Under a warm African sun, a world of adventure awaits. Experience South Africa, the land of the big five, bustling cities and breathtaking beauty. With more than 2500 kilometres of coastline, South Africa also boasts some of Africa’s very best beaches. In fact, South Africa offers something for everyone.

Visit the cosmopolitan city of Johannesburg built as a result of the 1886 gold rush. Today the city boasts an eclectic mix of visitors, restaurants and world-class shopping. Jo’berg as the locals call it, is also the gateway to the Kruger Park, where lion, elephant, cheetah, wildebeest and an abundance of other species roam freely. The Western Cape, located on the southern tip of the African continent, is today regarded as one of the great holiday destinations of the world. With renowned wine estates, imposing mountain ranges, white sandy beaches and the magical city of Cape Town itself, it’s easy to appreciate why.

Dive with great white sharks, experience the natural wonder of the sardine run, hike through the snow-capped Drakensberg mountains, track big game with an experienced guide and feel the spirit of the rainbow nation. South Africa has it all, a world in one country.

 

General Information on South Africa:

Location: Tip of Southern Africa

Size: 1, 233, 404 sq km

Population: 46.9 million

Status: Rebuplic

Capital: Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial) and Cape Town (legislative)

Currency: South African Rand (ZAR)

Language: English, Afrikaans, Ndebele, Sepedi, Setswana, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Tshivenda, Venda, Xhosa, Xitsonga, Zulu

Religion: Christians accounted for 79.7% of the population. This includes Zion Christian (11.1%), Pentecostal (Charismatic) (8.2%), Roman Catholic (7.1%), Methodist (6.8%), Dutch Reformed (6.7%), Anglican (3.8%); members of other Christian churches accounted for another 36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population, Hindus about 1.3%, and Judaism 0.2%. 15.1% had no religious affiliation, 2.3% were other and 1.4% were unspecified

International telephone code: +27

Time: GMT +2

Electricity: 220v

 

South Africa’s most popular areas:

Cape Town

Good looking, fun-loving, sporty and laid back. If Cape Town was in the dating game that is how her profile would read. And – for once – it is all true. The Mother City occupies one of the world’s most stunning locations, with an ironic mountain slap-bang in its centre. As beautiful as the surrounding beaches and vineyards can be, as cosmopolitan and lively as its cultural scene, it is the rugged wilderness of Table Mountain, coated in a unique flora, which is the focus of attention.

Complementing this natural beauty is Cape Town’s eye-catching way with design and colour – in everything from the brightly painted facades of the Bo-Kaap and the Victorian bathing chalets of Muizenberg, to the contemporary Afro-chic décor of the many excellent guesthouses, restaurants and bars. The city’s multi-ethnic population is proof of South Africa’s ‘rainbow nation’ and a visual record of the city’s tumultuous recorded history over 350 years.

It is a place of extremes, with the wealth of Camps Bay and Constantia side by side with the poverty of townships such as Khayelitsa. Even in the townships and the deprived coloured areas of the city – home to the vast majority of Capetonians – there are huge differences in lifestyles and many great examples of civic pride and optimism to balance against the shocking crime and HIV/AIDS statistics. Discovering the Mother City’s true diversity and spirit is all part of getting the most out of a visit here.

 

Western Cape

The Western Cape is without a doubt one of the world’s premier destinations, a place often so picture-perfect it is hard to describe without using clichés. The diversity of the landscape is unparalleled and the number of adventures to experience almost over whelming. Dive with sharks, jump out of an airplane, surf some of Southern Africa’s best breaks, cruise with whales, eat fresh crayfish at a beach barbeque, stand at the southernmost tip of Africa and sample some of the world’s finest wines.

The region is the country’s most popular tourist destination, so at times you may feel a bit like a zebra in a herd travelling around a here, particularly along the Garden Route. But it is a magical place, with ample opportunity to flee the crowds. Whichever way you go, however, in the Western Cape there is no escaping the beauty.

 

Northern Cape

Covering nearly a third of the country, the vast and sparsely populated Northern Cape surely is South Africa’s last great frontier. With a restless air of untamed energy, this is a place where the Africa of storybooks comes alive. In this land of stark contrast the red sands of the Kalahari tumble into the churning inky waters of the desolate Atlantic Coast; while the Karoo’s strange shaped kopjes (small rocky hills) collide with the sun-scorched lunar landscape of Namaqualand, where roads dissolve into oblivion of endless space and burst into a miraculous sea of technicolour wildflowers in spring. Lions stalk prey across crimson plains in remote Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at dawn, and in the evening big, orange-ball sunsets made for Hollywood movies steal the show.

The Northern Cape is one of the only two provinces in South Africa where coloureds, and not blacks, make up the majority of the population. Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language with about 66% of the province speaking it.

