Hi Linda,
I did this tour two years ago and it was my best holiday ever! The itinerary has changed a bit since I did it, but essentially it is still the same. There are a couple of reviews of this tour in the Reviews section and I put up a thread on the Share your Travel Tips section. I've copied the first post here for you and I hope it's of some help. You have made a great choice with this holiday and I hope you have a wonderful time:
1. Before going: visit your doctor/clinic well in advance (2 to 3 months) to organise injections. If you are doing the add-on to Victoria Falls, you will need a yellow fever cert. From Durban onwards you will need to take malaria tablets, make sure you take them with food. You will also need to use DEET spray to keep the mozzies away - put on your sun cream first, then the DEET about 20 mins later. This really isn't a hassle once you get used to it and the mozzies didn't bother us much at all once precautions were taken.
[Note: the tour now doesn't go to Durban, but I'd suggest the day before you fly to Johannesberg start taking the malarone]
2. The maximum amount of rand you are allowed to bring is R5,000 (around £500); however we were not checked for the amount of cash at any point. It's easy to use ATMs in South Africa, but always, always go in a group for security reasons. Bring US dollars for the Zambia add-on.
3. If you are debating whether to do the add on to Victoria Falls, please do it if you can at all - it is truly amazing! The Falls themselves are wonderful and in the dry season you can get really close to them. The optional excursions are brilliant - you can take a helicopter ride over the Falls, or a microlite if you are feeling very brave! The day trip to Botswana (Chobe National Park) was fantastic: a cruise along the river in the morning, then a very nice lunch, then a jeep safari in the afternoon. You also see the point in the Zambezi where Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia meet. The sunset cruise on the Zambezi was stunning and the five course gourmet dinner on board a steam train was also wonderful. The add-on is expensive, but made this great holiday into the best ever.
4. The safaris throughout this holiday were jaw dropping experiences, especially at Kruger. If you are doing the add-on, the elephant ride and interaction is better to do in Zambia than on the main tour.
I'm sure I can come up with more tips, but feel free to ask any questions. But whatever you do, if you can at all, do this holiday! It is the benchmark by which I now compare all others!
Hope this helps,
Best wishes,
Bob
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A few other tips and then I had better get back to work! In South Africa, you use a special plug adapter that is different to the standard international ones - it has three round pins, with the top pin bigger than the rest. It is larger than the type used in India and elsewhere. You can get them on Amazon and at most airports. Having said that, most of the hotels also had the European two pin sockets as well, but better to be safe than sorry! Also, I see that this year JY are staying in some different hotels to the ones we stayed in, so can't advise for sure. In Zambia, the sockets were SA style and European.
If you get the opportunity, do try ostrich - perhaps I was lucky but on each of the three occasions I got to have it, it was incredibly tender, better than any fillet steak I'd ever had! Also, if you want to do Robben Island while in Cape Town, it's not part of the tour programme and you would have to opt out of one of the Cape Town tours to do it. It is possible to book it while there, but there might be availability problems when you are there, so if you really want to see it, you should probably book it before you leave home. The winelands tour was great fun, with beautiful scenery. However, those who did the sunset cruise around the bay at Cape Town were a bit disappointed. Best views of the holiday? Breaktaking scenery at Blyde River Canyon and rugged coastal scenery around the Cape and on the Garden Route. You might even see whales at Hermanus - and we saw all the big five at Kruger!!
All the best,
Bob
