South Africa: My opinion of South Africa

For 3 weeks we travelled around South Africa with our family.

If you’ve been able to find many photo reports on milesopedia about our accommodations or the airport lounges we visited, and Audrey’s detailed accounts of our daily life, I thought it would be useful to share with you my opinion of this country and its discovery with our children.

First of all, a few words on the diversity of landscapes offered by South Africa.

We spent a week visiting the Kruger Park region. Initially, this area was not in our plans for several reasons, mainly because of our 2 and 4 year olds:

• Lots of time in the car
• Unsuitable visiting hours for the little ones (sunrise / sunset)
• Lodges that do not accept children under 12 years old.

But a friend of ours said: if you don’t go to Krüger, you haven’t seen South Africa! And other friends who had been there with the children encouraged us to go anyway.

And we did the right thing! The landscapes – and the species encountered – were simply fantastic.

Of course, we had to adapt. Contrary to Gab, a member of the facebook group, we could not sleep in the Park and we could not get up at 4am to watch all the show proposed by the fauna.

But we were still able to share memories as a family: seeing my son get excited at the sight of a baby elephant at his window and saying “Baby” or my daughter telling me that she dreamt of the Giraffe seen “in South Africa”, it is priceless!

We haven’t been on private reserve, but I think that’s something we’ll do in the future when the children are older.

If there is one day of driving that I enjoyed the most – despite its length – it was the one between Phalaborwa and Kruger Gate. We did it in the opposite direction (North-South) of the majority of tourists (who generally leave Nelspruit to the North).

All the stops interested our children, and here are some pictures to give you an idea:

Change of scenery on the Cape Town side. We had rented a house for 3 days in Noordhoek Beach.

Between sea and mountains, beaches as far as the eye can see, it is incredible to think that we are at the southern tip of Africa.

What would a trip to South Africa be without a trip through the vineyards between Franschhoek and Stellenboch?

There too, breathtaking landscapes, with vineyards as far as the eye can see, between valleys and mountains.

We only spent 3 days there, and we promised ourselves we’d go back on a future trip (maybe without the kids to fully enjoy the tastings? )!

Cape Town is a favorite. Define it for North Americans? A mixture of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

San Francisco:

• For its steep streets
• His life around the ocean
• An active waterfront (more beautiful than Fisherman’s Wharf)
• A beautiful culinary diversity
• The sealions
• Proximity to the vineyards (20-30 minutes)
• But also the apparent poverty in the heart of the centercity

Los Angeles:

• A waterfront with Santa Monica or Malibu sides
• Villas in Beverly Hills
• Luxury cars
• A sprawling suburban area… and poor

As for Johannesburg, a city built on the lure of profit for precious metals where living conditions are difficult (it is the largest city around the world that is not located on the banks of a river or an ocean, which is at a high altitude and has a harsh climate).

What about the millions of people living in slums, or the ultra-secure, landlocked areas of the city, giving the impression that apartheid is not so far behind us.

I really don’t recommend this town. Audrey made the right description in the forum.

First thing that amazed me: the quality of the roads. You might say: easy when you’re from Quebec! But most of the time, the roads were a real “pool table”!

But it can be surprising in some places to see this billiard table turn into a dirt road!

You won’t find a better way to discover the city than on CitySightseeing’s famous red buses.

We used our HSBC World Elite^® Mastercard to pay no foreign currency conversion fees and benefit from a nice 20% discount via the website – by paying with a Mastercard – which was available when we visited!

Twice we used Mango (which is the low-cost version of South African Airways).

No problems with baggage check-in (included in our rates) and punctuality – despite flights at the end of the day.

The airports of Johannesburg and Cape Town have several lounges, which I have photo-reported here for domestic flights :

• Review Bidvest Sky Lounge – Johannesburg
• Review Bidvest Premier Lounge – Cape Town

Use one of the Canadian credit cards that offer access to Priority Pass or Loungekey lounges, like the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card!

For accommodation in South Africa, we have mainly used our Marriott Bonvoy points as there are many hôtels de catégorie 1 to 4: Protea, African Pride and AC Hotels.

You can find all our photo reports in the articles below:

We used our Marriott Bonvoy points almost all the time on this trip, which confirms the accuracy of the theoretical calculations I mentioned in this article on accommodation with Marriott Bonvoy points in South Africa!

