Reply To: S Africa/Alternatives in November/December (young family)

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Mike G, that’s brilliant, so glad you had a great time! A big confidence boost for myself and our own plans 🙂

My plan changes every day but as it stands we’ve reigned in the idea of ticking off Cape Town/winelands AND the garden route inside 12 days. Instead with baby we might take our foot off the gas a bit and stick to Cape Town/Fransccheok for half the duration and other half venture down towards Hermanus and De Hoop Nature Reserve. Perhaps stop at a reserve for a night if we want to see a giraffe and a zebra but ultimately use this trip as a taster and then perhaps plan a “proper” safari once baby is old enough to remember it.

philsUK wrote:

We just got back from a holiday in South Africa, family trip with my wife, myself, 7 month old son and my inlaws. We stayed in Franscchoek and had a hire car to travel around. We did go into Capetown one day but spent most of the time in the Winelands. We were sensible and didn’t travel too far at night – otherwise driving around was completely fine.

We then flew to Johannesburg and onwards to a game reserve north of Johannesburg (Malaria free), this was absolutely amazing. We stayed in a camp that allowed our baby to come on drives with us. We didn’t feel unsafe at any point on the trip. Actually, our flight got delayed in Johannesburg and we drove to and from our hotel in Central Johannesburg from the airport (which I wouldn’t have done when we were there 5 years ago!).

I think with the baby it is easy to think of worst case scenarios.. I did. This is our first baby, but he slept both flights and loved the drives (sleeping!). Honestly, it was probably our best holiday.

Crime is high, but be sensible and reduce your risks.

Thanks for this, really helpful! Do you mind sharing which reserve it was north of Joburg?