Holiday in South Africa at Christmas time... any advice on what to do?

Check out sasafari dot com they have all kinds of ideas of things t do and see and have a representative based here in Dubai you could chat to. Its a beautiful country and you must make the most of your stay there! Good luck with the planning!

SA Babe you'd do well in the travel business :D. Thanks for the travelstart link. Due to my uber-efficient HR team (not), I'll be making last minute bookings and travelstart offers a variety of options. Baie dankie!!!

Ahh Ladies - nobody is more homesick than me right now ... Would have ran to SAA & got my ticket but pregnant with DD and a very active DS running around ... I'm gonna have to wait till dec! Some useful links to our visitors tho Mangwanani - you must & mean must go here ... truly amazing african spa ! http://www.mangwanani.co.za/pages/default.asp I havent used the places below - but i know of friends you listed their furnished apartment in them http://www.wheretostay.co.za/ http://www.sa-venues.com/ Good for finding & comparing flights prices - including flights on the low cost carriers like kulula, 1time & mango www.travelstart.co.za Well these are all the insider bits I can remember .... when i grow big i want to swap engineering for something in travel and tourism

SA babe that video has made me look forward to our trip even more!! Going to see the in laws so will be in CT for 2.5 weeks. Wine tasting and walks on the beach are high on my list as always. I agree with most posters, skip J'burg if you can especially with children. There are also a couple of nice game parks closer to CT. Some friends of mine have visited them and they had a really good time. http://www.buffelsfontein.co.za/home.html

Beautiful video, thanks SA babe now I am missing home more

Wow SA Babe you done the country proud. :cool:

SA really is a world in one country I love cape town - table mountain hiking, awesome drive around the mountain on chapmans peak, the most amazing freah seafood in hout bay,wine tasting in spier wine estate, or you could make a day of trolling the wine farms in stellenborch, swimming with the dolphins in boulders beach( but you need to get there early it fills up quicky - then beach access is closed) - but also remember most of cape town has the cold atlantic ocean so a bit on the COLD side. I love Cape town because it is probably the safest part of SA where all year round the province seems to be on holiday! .... basically the pace of life is chilled.... Its also the place we go to for holidays but I'm sure loats of ppl will tell you about cape town so I'll try to tell you quickly about the other places JHB - most south african's go there to work so very fast paced but becomes a sleepy town in Dec cos almost everybody heads to the coast ..... places that are worth going to in and around JHB is .... sun city & the valley of the lost city (the original version of Atlantis ... in my version anyway ...same developer ), The Lion Park, The Emarald casino on the vaal. JHB was our home for 5 years and we loved it - but if you have limited time in SA I would recommend a miss and head straight to the coast. There are a few small private reserves you pass whilee driving from JHB to DBN that i would recommend cos they really have the personal touch - and would give you more of a local experience - penwarn ( out really in the middle of the mountains - we had a cabin that overlooked a little lake with lots of animals bird etc was lovely) ........Wynford farm (www.wynford.co.za)- run by a lovely family - thier rates include all meals and the traditional 3pm tea with lovely south afican home made goodies. And the last major city/province in SA - Durban - My hometown :) Usually the place where all the locals or rather those working in JHB go to for Dec holidays Durban has great beaches where you can swim (warm indian ocean), I'd recommend Breakers hotel, in umhangla - they have loads of kids activities and located next to a nature reserve where you can do a bit of hiking before reaching a private beach - that is popular with sunbathers that want a bit of peace and quite. As a kid we used to go to Mitchell park - has an amazing Zoo (acess to the park is free), and Japanese gardens & botanical gardens - beautiful gardens which the best picnic spots . A nice water park in durban is Ushaka St Lucia wetlands is not too far away - with all sort of amazing wildlife. And in between is Itala game reserve where you can do some game drives. Oh and an absolute absolute must do - is try out mangwanani day spa - a full day including meals and unlimited beverages - and 7 spa treatments --- they have branches all over SA and thier rates approx 800AED PER COUPLE! And a really good really inexpensive resturant serving amazing seafood is OCEAN BASKET Below is a video showing bits of SA.... the background music is by an artist mandoza .... listening to this music and watching this video.... thinking about mangwanani & ocean basket .... I think i am also gonna go home this dec! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMP28f1sBG0

Remember December is peak summer holiday season in SA, so please book in time. My suggestion would be: Fly to Cape Town, spend a few days there and then rent a car and travel down the Garden Route towards George/Knysna area. You can then either travel further towards PE or fly to Jhb and transfer to a game park. Kruger Park is a self-drive game park. I would suggest go for a private game park adjacent to the Kruger Park where you will be driven by a ranger. (In the Kruger Park you have to stick to the roads, on a private park the ranger can go into the bush to follow the animals) Remember the northern parts of the country is very hot that time of year. You can then fly back to CT and home. If you want to do something different you can go to Natal and the Drakensberg, do some hiking, etc. There are some lovely game parks in Natal too. Just very hot and humid. Remember the game park areas are malaria country, so take precaution. South Africa is really a world in one country, so tailor it to suit your needs and interests. Enjoy. (If I can add something more: I think March/April is a better time of year to go. Not so hot any more and not the main tourist season...) Enjoy!!

We flew to Cape Town and had 4 nights, then flew to Joburg and transfered to Madikwe River lodge, up on the border of Botswana. We had 3 nights here at the game park. We actually had christmas day at the game reserve and had such a great time. Our children were the same age as your when we did it and they loved it. We then had 1 night in Joburg before returning to Dubai. We only had 9 days but could have easily stayed longer. Would have have loved to drive the garden route. We chose Madikwe as I didn't want to give the children the Malaria tablets (personal choice). <em>edited by TimTam on 07/07/2011</em>

I'm sure where ever you end up you will all have an amazing time but apart from wanting to be closer to the bush is there a reason you have chosen to base yourselfs in Jberg instead of heading further down to the coast? Cape Town is just AMAZING especially during that time of year. There are so many nice beaches as you drive out of town and so much for the kids to do, like sun bathing with the penguins at Simons Town! Or you could head in land to the wine routes. Anyways, from Jburg you could rent a car and drive up to the Kruger National Park and see the big 5! there are different types of accommodation to choose from. Check this site out http://www.krugerpark.co.za/ yeh i agree go to cape town, we did that and we actually flew into jburg then out to george and then drove along to cape town, stayed in simons town just down the road from the penguins and then we drove back towards george and past it to stay in plett bay. lots to do, we did the zip wire thingy and the kids enjoyed it, went on an atv safari and saw most of the big animals including lions etc. just remember if you go to kruger i think you need to take malaria pills.

Just wanted to add that the drive is around 450 to 500km so you would have to decide if you wold like to spend a day driving there and back, otherwise you can fly!

I'm sure where ever you end up you will all have an amazing time but apart from wanting to be closer to the bush is there a reason you have chosen to base yourselfs in Jberg instead of heading further down to the coast? Cape Town is just AMAZING especially during that time of year. There are so many nice beaches as you drive out of town and so much for the kids to do, like sun bathing with the penguins at Simons Town! Or you could head in land to the wine routes. Anyways, from Jburg you could rent a car and drive up to the Kruger National Park and see the big 5! there are different types of accommodation to choose from. Check this site out http://www.krugerpark.co.za/