To earn points, the best solution is to subscribe to the Marriott BonvoyTM American Express^MD Card, whose current offer is this one:

In December 2019, the weather often played tricks on us. Our first 3 days were rainy: a blessing for the people of the Kruger Park region who rarely saw this at this time of year with temperatures 15 degrees below normal. But from a tourist point of view, it was less that!

But what a joy it is to find the sun – and the warmth, at times!

In the Cape Town area, the mercury rarely exceeded 20 degrees (instead of the usual 30 degrees) and we will have to wait until our last day to reach 30 degrees (and see that the next 15 days were going to be the same ☹).

Would I take the same trip with children? I think if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t go to the Krüger. Maybe the weather didn’t help, but there were often long hours of driving without seeing many animals. It’s hard on the kids.

Instead, I would choose to do the Garden route (which was originally on the program), which is more suitable, with more stops and fewer kilometers. And we would have gone to different parks (or even private reserves) in the South.

Otherwise, Cape Town is perfect for children, as is the Cape of Good Hope region:

As well as the vineyards which are practically all equipped with playgrounds:

I only withdrew the equivalent of $200 for our 3 weeks there. All the rest of our expenses were charged to the credit card.

For this trip, as explained in my article on logistics, I mainly use credit cards to pay.

So, most of the time, I used my HSBC World Elite Mastercard, which has no conversion fees. And since it’s a Mastercard, it’s accepted everywhere.

And when it was accepted in restaurants (1 time out of 2, I’d say), I used my American Express CobaltTM Card to earn 5 points per dollar).

In addition, all grocery stores accept American Express (Spar, Checkers, Pick n Pay (PnP)): 5 points per dollar on my American Express CobaltTM Card!

What also struck me in South Africa: the barbed wire. All the houses are protected, not only by high walls, but also by barbed wire and even electric fences.

This may indeed shock some North Americans who are not used to it. Being also a European, I may also have this vision of protection that we have in Europe.

But the barbed wire and electric fences are a reminder that South Africa is still a dangerous country, whose past is still firmly anchored in all memories.

It is not uncommon for ATMs to be guarded so that you don’t get robbed.

It is also not uncommon to see areas that are completely enclosed, such as war zones. For example, here is the impressive grid of the Melrose Arch enclave in Johannesburg:

Here’s some safety rules to follow :

• Do not wear jewellery or personal effects of any value so as not to attract attention.
• Lock your car doors at all times. It is sometimes difficult to assess whether you are in a secure area or not. We’re not taking any chances.
• Do not get out of the car, whether the scenery is beautiful or not, if you are the only tourist in the area.
• Provide a backup wallet with some expired card s (milesopedian tip), some small bills and card from an inactive hotel room to give if you are to be robbed.
• Never hitchhike a stranger to the side of the road.
• Know the address of the Canadian embassy or local police in case you need to contact them.
• Watch out for monkeys. Very smart and fast, they will steal as soon as you get out of your car!

As Audrey mentioned in the forum, our last day in the Cape Town area did not go as planned. As we were coming back from the Stellenbosch area to catch our flight at the airport in Cape Town, we decided to make a one-hour detour by road to the seaside so that our children could take a nap in the car on the way.

We walked along the shantytowns for several kilometres, then we reached the seaside with magnificent landscapes… and isolated. And at one point (also indicated on Google Maps and well noted), I decided to stop.

My mom and Audrey went downstairs to take pictures while I stayed in the car with the kids. Then when they came back, I decided to go and make a video. It was a good thing: a man came out of nowhere, started running towards me and then pointed a gun at me, asking me a simple question: “Give me your phone”. I naturally gave it to him and he ran off again through the dunes towards the slums.

Shortly afterwards, police officers on patrol in the area told me that there was nothing they could do: slums are lawless zones and the police do not set foot in them. Their only advice is to press charges. Not wanting to miss our flight, we went to the airport (having of course disabled my iPhone remotely through Audrey’s).

This is a moment of recklessness that could have had more serious consequences and I would like to remind you to be careful if you are planning to travel to this country.

I certainly didn’t get back the full value of this camera, nor the pictures of our last day in the vineyards… but I’m alive.