come to Africa

[brianw]

‘I believe there is no sickness of the heart too great it cannot be cured by a dose of Africa. Families must go there to learn why they belong together on this earth, adolescents to discover humility, lovers to plumb old but untried wells of passion, honeymooners to seal marriages with a shared sense of bafflement, those shopworn with life to find a tonic for futility, the aged to recognize a symmetry to twilight.
I know this all sounds a bit much, but if I have ever seen magic, it has been in Africa."
John Heminway, African Journeys

[Dee18]

Excited to see your post because just this week I began looking for a group trip in South Africa to take as part of my 4 month sabbatical next fall.  I visited Kenya many years ago and truly was amazed by Africa.  Now that I have the time and the money, I want to go again but having been thinking of South Africa since a friend came back with glowing reports.  My stumbling block is that the group trips do not seem to go in Sept, Oct, or November, which fit with my schedule.  Is this because game viewing is not good then, or simply accommodating the usual American summer vacation schedule?  Any advice would be most welcome.

[brianw]

Hi Dee, South Africa is a great tourist destination. Many people comment on the diverse landscapes in one country. Our Rand is sitting currently at around 14 Rand to one Dollar so it is great value generally. (Go to fancy spots and the prices rocket to international equivalent)

Depending what you like, SA offers beach holidays, game parks, mountains and more. I am not in the tourist industry but have a keen interest in travel generally. So i hear the typical itenary is something like this. Arrive in Johannesburg OR Tambo airport, spend a day or so doing Soweto township tour and hop on hop off bus. Arrange a transfer or self drive to our famous Kruger National Park about 5 hours drive. Stay over in the park for a some days- good accommodation available at ok prices. Move on to an area called the Drakensberg mountains (borders on the mountain kingdom of Lesotho) there are numerous options available for hiking etc. also about 6 or so hours drive. Then on to Cape town the tourist mecca of SA. Cape town is famous for wine farms, great views, great food and its my favorite holiday destination.

Regarding the best time of year, for me it would be march april as it is our fall and the temperatures are good. Sept- November is fine but it is coming out of our dry winter and the land can be rather brown and dusty. Game viewing would be good around this time as there are less leaves to hide the animals.

Interestingly there isn't many American tourists that visit us here in SA. (We get the odd one from time to time). We get alot of Europeans mostly. 
My knowledge comes from touring around with my family. I am situated in Johannesburg

Look at the SANPARKS website (google it) they are a good org that runs our wildlife parks all over the country.

chow