South Africa Overview
'I believe that South Africa is the most beautiful place on earth. Admittedly, I am biased, but when
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In and Around
South Africa
Provinces Through Routes Tourism Regions World Heritage Sites
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Loxton
Samantha Black, Loxton
The Land of the Stoep
By Brent Naudé-Moseley, co-author Getaway Guide to the Karoo, Namaqualand & Kalahari, Getaway Guide to Route 62 & Overberg; including Little Karoo & Langkloof ...read on
Kamieskroon 'Garden of the Gods'
Samantha Black, Kamieskroon
Kamieskroon is a pretty village situated on the N7 50km north of Garies and 67km south of Springbok. Set beneath the kroon (crown), the rocky pinnacle of the Kamiesberg Mountains from which it takes its name, it really gives a feeling of being the crown of the 'Garden of the Gods'.
Heading deeper into the mountains towards Nourivier and Leliefontein, you’ll be rewarded by the sight of amazing r ...read on
Addo Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Addo
About an hour's drive from Port Elizabeth, Addo is a small farming town that's best known for its proximity to the Greater Addo Elephant National Park, which is South Africa's first 'Big Seven' reserve. As well as the usual Big Five - rhino ...read on
Arniston Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Arniston
This rather schizophrenic town is officially known as Waenhuiskrans but everyone calls it Arniston. The official name, which means “Wagon House Cave”, refers to an enormous sea cave thatis big enough to park an ox wagon (and a team of oxen) in. It’s abeautiful cave and it’s a lovely walk to get to it but watch the tides.You absolutely do not want to get cau ...read on
Ashton Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Ashton
Kogman'skloof©South African TourismThe small town of Ashton on Route 62 is in the middle of a fruit-farming and wine-growing area so there are some nice wineries, farm stalls where you can buy all manner of local produce, and even a cheese estate. Ashton is conveniently situated on the ...read on
Ballito Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Ballito
On KZN’s North Coast, Ballito is a mega-tourist-friendly seaside resort with wonderful, safe, shark net-protected beaches. Tidal pools ranging from kiddies’ paddling numbers to a full Olympic-siz ...read on
Battlefields Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Battlefields
As in many parts of the world, the later part of the 19th Century was a time of conflict and confrontation in South Africa, particularly the area we now call KwaZulu-Natal. The British were at the height of their empire-building zeal, the Zulu nati ...read on
Cape Town Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Cape Town
Voted Favourite Foreign City by the UK Telegraph in
2004, Cape Town is one of the places you just have to visit before you
die. It's an awesome city. All the vibe you want - great parties, great
shopping and loads of galleries and other cultural attractions
can't detract from the fact that what makes Cape Town special is the
fact that it is s ...read on
Central Karoo Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Central Karoo
The broad, mostly sandy, expanse of undulating plains known as the Karoo is divided between the Little Karoo, nearer the coast and the Great Karoo, which seems to stretch into the interior forever. The Karoo, which means 'great thirst' in the local Khoi-San language, receives little rain so the rather dramatic landscape ...read on
Clanwilliam Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Clanwilliam
Nestled at the foot of the northern end of the Cederberg Mountains, Clanwilliam is a small town with loads to do just on its outskirts. Heading north, the Pakhuis Pass leads to an area of immense physical beauty, with spectacularly ruggedrock formations, gurgling streams, tumbling waterfalls and some of thebest and most e ...read on
Cradle of Humankind Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Cradle of Humankind
A mere hour's drive from Johannesburg, the Cradle of Humankind is a place of major significance. It was here we first became human. Here where we first stood upright on our own two, rather oddly shaped, feet, explored the uses to which we could put our usefully opposed thumbs, and experimented with more and more sophisticated grunts as we t ...read on
Drakensberg Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Drakensberg
The impressive bulk of the mountains the Zulus called Ukahlamba - the barrier of spears - and the Voortrekkers called the Drakensberg - the dragon mountain - is an impressive rampart of sandstone and basalt that separates the well watered Indian Ocean coast from the dryer, harsher interior. Most of the escarpment falls under the ...read on
Durban Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Durban
High up on the east coast, Durban is South Africa's sub-tropical beach getaway. The city centre overlooks a long, golden beach that is probably the single most culturally diverse spot in Africa. Here you will find frolicking families of every hue, busy executives out for a quick lunchtime jog, teenagers in ful ...read on
East London Travel Guide
Samantha Black, East London
