Why South Africa
This is the country where you can go on safari, drive a coastline of vineyards and walk a mountain above a major city on the same trip, with infrastructure that works and decent roads.
Kruger Park, the Garden Route, the Cape Peninsula and the Drakensberg make up a complete itinerary. And the country's history, from apartheid to its end, is present everywhere: the museums and the township tours led by their own residents are part of it.
Getting around
A rental car is the normal way to travel: the road network is good, fuel is cheap, and the distances are long. Driving is on the left, and the wheel is on the right.
Passenger rail is marginal, outside luxury tourist trains. Domestic flights link Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban cheaply. Shared taxis — the minibuses — are the main local transport, but hard for a visitor to read.
Money
Cards work everywhere, including at gas stations and lodges. The rand is weak against the euro, which makes the country affordable for eating out and accommodation, but safaris and private reserves remain expensive.
Tipping is expected and structural: ten per cent in restaurants, a sum for the parking attendants who watch cars, and a significant amount for guides and trackers at the end of a safari.
Before you go
Crime is real and localised. The usual rules apply, and seriously: no walking at night, no phone visible on the street, windows up and doors locked in the car, and you do not stop in neighbourhoods you do not know. In tourist areas and the parks, the situation is calm.
Scheduled power cuts — load-shedding — are a recurring reality: serious places to stay have a generator, and it is worth checking that when you book.
Malaria concerns the north-east, Kruger included, mainly from October to May: the question of preventive treatment is one to raise with a doctor before departure.