If personalized service is a must for your family's South African tour, consider these three companies. Each offers flexibility and a different array of options for a more thoroughly unconventional approach to guided travel.
Visitors to South Africa seeking a vacation off the beaten path can look to small independent tour guide companies that specialize in showing their guests, including individual families, a side of the country not always seen by larger touring groups. Whether you’re bringing the kids, grandkids, parents or an entire family reunion, there is much to choose from in terms of a more personalized approach to tour arrangement.
Wild Coast Holiday Reservations: The Hidden Eastern Cape
William Ross of Wild Coast Holiday Reservations (27/43-743-6181) offers fascinating excursions around the Eastern Cape in southeast South Africa. The Eastern Cape is the birthplace of some of the country’s most prominent politicians, including former president Nelson Mandela and current president Thabo Mbeki.
A Wild Coast Holiday Reservations tour offers many options along their flagship trail, the Wild Coast Meander. Your journey might begin with a stay at the ultra-modern Sun International Hemingways Hotel and Casino or the company’s own Meander Inn in East London, the second biggest port city in this region. The next day should include a drive, mostly on a dirt road, toward the cliffs of Morgan Bay. Ross will guide you on a leisurely hike to Kei River Mouth to see a lighthouse, followed by a relaxing boat cruise on the river.
There are a number of fine cultural villages set up for tourists throughout South Africa, but in the Eastern Cape, Ross takes his clients to an actual Xhosa village. After traveling by ferry to the Transkei, you will visit a Xhosa family still living much like their ancestors hundreds of years ago. The Xhosa people were some of the first inhabitants of the region, and Nelson Mandela is a Xhosa. Your visit will include an invitation into a thatched-roof home called a kraal, owned by the tribe’s healer. This lively woman will demonstrate her holistic rituals and primitive chores while her friends and family sing in perfect harmony and keep a rhythmic beat. Not too many tourists make it to these parts. Television host Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network donated a tremendous amount of funds for the children of this improvised area.
In addition to the Wild Coast Meander, Wild Coast Holiday Reservations offers excursions on five other trails, each with unique rural attractions, family-friendly lodging, guides, and porters.
Bophelo Tours & Safaris: Variety, Luxury, History
Marius Barnard of Bophelo Tours and Safaris (27/83-957-5010) offers guided and self-guided tours throughout South Africa, catering to a variety of groups, including the disabled. His tours are great for multi-generational families traveling together. You can include the ultra-luxurious Rovos Rail for a safari by train. From Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province, Barnard can take you 15 kilometers away to Soweto, which is comprised of 22 townships. In 1976, the first riots against apartheid began in Soweto. The Hector Petersen Memorial, named for a thirteen-year-old boy killed by a policeman’s bullet, stands as a tribute to those who lost their lives. Other places of interest include the former home of Nelson Mandela, now a museum, and the current compound of Winnie Mandela, his very controversial former wife.
Africa Classic Encounters: The Family Safari
For families seeking the more safari-oriented South African experience, African Classic Encounters (212/972-0031) offers a variety of smaller guided tours in South Africa. With offices in both Africa and the United States, this company doesn’t even accept online bookings–they prefer to offer consultations on the phone or in-house to best personalize the travel experience. Custom South African safaris, designed for a variety of price ranges, are each led by personal rangers and a Shangaan tracker. Special family-oriented programs include a walk with baboons and whale watching.
Award-winning South African Airways (27/11-978-5313) flies from New York’s JFK Airport to Johannesburg. An SAA domestic connection brings you to Durban or East London.
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P.E. Island was amazing! If you ever have the chance to go there take it! It was so beautiful and all of the places in the books were fun to visit.
your picture of the horses on the beach remind me of Sweden. Thanks for bringing back the memories
You wrote a really good article on such an interesting & sad topic!
I’ve always wanted to go to P.E. Island! I loved those books. Luuuucky
nicely written 🙂
This is a wonderful story, you will be a great doctor.
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Hello, Ralph. An email voice from the past. Would like to catch up some time. I left Amtrak in '95 and have been living in the Boston area since '97. Have wonderful wife and 3 daughters (the oldest a senior at Barnard). Hope you and Fran are well. Send me a note some time.
Peter
Its really informative. Thank you Goldenberg.In Australia I like Sydney more because of its added attractions. Thank you .
Its really informative. Thank you Arrien .In Australia I like Sydney more because of its added attractions.
thanks for the information. I can use this for my child, since i do not like ANY thing that moves!!!
http://www.orlando4holidays.com
Parents and guardians with questions about transporting minors between countries other than the U.S. should ask the Visa Division of each country's Embassy for exact regulations. Canada, for example, can be very strict about granting children visas and may require a health exam.
The paperwork for vacations and short stay visits can be found at this link:
http://www.familytravelforum.com/how/advice/10545-Required-Documents-For-Travel-With-Minors.html?p=4
Would appreciate a copy of the sample formpermission letter for minor traveling with other than parent situation.
