Africa Travel Articles

"Keen on a South African Safari but have no idea where to start? Here's a short, comprehensive guide to choosing the perfect place for a South African safari ."

"When planning a honeymoon in Africa your choices are so vast and diverse that it can be extremely helpful to ask yourselves five simple questions. These questions can lead you to exotic destinations and unforgettable memories."

"With so much to do on the Garden Route, you have to stop and refuel sometimes. Emma Gass, a Go2Africa travel writer, describes some of the best places to eat in this foodie destination."

"The Pilanesberg Game Reserve is in a beautiful South African location with great game viewing opportunities, making it an ideal honeymoon destination. Rebecca Shelmerdine spent a few days there to experience the romantic side of safaris..."

"The Garden Route is where fun activities, amazing creatures and good food are enjoyed in beautiful surroundings. Recently returned from the area, Emma Gass explains how to make the most of your trip to the Garden Route."

"Once you've been on safari, two things happen: One, you become addicted to the bush, and two, you start looking for that 'extra something special' from your next safari. Seasoned in exploring South Africa's wilderness areas, Marco Monteiro-Silva, set off to South Africa's very own 'wild wild west' looking for that little something extra from a self-drive safari."

"'Where's the best place to go on safari in Africa'? After a recent trip to Eastern Africa that's refreshed his knowledge of the region, and many years of guiding in Southern Africa, associate travel editor Leigh Kemp referees the debate."

"The Mother City's summer vibe is hard to beat - even when the South Easter puts in an appearance. Christmas and New Year are the highlights of course, but there's plenty else on too. Here's a Go2Africa round-up of the coolest places to be in Cape Town this summer."

"Namaqualand - land of the Nama people, unrelenting desert and every year, from July to September, witness to a small colourful miracle. Against all odds, thousands of wildflowers rise from the dust, spreading across the harsh semi-desert in fields of colour. "

"Swellendam is a small town in the heart of South Africa's wine country. It's usually just a quaint stopover en route to somewhere grander, busier, flashier... Emma Gass discovers that it deserves so much more of your time than that. "

"Witchdoctors, angry forest elephants and charging gorillas coloured Go2African, Catja Orford's adventures in Gabon's rainforests. Marco speaks to the author of Tracking Bubu."

"The Drakensberg mountain range, stretching along the eastern side of South Africa, is a place of rugged beauty made up of plateaus, peaks, cliffs and deep valleys. It used to be a spiritual home for the San people, whose rock paintings adorn many of the caves and cliff faces. Today a large section of the range has been proclaimed a conservation area and a World Heritage Site..."

"The quickest way to get to the heart of a city is by getting to know the places that provide its people with their morning coffee. Here's our selection of the best coffee and people-watching places in Cape Town."

"Hermanus is the holy land when it comes to watching whales. This month, Marco jumped on a whale boat, and set out for the open sea in search of these endangered giants."

"In the early 1990's I was living in Botswana and regularly drove past the developing Madikwe Game Reserve, wondering each time as to what it was all about. It was to be 15 years before I had the opportunity to visit the reserve. Once there, I found a land of hope and inspiration..."

"This month, Marco joined a French journalist to sample a slice of her week-long Go2Africa private wine tour. Encounters with itchy zebras, weird-looking cows, bohemian winemakers, and polite gypsys filled his day."

"Last month, eye-patches packed, the content team set off to Clanwilliam for some much needed restful chaos. Once there, we took over our Managing Director's holiday cottage for the weekend, and then set about taking over the entire town.

What resulted was a wild weekend of waterskiing, quad biking, rum swigging and good old fashioned disorder. "

"Growth in the safari tourism industry has resulted in many new lodges sprouting all over southern Africa, with each lodge trying to find something new and unique to offer tourists in an increasingly saturated safari market. Are there places that strike the right balance amidst all this development? After visiting Tinga in the Kruger Park I can answer with a resounding 'yes.'"

" The Kruger National Park is one of the world's foremost wildlife reserves. Sadly, there is a side to it that does not receive the prominence in tourism brochures that luxury safari lodges in and around the Kruger enjoy. This leads many people to believe that the Kruger Park is inaccessible to all but those with a large budget. This view is far from the truth..."