East London is a pleasantly laid back little city with lovely beaches and great surf. Pretty little seaside resorts stretch out to the north, eventually culminating in the fabulously scenic Wild Coast, where you can do coastal read on
Eastern Cape Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Eastern Cape
TheEastern Cape is South Africa's second largest and most diverseprovince. It's a great sun, sand and sea destination with a coastlinethat runs from temperate rocky shores in the south to sub-tropical beachesin the north. There is a beach for every reason - from highly developedurban playgrounds to wild and untamed stretches of wave ...read on
Franschhoek Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Franschhoek
This sybaritic little town is situated smack in the middle of some gorgeous scenery in the heart of the Winelands. It’s one of those places that became fashionable some time around the 1980s and things just snowballed. Fabulous restaurants line the main street, there are some lovely little guest houses and – of course – g ...read on
Free State Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Free State
'The Free State landscape gladdens my heart, no matter what my mood. When I am here I feel that nothing can shut me in, that my thoughts can roam as far as the horizons.' Nelson MandelaThe Free State is South Africa's Cinderella province. Every country has one - the place you make jokes abo ...read on
Gauteng Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Gauteng
If money makes the world go round, Gauteng is one of its major axes. Meaning 'the place where the goldis' Gauteng is the economic powerhouse of Africa. It is South Africa'ssmallest, wealthiest and most frenetic province. Everything moves fast- cars zoom down the highways, people walk fast through the malls andoffices, and new buildings spring up on the drab brown Highvel ...read on
George Travel Guide
Samantha Black, George
George is the de Facto capital of the Garden Route, its largest town by far, and the only one with an airport of any real significance. It’s not on the coast, but the lovely Victoria Bay, which is one of the prettiest beach ...read on
Grahamstown Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Grahamstown
With a large university, some of South Africa’s top schools and a plethora of museums and other cultural attractions, Grahamstown is a rather erudite destination. It’s also the venue of the National Festival of the Arts, which is the second largest arts festival in the world, coming in just behind Edinburgh. Of Grahamstown’s numerous lovely old buildings, many of ...read on
Graskop Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Graskop
Graskop is the closest town to the Blyde River Canyon and Bourke’s Luck Potholes, so it’s a convenient place to stop for lunch on the Panorama Route.Well, it is convenient but it’s more convenient if you decide to havelunch at ...read on
Hazyview Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Hazyview
Although most of the smaller towns in this part of Mpumalanga are close to the Kruger National Park, Hazyview is the closest – just a short hop to the Phabeni, Numbi and Kruger Gates. It’s a pretty little town with some lovely ...read on
Hermanus Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Hermanus
This lovely town, on the coastal area of the Overberg, is most well known for its awesome land based whale watching. Most of Hermanus’ shoreline is rocky cliff, quite high above Walker Bay so it offers fantastic viewpoints from which to observ ...read on
Hluhluwe Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Hluhluwe
Hluhluwe is a tiny town surrounded by fabulous game reserves and some wonderful cultural attractions. You could visit a traditional Zulu weaving operation where you could buy baskets, mats and other woven goods, or do a tour of Duma ...read on
Hoedspruit Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Hoedspruit
Hoedspruit is a bush town. What that means is that it’s the closest urban centre to a huge number of game lodges, and every second person in town is wearing khaki and driving a big four-by-four. A real, dusty four-by-four, not those shiny urban versions. Hoedspruit is close to the ...read on
Kimberley Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Kimberley
Kimberley's Big Hole©South African TourismThe most notable thing about Kimberley is a huge hole in the ground, but it’s not just any hole – it’s what’s left over after the removal of about three tons of diamonds. Measuring over a kilometre deep, with a surface area of 17ha, it’s the world’s largest hand-dug hole – a monumen ...read on
Knysna Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Knysna
If there is such a thing, Knysna is the heart of the Garden Route. This medium-sized town on the banks of the usually placid and always beautiful Knysna Lagoon is a real tourist haven. The lagoon, which is guarded from the sea by two enormous, rugged, sandstone cliffs, known as The Heads, is a fabulous play ...read on
Kruger National Park Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Kruger National Park
The Kruger National Park, which measures a whopping two million hectares, is approximately the size of the whole of Wales. Although there are still fences between parts of the Kruger National Park and Mozambique and Zimbabwe, so the planned Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park is not quite y ...read on
