South Africa - November, critique my plan.

Ahleckz

Ahleckz

Ahleckz

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Heading to South Africa in November, and looking for some help/critique of my plan. We love eating out, cocktails, beer, wine, nature, seafood, and moderate hikes. I've already got the safari booked, and flights booked, but just want to see if there's any opinion on my other plans. Welcome to hear about hotel recommendations, etc. I'm pretty set on the first week or so, which will be Cape Town and then Stellenbosch/Franschoek. But, I'm a bit muddled with what to do afterwards. I think I want to see some of the Garden Route but not really sure where and if I should be booking hotels in advance etc. Hotel budget is £200 max, per night. But, would prefer a few cheaper ones, and then splurge for Camps Bay & a nice night in wine country.

So, any tips on the below? Any good hotel tips? Particularly keen on nice ones in vineyards!

Tuesday 21st November - Sunday 24th November.
Stay in Cape Town. Looking at the 'Cape Heritage Hotel' as it seems like a great deal, and good location. Plan to just see the city, hike Lions Head and Table Mountain, Robben Island, Botanical Gardens, Bo Kaap, Cape Point, Boulders Beach, etc.

Monday 25th November
Drive to Franschoek/Stellenbosch. Stay somewhere near here.

Tuesday 26th November
Franschoek Wine Tram.

Wednesday 27th November
Relax (hangover) in wine country.

Thursday 28th - Saturday 30th November
Garden Route area. Maybe start at Harmanus, hopefully see some whales. Then move onto Wilderness for some canoeing. Perhaps stay at Plettenberg Bay. I'd like to do the bungee jump at Bloukrans bridge.

Sunday 1st December
Get back to Cape Town, and stay at Camps Bay (probably drive. Did think about flying back from George but think it's easier to drive).

Monday 2nd December
Flights booked to Skukuza for Safari. All the rest of this trip is planned. (Fly to Skukuza, 3 nights there and then fly back home from Jo'Burg).


@dlockers @Diddums - Hoping your local knowledge can help! But, welcome anyone...
 
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Not a saffer but had a great 2 weeks in SA before hitting Mauritius (or vice versa I forget).

The tram looked fun - I'd also consider the horse riding if you fancy it. You can book a horse that takes you to about 4 different vineyards. Super fun.

Botanical gardens was nice, so was boulders beach. Actual cape town just feels dangerous. Table mountain needs perfect weather otherwise you're just in a cloud.

Cape point was ok but a bit of a mission and not mega spectacular.
 
Ahleckz said:
Monday 2nd December
Flights booked to Skukuza for Safari. All the rest of this trip is planned. (Fly to Skukuza, 3 nights there and then fly back home from Jo'Burg).
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Where are you staying? We've stayed at Skuuza Rest Camp (and most of the main rest camps in Kruger) a couple of times and Skukuza is one of our favourites.

We're flying out to Johannesburg in about a month but rather than staying at the main Skukuza camp for our time in that part of the park there we're staying at Shalati. We'll be in one of the train carriages that you can see from the decking area outside of Cattle Baron.
 
the-evaluator said:
Where are you staying? We've stayed at Skuuza Rest Camp (and most of the main rest camps in Kruger) a couple of times and Skukuza is one of our favourites.

We're flying out to Johannesburg in about a month but rather than staying at the main Skukuza camp for our time in that part of the park there we're staying at Shalati. We'll be in one of the train carriages that you can see from the decking area outside of Cattle Baron.
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Staying at Notten's Bush Camp. I wanted to stay at Shalati, but she wanted a more 'authentic' experience for our first time.
 
doodah said:
Why thank you, off there ourselves a month later and needed some tips and guides, particularly around camps at Kruger - so many!
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Get your credit card, bank loan and lottery tickets out! I researched a lot, and found Nottens to be the best value for what I wanted and came in around £500pppn.
 
Ahleckz said:
Get your credit card, bank loan and lottery tickets out! I researched a lot, and found Nottens to be the best value for what I wanted and came in around £500pppn.
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Yeah I've been doing the knee exercises for bending over, we haven't even booked all of our hotels and have already spent a ton. Applying YOLO, won't get many chances to visit SA or go on a safari.

My limited research has this so far, haven't come across Nottens yet :).

