Anyway, I had to write out all the details of our Africa trip for a dear friend who is contemplating planning his own trip, and I figured I'd share it here. Obviously, this would be a much better post if I were sharing pictures. Maybe I'll get motivated and do that at some point.
In case anyone else is planning non-tour trip around Southern Africa, here's what we did. I will say at the outset that it was our most expensive trip ever. In Europe, there are hotels for $30 per night, and hotels for $500 per night (and of course often many options well above that). And in most places, there are plenty of options in between at pretty much any given price point. It's like that in Cape Town, but in some of the places we spent time which were much more rural, there are pretty much three options -- about $20 per night, about $400 per night, or about $1200 per night. Ugh. So while in Europe with hotels we maybe average $120 per night, in Africa (aside from the big cities), we were averaging over $400 per night.
So here goes, rough notes on how we did our first joint Africa trip. Oh yes, we are 100% going back. First place other than Italy that we are constantly talking about trying to figure out how soon we can get back there (Nepal was briefly in that category, we'd like to return there too, but wow, Africa did it for us).
Countries: Qatar (long layover), South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia. Info, prices was for what we did in October 2018. In terms of seeing animals, I would probably drop Eswatini and Mozambique and spend more time in Botswana and Namibia.
We flew on Qatar Airways, DFW to Doha, Doha to Cape Town. Flights for both of us, with trip insurance, was $3515.
Landed in Cape Town on a Sunday late morning and our hotel had a driver that picked us up. We actually stayed in something that was more like an apartment or VRBO. Here’s the link: https://www.dewaterkantcottages.com/home/index.asp (although we booked it through hotels.com). We liked the neighborhood where it was a lot, very walkable, lots of cute restaurants, a yoga studio, easy access to the waterfront, which was a nice place to run.
In Cape Town, I did a running tour (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g312659-d3948524-Reviews-Run_Cape_Town-Cape_Town_Central_Western_Cape.html).
On the running tour, we ran Lion’s Head
(around it, not up it). No idea on the price on that either, it was
also my birthday present. Also in Cape Town, we walked around a bunch of the neighborhoods
(Bo Kaap, downtown, the waterfront, etc.).
We went up Table Mountain.
It was gorgeous at the bottom, but cloudy and cold at the top. We walked around a little and got in line to
ride back down, but then the clouds miraculously cleared so we got out of line
and took a bunch of spectacular pictures.
We also went to the District Six Museum, learned a lot about apartheid
and Cape Town. The thing I most wish we’d done in the Cape Town area was
Robben Island. Unfortunately, you need
to book tickets more than a week in advance.
Oops. Live and learn. We’ll see it next trip.
We were able to walk from our apartment to a rental car
place (might have been Enterprise, it was definitely a US company). We rented a car and drove down to Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. We did some walking/hiking and it was so
beautiful. Then we went to the area
around Boulders Penguin Colony. The guy
who was my running guide (Leo) had told me we should skip Boulders and instead
go to Shark Warriors and take a tour with them (https://www.sharkwarrior.com/adventure-centre/). We did the Penguin Walking Tour and it was
great. We learned a lot about the Cape
penguins, how they track them, protection efforts, etc.
We also got a driver for one day to go to Stellenbosch to go
to a few of the wineries. Driver was Yousef
Khan, comment if anyone needs his number. He was really
nice, it was interesting to hear his experience as a South African with parents
who came from India. Lots of people in
Africa use Whatsapp to communicate, which is free. Stellenbosh is very
different from most of the rest of the country in terms of how it feels. It
was pretty, looks a lot like other wine country (California, Toscana,
Argentina, etc.). Wine tasting is wine tasting, so of course this was a great day.
We left Cape Town (4 nights there I think?),
flew to Johannesburg (flight was $210 total for both of us), picked up a rental
car (we rented through Drive South Africa since we were returning in another
country, although the side of the care said it was through Britz
(www.britz.co.za)), made a supply stop at a grocery store, and headed out of
town immediately. Rental car was $1320,
I think there were cheaper options, but since we were returning in another country,
it was pretty much our only choice. The vehicle
was great, and they made sure we had everything we needed for each country
where we were driving (like in Mozambique you have to have two glow triangles
and a safety vest, etc.). They also did
a big session on how to change a tire and stuff, but we never had any issues
with the car. We drove to our game lodge
in the Kruger area. The drive was
highway, good roads, pretty views. I
think it was about 5 hours?
