budget right out.."

Thanks everyone so far for your advise. I think we would forget about Sun City!! This may be a silly question but how would we get a transfer from Capetown to the Winelands and then back for our flight to Kruger? Are there buses that go there? Is it easy to get around the winelands without a car? Where would you stay there?

Thanks so much

You ask Selwyn. He is a driver in the western Cape and does exactly that.

Getting around the winelands "sans" wheels is not possible as the wineries are far apart.

The Kruger flight would require you being at the airport at aprriximately 11h00. Given the timing I would suggest that you either do the winelands as a daytrip from Cape Town as the estates are not much more than an hours drive from the city centre. Alternately head for the winelands getting there in time for a lunch, visit and taste wine in the afternoon, find a comfortable B&B for the night. Do a last stop at an estate before heading to the airport.

Latly the only busses that I know of that service the garden route are tour groups.

Rose1979,

I think your best bet transport wise if you visit the winelands is to hire a car at the airport and drive straight to the Stellenbosch region (35 minutes away). I also want to agree fully with Mkhonzo when he advises that you cant enjoy the winelands without wheels. Once you are in the winelands area you can explore the region to your hearts content and then either sleep over in the winelands at a great B&B or return to Cape Town to sleep in the city. Personally I would opt to sleep over in the winelands and my suggestion in this regard would be to sleep at Plumwood Inn and have dinner at Les Bon Vivant in Franschooek. These two experiences represent an evening never to be forgotten.

http://www.plumwoodinn.com/

http://www.ilovecapetown.com/plumwood/plumwood.htm

http://www.ilovecapetown.com/bv/bv.htm

Hope this helps.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Hi, Rose - we had the same sorts of ideas for our family holiday in July this year - and we have ended up with the following:

4 nights Cape town
5 nights garden route
3 nights safari in eastern cape [shamwari]

We fly into Cape town and out of Jo'burg, via Port Elizabeth.

If you could fly "open Jaw" into CPT and out of Jo,burg, that would make more sense. Otherwise, you can "do the garden route" in either direction, connecting via Port Elizabeth.

Makes more sense to do safari at the end of the trip IMO- either eastern cape or Kruger as you wish.

Good luck!

i second the person who segested malamala been there three times its the best