You don't need to pay for the optional excursions before you go, but I did all of them, including the Zambian ones and it came to about £600! If I remember rightly you can't pay by credit card when you are there, and you can only take so much rand into the country. However, we stopped frequently at ATMS. I would suggest that you book before you go on the ones you definitely know you want to do. If you are doing the Zambia add-on I can highly recommend the day trip to Botswana.

Enjoy!

Just a simple question. Do I need to book the optional excursions before I go or, a I've done before, can it be left until you get there.

Now I look at this post again it seems slightly odd.

What I'm getting at is, On my first JY trip a few people complained that they had pre-booked the optional excursions only to find if they had left it until the actual holiday and booked with the Tour Manager it was cheaper. So, ever since then I have booked optional excursions with the Tour Manager while on holiday. But!!!!. as you are limited to the amount of money (Rands 5000) you can take into South Africa it occurs to me it would be better to pre-book excursions before going instead of having to use my money up to pay for them while there. Just a thought!!! I'm not going til October but I like to be prepared.