Yoga today is very important in people’s life. Yoga is gaining more and more importance as there is a lot of stress at workplaces. Yoga is the best and easy way to reduce the stress. And I have some good yoga tips at http://www.jiyohealthy.com/category/stress/
Playground Safety Common-sense rules. We are getting parents and professionals to pool together to create a kid-friendly understanding of how to have fun safely on any playground.
Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze is so much fun, and clean for an outdoor facility. Pumpkins arriving in one week!
hi looking for a quote for a pick up from newark airport on the 22/10/09 for four people to east 88st
i had a report to do on martinique, and before my teacher told me what i had to write about, i had know clue about martinique. now i want to go there. this site helped me do my project,and hopfully i will get an A
Looking for what ever we need for my Fiance to bring his daughter from Jamaica to Canada. He is a single parent and has primary custody, but I'm sure travelling internationally, that he will need a letter from her birth mother.
Thanks
Pattii
The mother of my daughter left her with out my consent to D.r and left her there with her mother returning to the United State abondoning my child for 5 years and just to go visit her every year a 1 year old little girl ..Wjat u think is dat
love the pix, you really capture what’s so beautiful about all these places. thanks for bringing those thoughts to my screen.
I had the best family reunion ever with primo events beach homes in virginia Beach. They gave me a beautifyl resort house and provided family games which made it fun for everybody.
Dennis Carini
New Jersey
Eva, the document is available on page 4 of this story. Thanks!
Please send me Permission to Travel Form
THanks for this resource!
Hello,
I would like to introduce a famous restaurant in Budapest, Liszt Ferenc square 9. Café Miró Grande restaurant is located in the heart of Budapest.
I think Café Miró Grande's chef prepared the best Hungarian dishes in Budapest, for example Goulas soup, 'Lecsó', etc.
Don't miss it, when you visit the beautiful city of Budapest.
Another attraction of note is taking a canopy tour. When we filmed the pilot episode for our TV series "Paradise Hunter" we filmed with The Original Canopy Tour. They were excellent and provided some great knowledge of the bio-diversity in the cloud forest.
I would like to obtain a sample form or letter to authorize my mother in-law (my daughters grand mother) to travel to orlando florida where they will be meeting up with the other parent & then in a few days travel on a domestic flight to miami
please email me. Need a sample Permission to Travel letter for International Travel with one parent.
read the instructions first
We've book a number of trips to Phuket for beginners and more advanced divers. The've all had a great time. Although is a bit further than the Caribbean. If you stay longer it's worth the flight time.
I need sinple form traveling with my step daughter, her mother is deceased. Her Father will not be traveling with us to the Bahamas
Hi to parents and grandparents traveling with minors, in need of this Permission Letter.
You can get a free sample of this blank form by filling out the email request at the end of this story. We ask everyone to sign up this way so that we can send you email updates as these regulations change, which is often!
Please read the story through to the end so that you understand the issue in full. Thanks for your interest in family travel!
FTF Editors
please send me the Permission to Travel letter for International Travel with one parent form.
This resort is totally top notch. It's great there. And Amelia Island is one beautiful relaxing place. Love Fernandina Beach and also visiting Fort Clinch. All the best.
My granddaughter a minor,is travelling out of the country with me for two weeks, and I need a permission form for her parents to sign, in case of emergency, so that I can make medical decisions for her. Thank you.
This is really interesting take on the concept. I never thought of it that way.
Thanks for the comment, Paola! Fun story and glad you took the time to write.
Here's to roses and wine!
Can you please send me a standard document for a minor travelling with one parent.
Thanks
Javier,
You can request a sample Permission to Travel letter by using the form at the end of this story. For information on a temporary resident visa, please check with the Canadian High Commission at this webpage: http://www.visabureau.com/canada/canadian-high-commission.aspx
good luck!
Hello there i am looking for a letter sample of the one paren tarvel with child,the one Canadian Embassy requiring to extend temporary resident visa. Thanks for your kindly help.
What a great story, you were so lucky to be home at that time of year and your pictures are beautiful… Wish I could see it too.
This is soooooo right for all of us, not only Americans.
Anyway,about the roses, he is right especially about the odd number….
I liked hearing about Verona, I never knew there really was a balcony there and that any of that R&J story was true!
The legend of H? Long has it that, “Once upon a time, soon after the Vi?t people established their country, invaders came. The Jade Emperor sent Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons down to earth to help the Vi?t people fight against their enemy. Right at the time invaders’ boats were rushing to the shore, the dragons landed down on earth. The dragons immediately sent out from their mouths a lot of pearls, which then turned into thousands of stone islands emerging in the sea like great walls challenging the invaders’ boats. The fast boats couldn’t manage to stop and crashed into the islands and into each other and broke into pieces.
Diane:
Please go to the last page of this story and fill out a request form. Then the documents will be e-mailed to you.
Jillian
Need a sample Permission to Travel letter for International Travel with one parent.