 

Eastern Cape

At once semi desert, forested, mountainous and subtropical, for its relative size the Eastern Cape has a remarkable range of differing climates, topographies and vegetation. Your entry into the province is likely to be along the N2 highway from Cape Town, where you will be struck by the beauty of the Tsitsikamma Coastal National Park, before the landscape flattens out past Cape St Francis and Jeffrey’s Bay, through to Port Elizabeth and the Sunshine and Shipwreck Coast to East London. Yet just inland to the north are the rolling hills of the former British stronghold of Grahamstown and surrounding ‘settlers country’, which itself soon gives way to the desolate majesty of the semi-arid Karoo, dotted with intriguing towns such as Graaff-Reinet. Beyond East London, as far as Port Edward just over the border, in KwaZulu-Natal lies the spectacular, subtropical Wild Coast, and to the north the dramatic mountain ranges of the Northeastern Highlands.

 

KwaZulu Natal

Rough and ready, smart and sophisticated, rural and rustic, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is an electric as its cultures, people and landscapes. It has its metropolitan heart in the port of Durban and its nearby historic capital, Pietermaritzburg. The beaches along this coast attract local holiday-makers and visitors looking to soak up the sand, sea, surf and sun. Head north and you enter Zululand and the Elephant Coast, home to some of Africa’s most evocative traditional settlements and cultural sites, where Zulu culture and heritage are proudly displayed. The region also boasts alluring national parks and isolated, wild coastal reserves.

Head northwest of Durban and you enter another realm, the historic heartland where the history of the province was thrashed out on the Battlefields during the Anglo-Zulu and Anglo-Boar Wars. The province’s border in the far west, the heritage-listed uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Range, features awesome peaks, unforgettable vistas and excellent hiking opportunities.

 

Mpumalanga

From the sluggish flow of the Crocodile River to the relaxed rhythm of its old mining towns and peaceful silence of its nature reserves, unassuming Mpumalanga (Place of the Rising Sun; pronounced M-poo-ma-lan-ga) adheres to a quieter pace of life.

This inland province, South Africa’s smallest, is where the plateaus of the Highveld begin their spectacular tumble into the lowveld plains at the dramatic Drakensberg Escarpment. Many travellers zip through on their way to Kruger National Park, but it is well worth setting aside a few days to explore the historic towns, roaring waterfalls and some of the best hiking trails in South Africa.

 

Gauteng

If Africa, as the cliché goes, is the mother of all life, then Gauteng is a province born of the Western love for her gold-bearing ore. Fast, bustling and a cabaret of contradictions, Gauteng covers just 1.5% of the country’s land surface, yet accounts for 34% of its gross domestic product and, perhaps more extraordinarily, 10% of the GDP of the whole of Africa.

The laid-back, friendly atmosphere of Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital, belies a turbulent past. Fifty or so kilometres down the M1 motorway away is Johannesburg, the provincial capital and third-largest city on the continent. Sprawling and booming it is a strange conurbation of opulent suburbs set alongside some of the country’s starkest urban poverty.

 

Free State

This is a place here farmers in floppy hats and overalls drive rusty bakkies full of sheep over bumpy roads; where giant fields of sunflowers languish by brightly painted Sotho houses. It is true that Free State does not hold any trump card when it comes to South Africa’s not-to-be-missed attractions. But if you travel to dig beneath the surface, a journey through the Free State can be a mind-opening experience. In this staunchly Afrikaans region it often seems the clock stopped ticking in the early 1990’s. The line between colours is stark, and dreams of an Afrikaner Arcadia live on. While there is no question that Free State has a long way to travel on the road to racial harmony, progress is happening. Today, even in the smallest rural villages, the once impenetrable barrier between black and while is beginning to break apart.

 

North-West Province

With some of its most revered attractions just two hours from Johannesburg, the North-West Province provides the perfect antidote for escaping big-city clutter. Home to some of the country’s best kept secrets, the region offers something for anyone – from music lovers to safari addicts to gamblers.

The Disney-esque Sun City and Lost City casino resort are South Africa’s most opulent and kitschy theme parks. Once an exclusive sanctuary for the white elite, today the apartheid-era’s most famous retreat is a multi-cultural place popular with South Africans of all colours. When you tire of artificial beaches, head into the wild. Nearby Pilanesberg National Park is our pick for a quick safari. Further afield, Madikwe Game Reserve is one of South Africa’s best open secrets. Even though it is closer to Johannesburg than Kruger, and teeming with the same animals, it sees far fewer visitors.

 

Limpopo

Modern Limpopo sits at a key crossroads between Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kruger National Park and Gauteng, and is often considered a doormat into more exotic destinations. But driving along the busy N1 highway that connects these places gives little impression of what gem lies off the beaten path.

Heading north from Johannesburg, southwest Limpopo undulates into scrubby hills that are home to several wildlife parks, lodges and resorts, including the hot springs at Bela-Bela. Big five spotters will be better heading off north to the spectacular Mapungubwe National Park, a World Heritage Site that gives Kruger a run for its money.

East of the N1, the dry landscape gives way to the tropical fruit farms of Letaba Valley and the intriguing traditional homeland of the Venda people.