Holiday of a lifetime in South Africa..40th Birthday present!
On arrival transfer all good.
Stayed the first night at a lovely boutique hotel called 54 on Bath super nice, great extra touches, breakfast was lovely. Huge bed. Went to Mandela Square for lunch and wandered around the shops at Santon City, which was huge. Wandered around Rosebank Mall in the afternoon which is joined to the hotel and this is where the gym is. In the eve we went to Melrose Arch and ate at Moyos which was fun.
Next day we flew to the cutest airport ever called Kruger Mpumalanga, nice easy short flight on a tiny plane. This is the gateway airport into the Kruger if you're not flying into one of the airstrips at the lodges themselves.
Drove to Ulusaba, you need a 4x4 if you drive this, however flying in or road transfer is best as we got very lost. It should have taken 3 hours to get here, took us about 5!
Ulusaba (Richard Branson's private game reserve) is drop dead gorgeous....huge bed, huge bath, amazing food, very chilled out and relaxed - no need to dress up. Sean, our ranger, was amazing - very friendly and knew heaps. The attention to detail here and the personal service is what makes this place special. It's all inclusive too, and the quality of the wine, Champagne and food is outstanding. Lovely pool here too to chill in the day time.
We then took a private 4 seater Cessna flight over Swaziland to Mkuze Falls. This lodge is in the Kwazulu Natal area and is totally different terrain, very hilly and much colder. The lodge was of a 3star I'd say, food isn't too great, but if you're expecting a 3 star you'd not be disappointed. Our guide sadly lacked enthusiasm.
4hr taxi to Durban, lovely driver, Learnt a lot from him about the history and politics. Drove near St Lucia, which is a World Heritage site, on the to do list for next trip.
Durban was okay, line of high rise properties along the beach, so most of beach in the shade, reminded me of Surfers Paradise in Australia or Benidorm, slightly run down. Nice for a good walk, 5kms each way from one end to another. We walked up to UShaka Water Park, this would be great option for families. Personally I don't see any reason why anyone would want to do to Durban unless on business, it really wasn't that great. The Hotel was okay, 4star, typical large corporate chain, nothing special.
We then flew onto George which is the best placed airport to grab your car and explore the central Garden Route. Again we used Avis. We drove to a place called Belvedere which is like a quaint English village. We stayed at a lovely place called Belvedere Manor, where you get your own little white washed wooden house, range in size from 2-3 bedrooms, so it's a home from home. There is an on site pub, bistro and pool and lovely gardens. It's a 5 min drive to Knysna, which is a place I fell in love with. This has to be on everyone's to do list for SA, the best oysters I've ever had in my life. Lovely seaside town, lots of little lovely shops and bars and restaurants.
We then had a very interesting few hours, which involved driving to a gorgeous and huge beach in a neighbouring town to Belvedere which we (or husband rather) lost the car keys (car we'd had about 8 hours by this point) in the sand! We then had to flag down a lovely couple to drive us to Belvedere, where we called Avis. Wow what a service, they brought us a brand new car at 9am the next morning, and it cost us just the excess on our car hire (about £150), goes to show when things go wrong as long as your with a reputable supplier you'll get looked after!
We visited Tsitsikama Forest and Coastal National Park, wow what a place for walkers and hikers. We had just a few hours here so we took the easy option and walked to Storms River, taking in the lovely rope bridges. If you had a few days you could stay here in a little wooden lodge and do the famous Otter Trail walk.
Following this we drove to the seaside town of Plettenberg Bay. Gorgeous sweeping beaches similar in feel to Knysna and certainly a good alternative for a base. We had a my special 40th birthday dinner just outside at Tsala Treetops lodge......wow what a place for a special night I just wish we'd stayed overnight in a treetop lodge!
We then left this part of the Garden Route and drove onto Gannsbaai for my "bucket list" trip of diving with Great White Sharks....sadly the weather wasn't good enough and It was cancelled...just means a return visit is on the cards! We stumbled upon a place called Walker Bay here, again this is a wonderful day trip for people, just the best scenery and walk along sweeping white sand. In Whale season this is the spot with small lodges lining the coast offering perfect viewing from your balcony!
Whilst driving onto Cape Town we stopped at Hermanus...another stunning out of this world place, it was lovely being here and perfect for Whale watching (In Season). Amazing houses around the edge, and again lots of lovely little bars and shops.
The Garden Route is very safe and felt very much like driving in Europe. The roads are very long and sweeping so lends itself to lots of cyclists too.
We then hit Cape Town,, glad we had Sat Nav! We stayed at the world famous Cape Grace Hotel on the waterfront, and wow what a stunning hotel it is. Very geared up for families too. Our room was gorgeous with a Juliet balcony that opened over the harbour overlooking the yachts.
The V&A waterfront is a typical city lovely waterfront, with malls, bars, restaurants, buskers, lots going on. We sadly didn't have time to do the boat over to Robbin Island, that's on the next trip. We did however get up Table Mountain and we were rewarded with cloud free views over the city. We drove through some lovely places on the outside of the city like Clifton and Camps Bay and I think next time we'd choose to stay in one of these 2 areas away from the centre (although the Waterfront is perfect or short trips and first timers).
We also visited Boulders Beach, with the penguins..again this is a must do and you can swim here (just wander along from the main visitor centre), The gorgeous beach is one of the most interesting I've ever been in.
The cost of living is super cheap at the moment and your money goes very far in South Africa.
I'd return in a heartbeat and take the kids without a second thought as it really does offer an adventure of a life time...
Until next time!