In the Kruger area, we stayed at Elephant Game Lodge (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g312616-d12829406-Reviews-Elephant_Game_Lodge-Hoedspruit_Limpopo_Province.html) (https://www.safarinow.com/go/elephant-lodge-balule-private-reserve/) booked
on hotels.com again, it was $1300 for four nights). We loved it.
Run by two Italians, breakfast and dinner included, and they arrange
activities as requested. They also
basically cook to order, so it was easy to be a vegetarian who doesn’t love
tomatoes and can’t eat nuts. The one
thing we wished we’d known was the price of wine – we knew it wasn’t included
and probably would have drank more if we’d known how cheap it was… (Ha,
because they asked us for feedback, we also indicated facial tissue would be
nice to have in the rooms instead of just the common area, we were really at a
loss for anything to suggest.) We did an
open air drive around the private reserve where the game lodge is one day,
we did full day game drives in Kruger (and we saw the big 5 twice!, thanks to our awesome guide Bogani), we did a boat ride and night game drive (didn’t see much on the night
game drive, but as with all safaris, it’s not a zoo, it’s total luck of the
draw), and I want to say we did a day or two just hanging around the lodge. We also just went driving the
picturesque route on our own one day (stopped at the Three Rondavels, a
waterfall, etc.). The game lodge only
has about 5 rooms I think and a great couple who lives there as permanent
caretakers (the Italians live in the nearby city, Hoedspruitt, when there aren’t
any guests). We were the only guests
when we were there, so it was fun to have them eat with us every night.
From the Elephant Game Lodge, we
drove to Phophonyane Falls Eco Lodge (https://phophonyanelodge.squarespace.com/) in eswatini (the country formerly known as
Swaziland). This was Aimee's (https://amazinginmotion.blog/) recommendation and it was a total win. Border crossing (which we did
at Barberton) was easy. Roads were
pretty bad after we crossed the border for maybe the last hour or so of the
drive. The lodge was near Piggs Peak and
that’s a kind of remote part of the country and really the only bad roads we
encountered the whole trip. We did a lot
of relaxing at Phophonyane. I went on a
pretty run. We hiked to the nearby
waterfall. One day we drove into the capital
(Mbabane, the M is silent) to look around and have lunch.
From there, we drove to Maputo in Mozambique. We liked the city a lot. Stayed at the Southern Sun Hotel, which is
right on the water ($475 for two nights).
The hotel is pretty big and didn’t have much character, but from our
room, you could look right out at the water and open the back door to walk
out. The nice thing about the big hotel
was there was plenty of English-speaking staff.
We didn’t really have any language trouble there though with drivers,
restaurants, etc. The city was not as
walkable as we would like, but we didn’t have trouble getting around (we didn’t
drive much there, just didn’t want to deal with navigating, parking, etc.). Just did the typical stuff, looking at
churches, exploring the fort there, wandering around. We dropped off our car before leaving
Maputo.
From Maputo, we
flew to Inhambane, it was a small plane and we actually had a stop in Vilankulos,
but we stayed on the plane (so we actually flew pretty far north from Maputo,
and then came back halfway south to go to Inhambane, but that’s just the flight
route, so nonstop from Inhambane back to Maputo). Inhambane was our splurge of the trip. We stayed at a place called the Massinga
Beach Lodge (booked it on hotels.com, it was $840 for the two nights (likely
depends on the time of year)). Aimee's choice again, and wow, she knows how to pick hotels!!! I don’t
remember if it included dinners and drinks, but we loved it there. We didn’t do anything except hang out at the little
dive pool and walk on the beach and hang out at the pool along the beach. We stayed in our own little villa and slept
with the wall to the ocean open (no predator cats there, they don’t live in the
salty air). They picked us up and
dropped us off at the hotel. The owner was
from South African and so nice. I feel bad not writing more about it, but it was low key and amazing.