Skukuza - the biggest park, like a small town with restaurants, shop, bank, spa, pools and lovely views. However it's busy, cramped and noisy
Satara - popular, smaller and quieter, has a fence line where some wild game will come up to. But camp a bit more basic and doesn't have a river view like Skukuza
Lower Sabie - lovely views and lots of options for accommodation, big with lots of amenities like Skukuza, in the middle of the best game viewing area (SE of Kruger). But busy and big, accommodation with the best views need to be booked a year in advance and lots of queues for the game drives
Berg-en-Dal (SW Kruger) - family friendly, large pool, walks/trails along fence line, theatre for wildlife films, a shop, large but quiet. But accommodation is more limited (get once with a fence view).
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doodah said:
My limited research has this so far, haven't come across Nottens yet :).
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I've never found any of the camps to be cramped or noisy but that might be down to the time of year I've been there. Out of the camps you mentioned, Lower Sabie is our favourite. The safari tents with a river view are our preferred unit. Restaurant is very good (as is Cattle Baron at Skukuza & Satara). Book game drives in advance, we saw lots of people checking in and asking to book a drive for that day or the following day only to be told they were fully booked.

We're heading back to Kruger early October and will be staying at Pretoriuskop, Satara, Olifants, & Lower Sabie. We're at Skukuza too but staying at Shelati rather than the main rest camp.

I see lots of negative comments about the accommodation on Facebook groups but I've never had cause to be unhappy. They've always been clean and functional. Basic but absolutely fine. There's something I really like about lying in bed and having the circular thatched roof above. Hopefully with no snakes in it!

Food is a bit variable. The Tindlovu restaurants are OK, not an amazing range of choice but the food is tasty enough.

On previous trips we've gone up north too, staying at Mopani, Letaba, Shingwedzi and Punda Maria. It's a lot quieter as you go up north both in terms of visitors and animal sightings. For this trip we decided to go no further north than Olifants and spent 3 days at each camp.

On our most recent trip (2022) we had a lot more power cuts due to load shedding, it's been a thing out there for eons but at Satara their generator wasn't too reliable so when the grid power was off there was no power. We ate dinner by mobile phone torch light.
 
So, plans changed a bit. Bit of a bump but Welcome any restaurant tips, tours, etc!
Fly into Cape Town. Few days there.
Fly to Pletenberg Bag for a few days. Bunjee jumping and horse riding.
Drive to Franschoek for two nights. Luxury, and fine dining for my birthday as well as wine tram!
Then Stellenbosch for two nights. Relaxation.
Back to Cape Town for a night.
Fly to Kruger, then Jo’Burg then home.
 
Ahleckz said:
So, plans changed a bit. Bit of a bump but Welcome any restaurant tips, tours, etc!
Fly into Cape Town. Few days there.
Fly to Pletenberg Bag for a few days. Bunjee jumping and horse riding.
Drive to Franschoek for two nights. Luxury, and fine dining for my birthday as well as wine tram!
Then Stellenbosch for two nights. Relaxation.
Back to Cape Town for a night.
Fly to Kruger, then Jo’Burg then home.
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For Cape Town, Foxcroft in Constantia. Beau Constantia has a great view and a tasting menu style restaurant. Constantia Glen also has a great view and their lamb flatbread thing is brilliant!

Depends on your vibe but I clearly love a good wine farm or two :D

TTK Fledglings is also quite popular.
 
I did an incredible trip in June to Cape Town at 2 different hotels (The Dock House and The Mount Nelson) for 7 nights then another 4 nights in Kruger at Kapama Karula which was, frankly, off the scale and one of the most impressive locations I've ever stayed and the safari a true special life memory.

In terms of taking the coast road, I would hire a car and driver (for us it was circa £100 for the day) and we got a local chap who knew everything and where to go and really made the road trip. Really enjoyed the roof bar of the Silo Hotel and in future I would stay there too, which though very toppy has incredible rooms and the best views in Cape Town.

See...bath and bed rooms and hotel only has 28 rooms
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Our car and driver, Lee was his name and he was ace!
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Did a wine tour here, it was superb and actually recommended by a wine buyer and author in the UK as "doing some really good stuff - new world".
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Food you will be spoilt as there are so many great value yet world class places to eat, you really struggle to go wrong. Drink and food always blow my mind in SA. Good and really really cheap. Clothes and watches however no more. I bought some very expensive watches for half UK prices in the past, now they are similar or even a touch more. Clothes like for like same or more.
 
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Ahleckz said:
Thanks Housey!
I forgot about the silo. Miles out my budget but I’ll definitely book the rooftop bar for an evening cocktail.
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It has an infinity pool on the roof. For some reason when we got there, they tried to entice us to stay and gave us a tour of their hotel, free champagne etc and then we spent a few hours on the roof and service was exceptional. Well worth the effort if weather is good.
 
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