Flying to Jo'berg – Any tips? Non-cycling hols with missus

Looking to fly to Jo’berg and then on to Cape Town after a few days, then back to Jo’berg for flight home in late March/early April. Thought I would put it out there in case someone has some experience and perhaps some tips to make it a bit smoother and cheaper. Will be fitting it all into a week.

Also, if there are some things I should definitely see or avoid then I would find it very useful to hear your ideas.

Thanks all.

Camps Bay in Cape Town is worth a visit, bit of a Venice beach feel. V&A waterfront, Table Mountain.
You’ll need to book in advance for Robben Island.
The open top bus is good value and good way to get around.

Where are you staying in Joburg? There are lots of areas that are not safe at all.

Best tip is to go as direct as possible especially if going for such a short time. Going through Dubai and the like can be cheaper but really adds on to travel time.
A direct overnight flight is always the best option but recently I have done day flights with KLM (quick transfer in Schipol). Flights have never been that busy and ended up with a few seats to ourselves (Lot of people dont like day flights). Makes an 11 hour flight a lot more comfy if flying economy. Lot cheaper than a BA direct flight as well.

Book as soon as possible for your internal transfer as the flights get booked up quickly. Much of a much price wise but Mango seem to be more punctual than Kulula.

Joburg is safe if you are not stupid same as any city and UBER works really well. Good restaurant to eat at is Wombles in Bryanston for a good old colonial steak house or following the steak theme the meat company in montecasino.

Sundowners in Camps bay is great but if you have time look at going to Hout Bay, Fishoek or Bloubergstrand. Great beaches, views and restaurants and is a change of scenery from the city.

Max CT, Min J’burg as a general rule

J’brug CBD has little to recommend other than business needs and not great at night. Sandton is safer but sterile, other than a big shopping centre. Personally I would hire a car* and either go to Sun City or to a small game reserve in the Waterburg. * Take security advice

CT – actually has worse crime than J’burg but they keep it quiet due to tourism. I was almost mugged at the waterfront, so be warned.

Walk up T Mountain – up Platteklip gorge route – avoid the grockles. Or CC up and walk down or vice versa

Robben Island – yes book

Winelands – great but don’t buy wine there as its more expensive than UK
Cape Peninsula – take a day or two to explore
Go up the coast for a couple of days
Dive with a great white!!

Why not fly back direct from the Cape?

Ah great advice. Thanks.

To be fair we don’t really need to go to J,Berg but was considering visiting a pal in their home town. However, they will also be ending up in CT so perhaps a direct flight to CT would be best and bypass Joberg entirely as we won’t be going on safari at all.

plus one for Cape, I didn’t think much of Joberg. Did the Kruger etc. But CT is way better. Make time for the vineyards 😉 Stellenbosch is great but make sure you book early for dinner its packed.

+1 for going direct to the Cape if you’re only going out for a short break. IMO SA is great for the ‘big landscape’ beyond the cities but you need a long/several visits to do it properly.

We flew to JB (direct) a few years back to see some mates but apart from going to a steak house and eating half a cow for the equivalent of a tenner, there wasn’t anything drawing us to stay there and explore on our own.

We then flew to CT (and returned to the UK from CT), walked up Table Mountain via the botanical gardens where they often have gigs. Ref the route mentioned further above, which we did, it’s not particularly hard (despite the vertical scale), but is very rewarding, however do take plenty of water/a full camelback bladder in a day sack.

We also stayed in Franschoek for a week or so and visited a few vineyards for their wine tasting lunches. Not much else to do there though although it is *sobering* to acknowledge the township the whites do their best to hide. In Franschoek, if the bike hire place is still there and the owner offers up his brother to take you on a guided walk in the gorges up in the hills, don’t take up the offer like we did. Because we almost ended up in a ‘127 hours situation’. And you really don’t want that.

Enjoy the biltong/droervors and braais (if you’re not veggies).

Of the main carriers only BA waa going direct to Cape Town from London in our summer. May be different in their summer.

I cannot believe noone has said (edit except in the post above)…Kirstenbosch Gardens. Utterly stunning and amazing plants and massive gardens with some cool statues.

Simon’s Town for viewing wild penguins (aka Boulders Beach). There is somewhere better just trying to remember the name.

If you do Table Mountain the gondola ride gives amazing views so worth doing that one way.