KwaZulu-Natal Travel Guide
Samantha Black, KwaZulu-Natal
The province of KwaZulu-Natal is a strong argument both for and against political correctness. The northern part of the province has traditionally been called Zululand or - in Zulu - KwaZulu, and the rest of the province was called Natal in the colonial era. After 1910 Zululand was simply incorporated into Natal. Then, d ...read on
Limpopo Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Limpopo Province
Limpopo Province is Africa undistilled. It is raw and wild and wonderfully enigmatic. With about half of the Kruger National Park and many other game reserves, it has miles and miles of untamed wilderness where the Big Five and other animals roam in a space so large it may almost be c ...read on
Little Karoo Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Little Karoo
The Little Karoo is the hot, dry region squeezed between the Outeniqua Mountains that separate it from the green and luscious Garden Route, and the rugged Swartberg Mountains that separate it from the wider, hotter Great Karoo. ...read on
Magaliesburg Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Magaliesburg
The Magaliesberg is a beautiful low range of hills not far from the city of Johannesburg and close to the town of Magaliesburg. Note the spelling. Magaliesburg is the town, Magaliesberg is the range. But, hey, what’s in a name? Magaliesberg is a fun little centre with a very countrified feel to it and loads of bucolic pleasures. Pick up a copy of the M ...read on
Mapungubwe Region Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Mapungubwe Region
MAPUNGUBWE NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA UNESCO World Heritage Site - Cultural LandscapeDid you know that a thousand yearsago a sophisticated civilization lived in the Limpopo Valley and traded with China?Destined to become a top wildlife and cultural safari destination, thefascinating remains of the ancient city state of Mapungubwe uncover them ...read on
Mossel Bay Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay is considered by many to be the westernmost extent of the “real” Garden Route. It’s a rather sprawling town, with a natural gas refinery and huge storage tanks on the outskirts so its approach is not particularly attractive. However, it has some of the most wonderful read on
Mpumalanga Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Mpumalanga
Although Mpumalanga is not the only province in South Africa with excellent game viewing, national parks and luxury lodges, it's here that the safari experience has been perfected. About half the Kruger National Park is in this l ...read on
Nelspruit Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Nelspruit
Nelspruit is the biggest town in Mpumalanga, so it’s definitely the place to go for real shopping or any other infrastructural need. The KMIA (Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport), which is just outside the town, is the nearest airport to the ...read on
Northern Cape Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is South Africa's biggest and least densely populated province. Consisting mostly of Karoo semi-desert and Kalahari thirstland, it's all about wide open spaces, big skies and immense distances. But it's not all drab and dusty by any means. The Orange River ...read on
Oudtshoorn Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Oudtshoorn
Oudtshoorn, the largest town in the Little Karoo, is most well known as the centre of the ostrich farming industry. Taller than many men, these huge flightless birds weigh in at about 150kg and are very fast and – surprisingly – very dangerous. Don’t tangle with one. How embarrassing would it be to have to explain to the gu ...read on
Overberg Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Overberg
Canola fields near Swellendam©South African TourismIn the early days of the European occupation of the Cape, very few people ventured far from the foot of Table Mountain. The vast Cape Flats to the east of the fledgling city were a treacherous stretch of shifting sands, wetlands and - of course - wild a ...read on
Paarl Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Paarl
Less than an hour north of Cape Town in the Winelands, Paarl is a beautiful old town dominated by a huge granite pluton that, after rain, gleams like a pearl, and from which the town gets its name. (The Dutch word for pearl is paarl.) Paarl has one of the longest main roads in the co ...read on
Pietermaritzburg Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Pietermaritzburg
This wonderful little city is often called 'the last outpost of the British Empire' by admirers and detractors alike. It's not really true, but its many red brick Victorian buildings do give the town a rather genteel air.Situated in a hollow surrounded by hills, Pietermaritzburg lies on the edge of the rather l ...read on
Plettenberg Bay Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Plettenberg Bay
Plettenberg Bay, or Plett, as it is more familiarly known, is the most fashionable spot on the Garden Route and has been called the Riviera of Africa. It’s no exaggeration. With fabulous beaches stretching for miles, whole neighbourhoods of expensive sum ...read on
