Bula South Africa!

Our trip to South Africa happened so randomly while chilling in Bad Dogs. It was unplanned and we ended up buying our tickets within minutes.

So long story short, we decided to make a holiday out of this trip by tagging along with our friend Shaneel who was marrying the love of his life in South Africa. (More details later).

Many of you asked numerous questions about our travel to South Africa, so let me break it down for you.

Tickets

Obviously, unless you can really afford to buy your tickets a week or two before travelling to South Africa then by all means go for it.

What we did was friendly on our budget and we bought our tickets 5 months prior to travelling. It cost us close to $7,000 FJD return. We went via Australia- Abu Dhabi- South Africa (Johannesburg).

Visa

A common question I was asked- is there even a South African Embassy in Fiji? Well thankfully, yes there is. They are located on 16 Kimberly Street in Suva.

You have to fill out a form and provide all necessary documents and pay around $75FJD per person. Passports are submitted and you receive your passport with a visa stamp within 5 working days. Very efficient by the way.

Money et al

Great news guys, FJD is 7 times stronger then the South African Rand! We had prepaid for accommodation and flights within South Africa and then budgeted for money on hand at around $2000USD for 3 weeks.

We utilized hotels and AirBnB (when in Cape Town), it is pretty cheap and safe. Always read reviews and look up actual locations on google maps to get a better understanding.

Food, drinks, and sight-seeing is also pretty cheap and boy did we over indulge!

If you think Australia, New Zealand or even USA have good malls well think again. South Africa has AMAZING malls and it’s massive! Again cheap and great shopping.

Is South Africa dangerous?

Once our friends heard that we were travelling to South Africa, many were alarmed for us and constantly sent us links to articles that read somewhat along the lines “Lion kills tourists” or “Tourist killed at gun shot” etc etc and as per media reports.

Were we scared? Of course! But Kamal and I have also been to Papua New Guinea before and we were kind of prepared for South Africa. (Yes I know, the two countries are VASTLY different). But of course danger lurks in every country and you must be alert at all times.

We spent 3 weeks in South Africa and did not feel unsafe at all. We were careful, avoided walking around in dodgy areas and took heed to local advice. We had an amazing time!

Durban- Cape Town- Johannesburg This is the route that we took and tried to do and see as many things as possible. I do feel that we will be going back to South Africa to explore more and more.

South Africa is beautiful and large continent that needs perhaps over 4 weeks or even multiple trips to cover properly.

Well, I will be sharing more details about each city soon! If you have any further questions or comments feel free to reach out!