Waterfront already mentioned. Aquarium there is pretty good.

Tiger Valley if you like shopping lots of Rand to the £.

Do not try and drive through Cape Town at rush hour (after about 330). It’s bedlam on the main routes.

Loads of other stuff around including the vineyards. You’ll be wrong time of year for the whale coast route.

Cape point is a long trek out for what it is but could do with Boulders Beach (wild penguins on a closely controlled beach) or something else down that way.

Spier (iirc) is nice and has a bird of prey rescue centre with good flying displays (depending on your view of such things).

If you’ve never been to SA before be prepared to see a lot of poverty, get your windows tapped on at traffic lights for begging or selling you stuff (also drunk/ dancing people in the road at junctions) and keep valuables out of sight and doors locked.

If you’re driving then be aware that it’s a bit of a free for all in urban/suburban areas but if you’ve got your wits about you it’s fine. Do not stop to help broken down or abandoned vehicles either. Regular ploy to rob the unwary. The locals don’t stop.

Get a decent road map and understand where you are going before you head out.

The N2 main road/motorway from Cape Town airport has a reputation for trouble (overhead signs giving warnings about crime and stopping) but the reality is it’s very heavily police patrolled as it’s a key tourist route.

Betty’s Bay is the other penguin place. Along the coast route.

If you go out that way breakfast at the Orchard Farm Stall at the junction of N2 and R321 just after St Lowry’s Pass (worth driving I’ve in itself) has been good for years.

Fantastic ! Lots of great ideas to research.
Yes, it seems only BA are direct, however with one stop and 4 hrs extension the price is virtually half

Google Maps allow downloads for offline NAV, I was there over Christmas and it worked a treat.

I’ve been to JNB and CPT about 20 times so here’s my hap’orth:

If you don’t need to go to JNB, don’t bother. It’s a big busy mining city and only interesting if you are into gold mines or gambling and want to visit something specific like Sun City or the Magaliesburg to the north.

All the major airlines fly to Cape Town, Emirates looks competitive but you’re doing a big dogleg east and wasting several hours, same as with Qatar and the other Gulf airlines. Look at KLM, AF, LH, BA and SAA for more direct routes. If you’re feeling more adventurous look at Ethiopian and Kenya Airways, Addis isn’t a great transit airport but it’s justifiably popular thanks to their pricing. Same for Nairobi and being stranded for 24 hours in either city wouldn’t be a disaster.

Hire a car in Cape Town and use the twatnav, while being aware which bits to avoid. It’s an easy city to get around as long as you avoid rush hour. Drive the route of the Cape Argus race, visit Stellenbosch and Franshoek, do some mountain biking, pony trekking, wine tasting etc. Many wineyards also brew beer, make chocolate, offer cheese and meat tasting meals and other attractions like pony trekking so they are nice places to spend a day. My recommendation would be to spend a few days enjoying the city then drive 45 minutes out to De Noordhoek Farm Village and stay at the De Noordhoek hotel, which is a great place for a weekend thanks to the bars and restaurants where there is always live music. There’s also Simonstown and several other resorts along the coast, both on the Indian and Atlantic ocean side, each with a great variety of excellent restaurants. I strongly recommend Kalk Bay for good fish.

Cape Town really is one of the greatest cities in the world to visit, everybody ought to go there once. Western Cape is managed by Helen Zille and the DA and has better security than Gauteng or Kwazulu Natal. Take local advice, keep your spidey radar on the alert for petty crime and you’ll love the place. Best of all, you’ll love the exchange rate!

IF you do decide to visit JNB I can recommend a very good driver, who I always use for airport jobs etc.

Yes, it seems only BA are direct, however with one stop and 4 hrs extension the price is virtually half

Thomas Cook have just started a direct route from Gatwick to Cape Town this week.
Prices were pretty good when my wife was looking a couple of days ago, about £200 each way.

Shred – Member
Where are you staying in Joburg? There are lots of areas that are not safe at all.

There are also areas safe in the day, but not at night. Only been once for an event, and stayed in Braamfontein. Two floors of the hotel had been done up, the third floor had no power and rented rooms out by the hour. In the day, the streets were busy and felt safe, at night deserted apart from people loitering with obvious intent. We were told “Stay in groups at night, don’t walk around alone at any time if you’re a woman”.