Port Elizabeth Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Port Elizabeth
PortElizabeth is a great little coastal city with loads of great things todo, and a whole host of fantastic attractions right on its doorstep.It's big enough to have everything you'd really want from a city butsmall enough to occasionally feel like a village.There are wonderful beaches, good diving ...read on
Pretoria (Tshwane) Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Pretoria (Tshwane)
Affectionately known as the Jacaranda Cityfor all the purple blossom-bedecked trees, which line its thoroughfaresin summer, Pretoria is an elegant, quiet city that's a perfect contrastwith its more frenetic neighbour, Johannesburg, just half an hour away. Pretoriahas a long, involved and fascinating history - fir ...read on
Sabie Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Sabie
The small town of Sabie is right on Mpumalanga’s Panorama Route, which means it’s in the middle of some fabulous scenery, surrounded by waterfalls, forests and gorgeous views. There are great mountain biking trails in the forests n ...read on
Salt Rock Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Salt Rock
Bottlenose dolphin©South African TourismThe name Salt Rock dates back to the heyday of the Zulu Empire when King Shaka’s handmaidens would come down to the coast here to collect salt to trade with the colonials based in what was then Port Natal, and is now Durban. Seems s ...read on
South Africa Travel Guide
Samantha Black, South Africa
'I believe that South Africa is the most beautiful place on earth. Admittedly, I am biased, but when you combine the natural beauty of South Africa with the friendliness and cultural diversity of our people, and the fact that the region is a haven for Africa's most splendid wildlife, then I think even the most scrupulous critic would agree that we have been blessed with a truly wonderful land. I would like to extend ...read on
Umtata Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Umtata
Xhosa ladies©South African TourismUmtata was the capital of the nominally independent bantustan of the Transkei during the apartheid regime, so it’s a pretty big town, with a university and loads of infrastructural build ...read on
Upington Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Upington
Upington is situated on the banks of the Orange River in the Northern Cape. Surrounded by bright green irrigated vineyards, this area is known as the Green Kalahari. (The rest of the Kalahari, while not actually a true desert, ...read on
V and A Waterfront Travel Guide
Samantha Black, V and A Waterfront
Lying west of the industrial Duncan Dock, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, now simply called the Waterfront, is Cape Town's original Victorian harbour. Before its construction the Cape of Storms was notorious for wrecking ships during ferocious winter spells. In 1860 a very young Prince Alfred ceremoniously dumped the first load of ...read on
Vredefort Dome Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Vredefort Dome
VREDEFORT DOMEUNESCO World Heritage Site South Africa’s most recent UNESCO World Heritage Site is Vredefort Dome, a dramatic landscape formed by the impact of a massive meteorite impact structure,called an astrobleme. Situated roughly 120km south west of Johannesburgin the Free State, it dates back 2,023 million years and is the oldest ast ...read on
West Coast Travel Guide
Samantha Black, West Coast
The West Coast is an acquired taste. The vegetation is subdued, the sky incredibly wide and the sea very often a dead calm expanse of cerulean blue. But sometimes, of course, it's an angry grey expanse of snarling and crashing breakers. But change is the only certainty. In spring, the somewhat monochromatic landscape explodes into a riot of colour. In small hollows between the dunes bright blue h ...read on
Western Cape Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Western Cape
The Western Cape is so different to the rest of South Africa.It's kind of tacked on to the bottom of Africa - the full stop of theexclamation mark that is this amazing continent. Without a doubt,though, the Western Cape is South Africa's most visited province, and it's hardly ...read on
White River Travel Guide
Samantha Black, White River
White River has just sufficient altitude to escape the nasty old anopheles mosquitoes that plague the not-too-distant Kruger National Park and the rest of the Lowveld, so it’s quite a good place to spend themosquito-haunted nights if you’re spending the days in ...read on
Wild Coast Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Wild Coast
The Wild Coast is a really great destination. Protected for years by limited road access, this area offers a combination of rural tranquillity, traditional African lifestyles and architecture, almost unbelievable scenery and fascinating flora and fauna with the opportunity to have a great bea ...read on
Wilderness Travel Guide
Samantha Black, Wilderness
Wilderness, in the heart of the Garden Route, is a lovely little town in the most fabulous setting. With forested hills at its back, the town jigsaws itself around a number of pretty wetlands and flows over the high coastal dunes to overlook a magnificent, long, snow white beach where ...read on
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