From Inhambane, we flew back to Johannesburg (via Maputo
connection) (flights cost $425 for the two of us). If we had more time, we would have driven and
just returned the car there. In Johannesburg,
we stayed at the Radisson Blu Gautrain in Sandton. The location was great, but we did not like
the hotel (there’s another Radisson less than a block away, it might have been
better). Food at the restaurant was not
great (we landed late and just didn’t want to go out), there was only one
towel, you couldn’t turn off the bathroom light, and a bunch of other things we
just didn’t enjoy. We got picked up the
next morning by a driver that Yousef from Cape Town had recommended. Our driver in Jozi was Sipho Gate, and he was nice and knowledgeable (again, let me know if you need his number). He took us to Mandela’s Jozi
house, and then to Soweto, where we went around the township. We saw Tutu’s house, learned a lot
there. Also went to the Apartheid
Museum, and then to the building called the Top of Africa (the tallest building
in Africa, only about 50 floors up and the windows were not super-clean, but it
was still a fun short stop). If we’d had
another day, we wanted to go out to the Cradle of Humanity, but we didn’t have
time. We weren’t wild about the city of
Johannesburg. It was crowded and our
hotel told us not to go walking for dinner even though it was just about 2
blocks away – I think if we’d been comfortable exploring the city on foot, we
would have enjoyed it more. But it was
only two nights ($250 total), and we had really wanted to go to Soweto and to
the Apartheid Museum, and both of those stops were definitely worth it.
From Jozi, we flew to Livingstone Zambia (flights were $350
for the two of us). We stayed at the Avani
Game Lodge, which was very nice ($1300 for four nights, and I don’t think this
included anything other than breakfast, but I’m not sure). Driver from hotel picked us and many others
up in a minibus; Avani is a big hotel is on the same property as a ritzier
lodge (the Royal Livingstone, they’re jointly owned, we stayed at the cheaper
one, but easy to run or walk to the Royal Livingstone for drinks on their
veranda with views of the top of the falls, etc., although some of the
activities left from Avani). There were
tons of organized activities to choose from (Bushtracks Africa is the company
that does the activities, transport shuttles, etc.). We got the Kaza visa, which allows unlimited
border crossings between Zambia and Zimbabwe (about $50, got it at the
airport), and allows day trips into Botswana.
I was able to run in the area because there aren’t any big cats, but
there ARE elephants! We ate at the hotel
for dinner a couple times, but eventually branched out and just took a cab into
town for some dinners. The activities were pricey, I
think we spent about $1200 on activities through the hotel… oops.
But we loved the stuff we did. We
rented bikes one day and rode into Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (we brought our
own biking shorts and gloves, they had helmets, we just wore tennis shoes). We did a fair amount of hiking, walking around
the area (including crossing the border on foot a couple times, very easy). We got to swim in Devil’s Pool, which is on
the edge of Victoria Falls. All the people we met in Livingstone (whether at the hotel or in town) were great. Everyone speaks English, and most people were so open to talking to us, answering all our questions about their lives, thoughts, etc. We kind of talk about moving to Zambia now.
From Avani, we went to Botswana and started with safari in Chobe. Tons of elephants, better view of lions, so
many animals. But wow, the elephants were what stuck out. We were close to them, there were so many, and wow, they were beautiful. We also did some time on the water, got very close to hippos, etc. Spectacular.
And from Botswana, we went to Namibia. Also great, and somewhere we did not have enough time. Need to update this with the details, but right now, I'm not even finding our hotel info... I wrote the above within a couple months of getting back, but I kind of dropped off figuring I'd update it later. Either way, suffice it to say, we have so much more to explore in both of these countries.
Trip back was umm, long. I think it was about 36 hours (could
have been 39, I actually don’t remember) from the time we got into the shuttle
to go to the airport until the time we unlocked our front
door. Packing list included safari hat, bug spray, binoculars, and
then pretty much the usual. Between
credit cards and ATM visits, we spent about $4500. That does not count about $550 that we spent
on shots/meds (hepatitis, typhoid (I was current, husband needed), tetanus, and
malaria (I took the pills, husband opted out).
Not sure any of the shots/meds were necessary but it was what we
chose. So yes, trip was very pricey, but since we booked some of our hotels in advance, we were able to spread out the costs over about four months (we bought plane tickets in early June I think, and then it was just periodic hotel choices until we flew out at the end of September).
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