"When I was told I was going to Pafuri Camp I was understandably excited. I'd heard that the Makuleke Concession was a particularly beautiful part of the Kruger and dutifully promised to take loads of photos of the Fever Tree Forest. My overriding thought, however, was finally; the chance to see a giraffe."

"A daughter of the modern world, Alison was startled and then thrilled by the power of the past when she visited the KwaZulu-Natal Battlefields. Here she found that history shouts its stories from the stones, and that people still live their lives the way they have done for centuries. In fact, she believes that a South Africa Battlefields holiday is the closest you can get to time travel..."

"A group of Go2Africa consultants lived the high life for a day when they went for a journey on the legendary Blue Train from Cape Town into the Cape Winelands..."

"Marco spent many a weekend at Sun City. He touched his first elephant there, enjoyed his first parasail, won his first giant teddy bear, and received both his first kiss and first heartbreak from a girl in its gardens..."

"Deprived of her rightful heritage of childhood holidays at Sun City, ex-Joburg girl Alison sets off to discover Sun City at the grand old age of thirty. What she finds exceeds her expectations and sweeps her off her feet in some unexpected ways..."

"The Pilanesberg National Park is just on the doorstep of Sun City. Born from volcanic activity around 1300 million years ago and shaped by the ages, the Pilanesberg area is a geological masterpiece. In recent times, it has been transformed into a viable wilderness area that hosts most of the mammal species found in South Africa..."

"Richard took another hit for the team and boarded a private plane to Tswalu - a private game reserve in the Kalahari. He spent 24 hours in the lap of luxury enjoying game drives, running away from porcupines, and secretly wishing he was actually an Oppenheimer..."

"Greyton and Hermanus are two lovely towns in the Garden Route, different but complementary in character and both ideal for a weekend away from Cape Town. Greyton is the 'Jewel of the Overberg' while Hermanus is the whale-watching capital of South Africa. Patrick Madden visited both of them in a single rainy weekend in May."

"Last month Marco found himself stuck in landlocked suburbia without so much as a pool-paddle. What could have been a boring city weekend turned into an encounter with nature. Only an hour outside Johannesburg is The Elephant Sanctuary; a place where visitors can intimately encounter one of Africa's largest personalities..."

"Seven Go2Africans went to Khayelitsha township to paint a woodwork training room for Learn to Earn, a social upliftment project. 170 square metres and a many lungfuls of acrylic fumes later, they emerged wild-eyed and spattered with paint..."

"A Cape Town summer sunset refuses to let you stay indoors. It demands that you get out there and enjoy it properly..."

"Last week, Marco got it into his head that his calling was to become a wine aficionado. So he prepared a completely unrealistic itinerary, took the day off, and headed down the Stellenbosch wine route..."

"Capetonians are in the fortunate position of having some of the world's best wine farms on their doorstep. But as Jonathan Andrews discovered on a jaunt around Paarl and Franschhoek, there's much more to the winelands than drinking. Like, for instance, eating..."

"On the other side of the Outeniqua and Langeberg mountains lies the Garden Route's little sibling, Route 62.

Although relatively few travellers find themselves on this road-less-travelled, Route 62 has some of the most interesting towns, superb scenery, and most prolific vineyards in South Africa. Patrick Madden found dorpies, fairies and fabulous food and wine along the way..."

"Delighted at the prospect of acting like a trust fund baby with jolly rich parents and no job for the entire afternoon, Richard Arthur set off for an afternoon of wine and chocolate tasting at Waterford..."

"At 34 degrees south Cape Point may not be the most southerly point of Africa, but it might just be the most spectacular feature of the entire African coast. Patrick Madden found his corner of paradise on this unique peninsula..."

"Often referred to as Africa's Alcatraz, Robben Island has held captive some of the greatest political figures in South African history. Marco embarks on an emotional journey around an island whose history holds some of the most powerful stories ever told..."

"Since the time of early explorers, Table Mountain's distinctive shape has been both a beacon and a source of myth and legend. Jonathan Andrews shouldered his backpack and took the steep hike up its slopes..."

"It was all Luke's idea. We were going to climb up the mountains behind Kalk Bay and explore the famous caves. Rochelle van der Merwe tells the batty story of our Kalk Bay Caving expedition..."