Wow. Thomas Cook. Yes indeed they do but it looks like there has been a buying frenzy as mostly sold out for rest of the year !

Blimey. I’ve just sent the link to my friends there – I wonder if you can buy tickets from CPT to LGW in Rand?

Wow. Thomas Cook. Yes indeed they do but it looks like there has been a buying frenzy as mostly sold out for rest of the year !

I didn’t realise they were that popular!
I still can’t fathom why Virgin and SAA have binned their routes to Cape Town direct leaving only BA flying there from Heathrow. There seems to be plenty of demand for the flights as Thomas Cook seem to have shown.
I know BA put a second scheduled daily flight on during peak season but even that doesn’t seem to give enough capacity.

I suspect that BA and SAA may have carved up the route between them and somehow pushed Virgin out. Cape Town is a massively popular route. I’ve just found a flight review on Tripadvisor; it says the seats were hard with no recline to speak of – I wouldn’t fancy 11 hours of that!

Globalti when we went direct in August it was a very tired 747 on BA.

It wasn’t a great experience in economy. The aircraft was visibly tired inside and it was midnight before lights out as they try and do food at about 10pm. Staff were very pleasant in fairness.

First time on a 747 (always wanted to as it is in my head THE wide body) hopefully it’s also my last in economy. It’s dam noisy behind the wings!

^ worth it to save a stop though…just

The 777 is the plane of the day, massive and quiet.

Globalti’s list is very good. Argus route is scenice the ride to noordhoek farm village over chapmans peak is one of the most beutifull roads around. There is some other threads with MTB ing advice there is lots of great stuff about 1h or 1h30 away from cape town. I can advice if you want been there plenty of times. Cape town is less as an off road riding spot as Tokai the main place is still trying to rise from its ashes after the big fire.

Globalti’s list is very good. Argus route is scenice the ride to noordhoek farm village over chapmans peak is one of the most beutifull roads around. There is some other threads with MTB ing advice there is lots of great stuff about 1h or 1h30 away from cape town. I can advice if you want been there plenty of times. Cape town is less as an off road riding spot as Tokai the main place is still trying to rise from its ashes after the big fire.

The 777 is the plane of the day, massive and quiet.

787, A380 or A350 please. If not, upstairs or in the nose of a 747.

777s are fine, but nothing on the above.

However, as with any long trip, go direct. As direct as possible. Every changet is a ball ache and a potential problem. I’ve got a couple of unavoidable short connections on a trip to Texas soon. Not looking forward to it.

Assuming you only have one week and need to travel on weekends to maximise your time there, ‘smoother’ = direct flights = more expensive. Flights with a stop (including from the regions) will be cheaper than direct from LHR or LGW. For me, the stop in the middle-east is bad because you get two 6-7 hour flights, whereas on Europe-SA flights you can at least attempt to sleep. That said, Qatar, Emirates and Etihad economy are all nicer than BA ime (simple things like bottles of water versus having to ask for a glass, and newer aircraft / seats; the BA 747’s are noisy and tatty these days). The difference in cost depends on how much you value your time and how well you think you will function on the first day in SA with very little sleep!

Definitely focus on Cape Town and surrounds. If you want to visit your friend in Jo’burg, get an internal early on your last day, go for lunch and sightseeing and get an evening flight out of JNB (e.g. UK-CPT/JNB-UK open jaw).

I would spend 3 days in the city using the buses / taxis and then hire a car and explore the winelands and beyond.

Other things around Cape Town in autumn: Kaskazi kayak trips[/url] looking for dolphins; I like Cape Point for the different scenery and wildlife – look for ostriches at Cape of Good Hope or at Buffels Bay and for antelope and zebra along the park boundary – and if you see baboons on the road, lock your car doors; tons of hiking opportunities[/url], tubing in Kogelberg and climbing, hiking and San rock art in Cederberg.

Enjoy, it’s a fantastic place, one of very few cities we keep going back to.

KG’s advice above is good; by the end of the trip the last thing you’ll want is time-wasting connections. Take a Kulula or Mango flight to JNB and stay somewhere like the Sunsquare hotel, which is in Montecasino, a decent place to spend a night or two. Do the red bus tour of Johannesburg, which is fascinating, and do Gold Reef City while you’re there – the mining stuff is fascinating and Gold Reef City is enjoyable. Then take an evening flight direct home.