Accommodation
People who have never been to Africa may be anxious about the standard of accommodation. But in the case of South Africa there�s absolutely no reason to worry, the country offers all the facilities that international visitors expect.
There�s a huge range of accommodation available in South Africa - to suit all tastes and pockets. With the increasingly advantageous exchange rate, your stay in South Africa will represent incredible value for money. There are some splendid luxury hotels, located in both city centres and resort areas. With their sumptuously appointed bedrooms and suites, 24-hour room service, choice of restaurants and bars, swimming pools and other amenities, they ensure the visitor feels like a VIP.
There is also a wide-range of properties aimed at the middle market providing levels of comfort at prices not found in Europe. In all these establishments the staff are courteous and helpful. By contrast, visitors may also wish to spend time in some of the excellent country guest houses and lodges, offering personalised service and excellent cuisine in very special character buildings and scenic settings. Some cater for only a handful of guests, but they all ensure their clients will be thoroughly pampered. Over the past few years, some guest houses and lodges have joined forces to market themselves and to provide a central reservations service.
Accommodation in game reserves range from the clean and comfortable self-catering chalets usually found in public camps to the character, luxury rooms offered by the private game lodges. Recently opportunities have been growing to stay in a typical African cultural village.
Self-catering properties operate to exacting standards and are often close to a range of other services like restaurants and bars. Visitors can also experience home-spun South African hospitality, staying with local families either on a farm or in bed and breakfast accommodation. You�ll be pleased to discover that the quality is far better than it is in their UK equivalents.
There are also more than 800 well equipped camping and caravan sites throughout the country including in game reserves, ideal for tourists renting a camper van. In South Africa, making people feel at home has been developed to a fine art!
The tastes of South Africa
It is hardly surprising that South Africa�s culinary traditions stem from many nations, cultures and traditions, since the country, on the Cape sea route, is a halfway house between east and west and is the melting pot of many different ethnic groups.
Waves of immigrants from overseas have given rise to a wide choice of international cuisine - English (including fish and chips!), Continental, Greek, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Malay, Indian and Chinese. Fast-food fans will also find hamburgers, hot-dogs and southern fried chicken.
But South Africa also has a wide range of "home grown" dishes, well represented in restaurants throughout the country.
And again, because of the strength of Sterling against the Rand, tourists will find their spending money goes much further than in the UK.
An example is Cape Dutch, which originated in Cape Town in the 17th century and spread northwards when the Boers trekked away from the Cape. It is a unique mixture of European peasant cooking, flavoured with herbs and spices from the east, brought to South Africa by workers from the Dutch East Indies. The Asian influence has made a rich contribution to South Africa�s cuisine, with tomato and bean bredies (stews), bobotie (a curried mince dish with onions and eggs) and rice, pumpkin fritters spiced with cinnamon, ginger cakes, sop en kluitjies (soup and dumpling) and frikadelle (meat balls).
Curry lovers will appreciate the Indian presence in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly in the Durban area. Tandorri - spiced chicken or mutton on rice or naan bread - is a speciality while samoosas, curried meat or vegetables in paper-thin pastry - are sold throughout the country.
Seafood is popular - not surprising considering the country�s long coastline. Crayfish is a special treat and "line-fish", or fish of the day, is featured on many menus. Kingklip, a full-flavoured white fish, is recommended. Seafood dishes such as calamari, oysters and abalone are a particular feature in restaurants along the western, Atlantic coast. You should also try snoek, salty, dried fish, which is frequently offered as an hors d�oeuvre or pat�.
Inland, the Karoo is renowned for its succulent lamb, while another favourite is waterblommetjie bredie (mutton stew cooked with the buds of water lilies), yellow rice with raisins, and baked sweet potatoes. Mealie-meal is a staple food in the country�s northern provinces. Yellow or brown maize or grain sorghum porridge add colour to many a breakfast table. Green mealies, or corn on the cob, with butter, is a popular delicacy. Stampkoring (crushed wheat) bredie is served with beans.
The meat in South Africa is of excellent quality. When you get the chance, try some of the local game - kudu, impala, nyala or ostrich steaks, tastier than beef but with less cholesterol. Other tasty dishes are mixed grills, beesstert (oxtail) and guinea fowl casserole cooked with spices and red wine until the meat falls off the bone! Biltong, wind-dried strips of beef or venison, is frequently available as a snack to accompany a drink or aperitif, and should be tried.
Potjiekos, an all-in stew cooked in a three-legged, iron pot, has also come back into fashion.
Other traditional delicacies are "walkaways", the humourous name for chicken legs, locusts and dried mopane worms. For the adventurous there is beeskloutjies, cloven hooves with delicious jelly-like meat in the cracks.
For sweets you can eat koeksisters (twined syrupy pastries), crunchies (syrupy biscuits), souskluitjies (dumplings) in syrup, mosbolletjies (round rusks), soetkoeke (sweet cookies), plum puddings, steam puddings and melktert (milk tart). Rusks (boerebeskuit) are traditionally dipped in coffee.
No round-up of South African cuisine would be complete without reference to the braai (the braaivleis or barbecue), an integral part of the South African way of life. Steaks, chicken, game and boerewors (a spicy sausage) will usually be found sizzling on the griddle and the meat will be accompanied by a variety of salads, vegetables - frequently including "pap", a kind of porridge - and South African specialities like tomato and onion puree, curried beans cooked with potatoes and pickled fish flavoured with curry.
Don�t miss out on the chance to have a braai, either during the day, when the blue skies are filled with sunshine, or at night, under a canopy of stars. It�s the chance to turn a meal into a memorable experience.
As South Africans usually say to guests before eating "Bon Appetit".
A menu to remember!
Ingredients for the following meal, offered to guests during an African cultural evening at a private game reserve, are gathered from the bush and served in the traditional style of the local Shangaan tribe.
Masonja (Mopane worms), Xi Fu Fu Nu Nu (Toasted scarab beetle larvae), Tshuka (Fried termites), Marog (Vegetable supplement), Ngwiri (Wild sweet potato), Sternatora (Mashed wild potato), Nkaanyi (Toasted, crushed marula nuts), Nyama (Wild game, cooked over an open fire), Nyoshi (Cultural pudding), Grewia (Bush tea), Xi Mongolwani (Mukatsani bee honey), Coffee made from the root of the �shepherds� tree�
Price examples
To help you plan your budget here are the average costs of some items of holiday spending money. The list is a guide only, prices may vary depending on the service provided and the location:
Three course meal - �4.80-�8; a crayfish dinner - �13, hamburger - �1.50; Bottle of wine in a restaurant - �2.80-�5; cup of tea or coffee - 40p; a gin and tonic - 60p; a beer - 50p;theatre ticket - �2.40-�6; cinema ticket - �1.80; litre of petrol - 22p; 35mm roll of film (36 exposures) - �2.40; 20 cigarettes - 70p