Hi Gillian

I've just booked this trip for 27th Sept next year (such a long time to wait!). Were you able to pay for all your excursions at the beginning of the holiday? I recently went to Australia and got a cash passport like you, but ended up withdrawing the whole lot on the first day to pay for the trips!

It sounds like a great holiday, thanks for your feedback.

Sally

Hi Sally,

Our tour manager Tammy was happy for us to pay for all the trips at the beginning or bit by bit as we went. I used the Rand I had taken with me to pay for these right at the start and like you, drew most of the money from my Cash Passport on the first day [in Cape Town]. Drawing large sums means less fees and less trips to the ATMs. Please don't go to the ATM alone, this was never a problem as everyone helped eachother and there were ATMs almost everwhere we went. Tammy pointed them out at each place we stopped.

The holiday was wonderful, I would recommend it to everyone.

If you think of anything else I would be happy to help.

Kind regards

Gillian

All the best,

Bob

I've just booked this trip for 27th Sept next year (such a long time to wait!). Were you able to pay for all your excursions at the beginning of the holiday? I recently went to Australia and got a cash passport like you, but ended up withdrawing the whole lot on the first day to pay for the trips!

It sounds like a great holiday, thanks for your feedback.

Sally

I came back from this WONDERFUL holiday 2 days ago. You are in for a really wonderful time. I took 5000 Rand with me but all of this was used paying for the optional trips, by the way the trips were well worth every penny/rand! So I also took a Cash Passport Card with me, there various ones available. It was pre loaded with Rand before I went, this gave me a better exchange rate and I went to an ATM in Cape Town to withdraw Rand. The card could be used like a Mastercard to pay for items with no fee and there was a small fee, I think about £2 to withdraw from an ATM. So I withdrew most of my Rand in Cape Town and just a few more towards the end of the holiday. There were ATM's almost everywhere we went. By the way it is best to cash any money left on the card and close the card when you get back as my card has inactivity fees to pay if you just hold on to it but no further fees if you close it. There was very little paper work to open it and it has no connection to your bank account. As others have said, don't go alone to ATM's.

I hope you have a fantastic time, I'm sure you will.

I would be glad to help if you think of anything else.

Kindest regards

Gillian

Hope you have a fantastic holiday, I did!

All the best,

Bob

I would take sterling to avoid paying more for exchange than you really need to.

Another option is to withdraw cash from ATMs using your debit card (let your bank know if you plan to do this) or one of the pre-paid cash cards you can get nowadays. This way you will have as much local currency as you need and won't have to carry too much cash around.

Kind regards,

Olly, your editor

Hi Olly

Other than taking cridit cards what other currency would you recommend to take as well as 5,000 SA rand.

Brian

You can take up to 5,000 South African Rand plus an unlimited amount of sterling, although if you are taking a very large amount, this should be declared.

So far 22 people have booked this trip.

Kind regards,

Olly, your editor

Brian