""I want you to do a sort of Thelma and Louise," our MD told me. "It'll be the two of you on a road trip. We'll get you a car. You just have to drive up the Garden Route, go on safari, and have some adventures." I promised we would do our best..."

"Once South Africa's best-kept safari secret, the malaria-free Madikwe Game Reserve is rapidly becoming one of the country's most popular game parks. Read our Madikwe article and find out why..."

"Adventure is what Africa is all about, but that should be due to things like close encounters with lions, not annoying Anopheles mosquitoes. South Africa offers a huge variety of malaria free safari destinations, and we've chosen the best..."

"For ten days in early July, Knysna gets overrun with cyclists, runners and food-fanatics. Jonathan Andrews overlooked his aversion to molluscs and headed to the annual Knysna Oyster Festival to see what it is all about..."

"Winter was getting gray; I had to find somewhere warm and sunny to escape to. So when I was offered a bush and beach holiday at Phinda Game Reserve and Rocktail Bay, I simply couldn't refuse..."

"If you allow yourself to be put off by the alarmingly large crocodile population in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, you'd be missing out. It's possibly the only place in the world where you'll see sharks, hippos and crocs in the same water!"

"They say that falling helplessly out of an airplane at 11,000 feet is the single most exciting experience it's possible to have in the Cape Peninsula. Patrick went to see for himself, and returned with a tale of insanity and all his limbs intact..."

"The Go2Africa web team loves eating out (and hates washing up). Luckily, our offices are just around the corner from some of Cape Town's best coffee shops and lunch spots.

Alison decided to share a few of our favourite restaurants in Kloof and Long streets with the rest of the world. Hopefully we'll still be able to get a table..."

"We often take the wonderful weather in Cape Town for granted. But even when it's raining and the beaches and mountain are out of commission, there's still plenty to do in Cape Town. One rainy Saturday, Jonathan Andrews visited some of the city's indoor attractions."

"Apertures. Shutter speeds. F-stops. Hyenas. Creating excellent photographs can be a hazardous endeavour. But fear not! Whether you're after landscapes, wildlife shots or portraits, this article is all about how to make and take great photos on your African safari..."

"The Symphony of Fire is one of the biggest fireworks displays in the world as a thousand dollars worth of fireworks are exploded each minute to music. Cape Town hosted this event in April, and the Go2Africa team was there, wide-eyed with wonder..."

"Africa is Earth's second-largest continent, and the birthplace of the human race. Its most famous places include sites of great beauty, some of the natural wonders of the world, and the relics of ancient civilisations rich in history..."

"The Go2Africa Team took part in the Cape Argus Cycle Tour in March 2006 - 109km of agony, ecstasy and awesome scenery..."

"The magic of Africa is that it lends itself to diversity and openness. Once you've seen and been in Africa, the emancipation of your body and mind will stay with you for a while..."

"There's an almost forgotten part of the Kruger National Park that very few people experience. The far northern region of the park is a wilderness of great beauty and refined pleasures. But you need to be a certain kind of person to enjoy it. You need to be a Kruger connoisseur..."

"One of the most exciting conservation initiatives in southern Africa is the development of Transfrontier Parks. Foremost among them is the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park..."

"After 14 years together we finally decided to get married. Neither of us could face a traditional family wedding here in the UK, so it had to be South Africa. We had visited South Africa on a number of occasions and both of us had fallen in love with the blue skies, sunshine, and magnificent wildlife and scenery."

"My alarm goes at 4.30am one morning in July, but I'm already awake. I'm up early for a reason: I'm off to explore the Kruger Park."

"A family holiday is not a thing to be undertaken lightly. It requires planning, strategy and cunning. If you get the recipe right, the memories will last a lifetime."

"If you have a single sentimental bone in your body, you have to see Africa with someone you love. Or, better still, someone with whom you are contemplating spending the rest of your life choosing furniture..."

"In the southern hemisphere, the Christmas season is the time to go to the beach and Cape Town is the place to do it. You can ride a horse, fly a kite, watch penguins, surf the waves, snorkel in the shallows, dive in the deep or just lie in the sun."