By Lou Seibert Pappas
 The new South Africa comes close to paradise as a travel
destination. Breathtaking scenery, a near-perfect climate,
superb food and wines, and exciting sporting activities
compose an enticing holiday package. Plus this all comes
together at an affordable price, often one-half the daily
rate of a comparable European sojourn.
What's more, there is a sophisticated, refined European
ambiance in the hotels and restaurants amid a charming,
warm African culture. True, service is not always perfection
and certain areas and neighborhoods are off limits due
to crime, but that's typical of many global cities.
Lying at the southernmost tip of Africa, encompassing
a vast area of over 1,200,000 square kilometers, South
Africa is home to over 40 million people from vastly
different cultural societies. To accommodate this diversity,
the country now has 11 official languages -- the highest
of any country in the world -- although English has been
declared the main language of business.
Today, with Nelson Mandela at the helm as president,
there exists a genuine sense of pride and euphoric optimism
for the country, among all the people, no matter what
their politics or living standard. The interesting mix
of people and languages, creeds and cultural elements
drawn from both the developed and developing worlds,
creates a fascinating ambiance and a delectable table.
A holiday in South Africa affords a varied range of activities,
from the upscale ambiance of fine Relais and Chateaux
hotels to the more informal coziness of bed and breakfast
home stays. Shopping centers, craft markets, and roadside
flea markets tempt the shopper with local arts and crafts
such as Zulu baskets and beadwork jewelry; ethnic silver
and costume jewelry; table linens; and wood carvings,
salad bowls, and servers. Sporting activities include
ballooning, rafting, snorkeling, and a must: the game
parks.
If you go, South African Airways has direct flights from
Miami and New York several times a week to Cape Town
and Johannesburg. The non-stop, overnight flight from
Miami to Cape Town takes around 14 hours and the considerate
stewardesses aim to keep the traveler happy.
On a March, three-week trip with newspaper food editors
from the States, our itinerary commenced in Cape Town
with deluxe accommodations at the Lord Charles Hotel
in Somerset West. With its majestic Table Mountain and
Lion's Head Peak backdrop, Cape Town is a beautiful city.
A harmonious blend of architecture dovetails with old
Edwardian and Victorian buildings, Cape Dutch homes,
and contemporary high rises.
The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Development is an
exciting destination for touring with its extensive shopping
mall, craft markets, theaters, aquarium, Maritime Museum,
and varied ethnic restaurants in affordable price ranges.
Boat trips around the harbor are a popular sideline.
On the edge of the city, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
offer a pastoral setting for a picnic. On a clear day,
a five minute cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain
affords a spectacular view of the Peninsula. The lower
slopes of Signal Hill houses the Bo-Kaap area identified
with Malay culture and Muslim mosques.
Opened in 1899, the colonial, five-star Mount Nelson
Hotel provides the ultimate in accommodations in its
28 suites and 131 rooms, surrounded by landscaped gardens
and pool, in the heart of the city at the base of Table
Mountain.
Aboard a big, 42 passenger Inter-Cape Mercedes bus, we
traversed the Cape Peninsula, the Wine Route of Stellenbosch,
Franschhoek, and Paarl; and the Garden Route of Stilbaai,
Mossel Bay, and Oudtshoorn. The countryside is spectacular
and the traffic is sparse. Orchards, vineyards, and grain
fields thread the landscape in the Western Cape as this
is the economic engine for the region. Five million cartons
yearly of fresh Cape fruit are sent around the world
to 40 countries.
Accommodations are available in charming country inns
and homes throughout this region. The Grande Roche Hotel,
nestled among vineyards under the Great Paarl Rock, has
an outstanding restaurant and 29 elegant suites. A Relaix
and Chateau property, it received the Hotel of the Year
award in 1996.
Le Quartier Francais Auberge with 17 rooms is a romantic
inn in the area at Fransenhoek. The rate of 750 rand
for two persons in a lovely king size bedroom includes
breakfast and dinner. (Excluding meals, the fee is 595
rand.)
The Huguenot Monument draws visitors on the edge of town.
A spectacular site is the Afrikaans Language Monument
with its unique sculptural design and top-of-the-mountain
viewing area.
Stilbaai is a quiet, gem of a town with a breathtaking
sweep of unspoiled shoreline. Tourists swell the population
of a few thousand to over 32,000 in January and February,
as holiday seekers arrive to enjoy the fishing, musseling,
and swimming. The nature preserve is maintained environmentally
and requires that private homes be specially-designed
with thatch-roofs that blend into the shoreline. The
indigenous dune figs are made into a popular scarlet
jam.
Visiting an ostrich farm and riding one of these eight-foot-tall
birds is a frolicsome pastime enroute. A picturesque
town is Mossel Bay with its Shell Museum and Maritime
Museum housing a replica of the Portuguese caravelle,
a ship that sailed here in 1488. The Old Post Office
Tree Guest House provides 29 delightful, twin-bedded
rooms just across the road from these sights. The room
rate per person is 195 rand in a deluxe room with a buffet
breakfast.
