A few years ago we started planning our trip to South Africa but the logistics planning quickly became too much! We couldn’t decide if we should join a tour group for a safari or rent a car and self drive through Kruger National Park or something else all together. We put the trip on hold while we saved and continued researching options of how to make the trip work. Hopefully this will help your trip planning so you can successfully book your South African safari asap!
How to get there
At the end of 2018, we boarded our flight from Dallas to London with a 6 hour layover, then from London to Johannesburg. Two very long flights! We were able to use our American Airlines upgrades for the Dallas-London leg for two business class seats but since the second flight was on British Airways, we flew the old fashion way COACH.
If you’re flying from the US most likely your options are flying through London/Frankfurt or through the Middle East and then off to Johannesburg or Cape Town. Because these flights are so long this is a great time to try and use points for the flight or for an upgrade. See our articles on tips for using points.
Johannesburg
Once we arrived in Johannesburg for one night we stayed at the Marriott Pretoria Parktonian. We had read about the safety concerns in Johannesburg and since this hotel is not in a super touristy area we didn’t feel as safe walking around the city like we typically would. We asked the hotel to help us take a taxi to the Apartheid Museum which we HIGHLY recommend visiting!
The rest of our stay in Johannesburg was spent trying to get used to the time change.
If you’re flying through Johannesburg this is a great time to adjust to the time change by staying in a less expensive hotel as when you get to the safari lodges, you don’t want to be too jetlagged as you’ll be paying a lot more for your stay there!
Getting to the Safari
The next morning we headed back to the airport to board our flight to Hoedspruit on SA express. Our lodge Arathusa scooped us up from the airport. (It was possible to book a private charter and land on the Arathusa property but that is pretty pricey!)
Arathusa is located in Sabi Sand which is next to Kruger National Park. Sabi Sand is private game reserve that allows the lodges located on it to drive all around the area. This is different than visiting Kruger National Park as you have to stay on the main roads in the park. On a game reserve the lodges can drive all over so your chance of seeing the Big 5 is much higher.
Staying in Arathusa is not cheap (over $400/person per night) but everything is included in the rate. There are 3 meals a day (including alcohol) as well as 2 game drives and a bush walk per day. The lodge is amazing and the food is delicious! The game drives have max 9 people on them and the whole lodge is only 13 suites, so never feels crowded. It’s WILD waking up and seeing an elephant right outside your window because you are staying literally in the African bush.
In Arathusa we stayed 3 nights/4 days which we felt was a good amount of time (plus all we could really afford!). In that time we saw the big 5 right away.
There are many other lodges in Sabi Sands with different price points. When I was searching where to stay I had a hard time finding out what they all were and how to book without a travel agent. I made sure to take a picture of them so I would remember for the future to look into these!
I can’t recommend Arathusa enough. If you’re interested in another lodge, I suggest finding the lodge’s website and booking with them directly as opposed to a travel agent. When looking at the rates the cost was significantly higher to book through an agent versus booking directly through the lodge, and there was not much advantage to using a travel agent.
Also, many lodges will offer to book the SA express flights for you for convenience. I always recommend booking these on your own separately in case you need to change them. Much easier to do that on your own and cheaper than having the hotel book them for you.
Cape Town
We didn’t know when we would be able to go back to SA so we made sure to add Cape Town to our itinerary. We flew from Hoedspruit to Cape Town, about 2.5 hr flight and then picked up a rental car upon landing. We decided to split up our stay in Cape Town and spend 2 nights in Greenpoint by the waterfront and live the city life, followed by 2 nights in Llandudno near the beach. We definitely rushed through Cape Town and wished we could have added a few more days here! There is so much to do like hike Lion’s Head, take the tram to Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, and Boulder’s Beach.
Check out our article about how to maximize time in Cape Town.
Other south African game reserves
Sabi Sands is not the only private game reserve in South Africa. Other game reserves include, Mala Mala, Kapama and Shamwari. We chose Sabi Sands based on the lodge we found and were very impressed by it. Not all private game reserves can be “easy” to get to and could require private flights. Sabi Sands was the best of both worlds were there was an airport (Hoedspruit) relatively close and many lodges to choose from. Recommend choosing it for your South African safari adventures!