From George all ages board the Choo-Tjoe steam train
for a 30-minute ride to Wilderness. A bird-watching cruise
on the Touw River with Kingfisher Ferry provides a serene
early morning or late day activity. Karos Wilderness
Hotel with its large suite-style rooms, pool, and extensive
breakfast buffet is an ideal respite. The rate is $50
per person with breakfast. A short drive away, the Knynsa
Ferry plies the lagoon, serving fresh oysters and local
beer to the passengers on a cruise.
A fish braai, or barbecue, at Buffels Cove in Buffels
Bay is a choice adventure for dinner. By reservation
only, this attracts a group of friends to enjoy a seafood
barbecue of freshly caught fish from the estuary, along
with mussels, salads, paella, home-made bread, and dessert,
all for 45 rand or about $11 per person.
In George, Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate is
a premier, 27-hole golf and leisure resort with a health
and beauty pavilion, pools, and conference center. Accommodations
include rooms in the historic manor house, garden suites,
or studios. Croquet, volley ball, and trips to nearby
beaches are scheduled. Four restaurants offer varied
dining.
We took in the scenic splendor of Plettenberg Bay, the
Knysna Heads viewpoint, and the Tsitskamma National Park,
with gorges, waterfalls, and wild flowers. We were enroute
to an overnight at the five-star Shamwari Game Reserve.
The stay included exciting dusk-and-dawn game drives,
a bountiful boma dinner by firelight, and accommodations
that ranged from deluxe rooms in the manor house or nearby
cottages to a lodge half-an-hour away.
From the sparkling bay city of Port Elizabeth we flew
to Durban and there enjoyed the regal ambiance of the
five-star Royal Hotel with its spectacular Royal Grill
and a tour of the William Campbell Afrikaner Museum and
the Victoria Street Market, a good place to bargain for
necklaces and Zulu baskets. Le St. Geran Club Room is
a find for a superb French dining. The menu features
a delicious crab soup or mushrooms stuffed with prawns,
succulent rack of lamb or barracuda with prawns and basmati
rice, and creme brulee or cherries and ice cream in liqueur.
The three course menu runs $22 per person.
A flight to Jo-burg and a stay in Sandown afforded an
elite five course dinner at Chez Patrice in the Balalaika
Hotel and Crown Court, adjacent to an upscale shopping
center.
Shanty townships have sprouted on the outskirts of the
cities and towns as people have migrated from the countryside
to the cities to seek work. An empty field mushrooms
into thousands of shacks almost overnight, and the conditions
are primitive. The government continually aims to upgrade
the shanties by installing water and electricity hook-ups.
Some townships are singled-out as models and financial
assistance is given to build better real homes and create
jobs for the people. The population hopes that tourism
will provide service jobs for the people. Yet unemployment
remains high -- some say 40 percent.
A delightful dinner and overnight at the exemplary Coach
House in the magnificent North Province preludes a two
night stay at Sabi Sabi, a prime game hostelry within
Kruger National Park. Enroute, a Bush Buffet lunch by
Karos Lodge afforded a view of their fine accommodations
alongside the Sabie River at Kruger Gate. Priced at 325
rand per person, daily, for three meals and an air-conditioned
double room, a stay there runs considerably less than
a private game park. A game drive can be added for 295
rand.
Sabi Sabi affords deluxe accommodations in three lodges.
At Bush Lodge, thatched chalets and luxury suites in
ethnic African style provide air-conditioned accommodations
between the break-of-day and sunset drives in the bush.
With our ranger, Keith Macvicar, six of us took off in
an open Land Rover with a Shangaan tracker. With luck,
we partook in a leopard kill, watched a herd of elephants
strip bark from trees, saw a pair of lions and their
twin cubs at a distance of 10 feet, almost rubbed noses
with rhinoceros five feet away, and observed a quintet
of graceful giraffes. Boma dining under the stars and
bountiful buffets brunches, and lunches enhanced the
stay. The rate tallies about $400 a day per person in
a suite with meals and two game rides.
The charm of the Courtyard Inn in Arcadia, Pretoria,
and the thatched cottages at the Mount Grace Country
House on a hillside in Parklands nearby afforded a restful
finale before the long flight home.
Throughout, the people we met in the food and wine industries
and the hotel and restaurant fields were an extraordinary
delight. Refined and sophisticated, they offer an upbeat
attitude for the new South Africa.
Resources
South African Tourism Board (USA Western)
9841 Airport Boulevard, Suite 1524
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Telephone (310) 641-8444 or (800) 782-9772
Fax (310) 641-5812
South African Tourist Board (USA Eastern)
500 Fifth Avenue, 20th Floor
Suite 2040
New York NY 10110
Telephone (212) 730-2929 or (800) 822-5368
Fax (212) 764-1980
South African Airlines
(800) 722-9675
Article © 2002-2006, Sally's
Place
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