South Africa on the Cheap(ish)

[froggerADL]

So that’s the international flights sorted.

The plan for the actual holiday is:

Arrive at JNB in the evening,
Stay overnight,
Fly JNB-DUR,
Collect hire car and drive ~300kms to Rhino River Lodge,
Spend three nights at Rhino River Lodge,
Drive ~300kms back to DUR and drop off hire car,
Fly DUR-JNB,
Stay overnight,
Join Epic Enabled Kruger safari for seven nights,
Fly to CPT,
Re-join Epic Enabled for four nights in Cape Town,
Additional overnight in Cape Town,
Depart for Adelaide.

I still had a few bookings to make!

 

[Guvner]

We did the drive from DUR up past Rhino River last year. Easy drive, not a lot to see, just a freeway mostly.

 

[froggerADL]

We did the drive from DUR up past Rhino River last year. Easy drive, not a lot to see, just a freeway mostly.

Thanks for confirming that Guvner. I read that finding your way out of JNB can be confusing plus the shorter drive were the reasons I chose to fly to DUR rather than drive from JNB.

 

[froggerADL]

I’d already done a bit of research on hotel options at JNB and was delighted to find that I could get a one night stay at the Intercontinental at the airport for just 30,000 IHG points. As I have 63,000 IHG points and need two single night stays, this works out perfectly.

The cash rate for the same room is R4590 for the non-refundable rate for two guests. This is a great value use of IHG points in my opinion at ~1.5 cents per point.

The Intercontinental is opposite the international arrivals hall so it is extremely convenient given we will only be staying for around 16 hours between flights. It’s also just 1.5km from the hotel to join the Kruger tour.

Both stays have been booked.

Flexibility: Free cancellation.

 

[froggerADL]

The next booking needed to be for the Epic Enabled tour. This tour has a minimum cancellation fee of 20% and that jumps to 50% for cancellations between 50 - 60 days prior to departure. It is 100% for cancellation within 30 days of departure. And it’s not cheap, although it seems good value.

This means that I need to be very sure that we are going and also I need to make sure that I can get affordable travel insurance with my pre-existing medical condition.

At this point I made contact with Epic to express my interest in the tour and ask a couple of questions, including information about payment arrangements. Unfortunately they don’t take credit cards so it would have to be via electronic transfer. I haven’t done this before so more research was required.

There is a clause that the tour may be cancelled if there are less than 4 pax. So I asked about the likelihood of them not getting the additional two pax. They confirmed that they already have bookings and the May 2017 tour is confirmed to operate. Phew!

So now to research travel insurance and international transfers.

 

[Guvner]

Thanks for confirming that Guvner. I read that finding your way out of JNB can be confusing plus the shorter drive were the reasons I chose to fly to DUR rather than drive from JNB.

Make sure you have some small notes/coins, there are tolls on the motorway.

 

[froggerADL]

Make sure you have some small notes/coins, there are tolls on the motorway.

Another great tip. Thanks Guvner.

 

[love_the_life]

I’d already done a bit of research on hotel options at JNB and was delighted to find that I could get a one night stay at the Intercontinental at the airport for just 30,000 IHG points. As I have 63,000 IHG points and need two single night stays, this works out perfectly.

The cash rate for the same room is R4590 for the non-refundable rate for two guests. This is a great value use of IHG points in my opinion at ~1.5 cents per point.

The Intercontinental is opposite the international arrivals hall so it is extremely convenient given we will only be staying for around 16 hours between flights. It’s also just 1.5km from the hotel to join the Kruger tour.

Both stays have been booked.

Flexibility: Free cancellation.

We've stayed at the IC a couple of times - it's a great hotel IMO, much prefer it to the one in the city itself.

 

[froggerADL]

InsureAndGo and Covermore get reasonable reviews for making it easy to add pre-existing medical conditions to travel insurance policies and get instant quotes. I’ve used TID previously so would check them also along with QBE for a laugh. The policy would be for two people for three weeks in South Africa.

I should point out that I have never claimed on a travel insurance policy so therefore I can’t recommend any company. If I do have to make a claim I'll let you know how I go.

TID don’t make it easy to add pre-existing medical conditions to the policy but the quote was about $330. I had a starting point.

Covermore do make it easy to add pre-existing medical conditions to the policy. I found my condition from the available options, which surprised me as it’s not very common. I then answered four condition specific questions and it gave me the quote.

The was an additional charge of a little over $100 for the pre-existing medical condition for a total of around $340. Not too bad but the excess was $250 which I think is a bit high.

InsureAndGo also make it easy to add pre-existing medical conditions to the policy. The quote process was similar to Covermore but there was no additional cost for the pre-existing medical condition. The quote was about $250. I then went hunting for a discount code and found one for 10% off. So the total cost was $225. The excess was $100; much better, and it had very good cover levels. Another good thing about this policy is that they only have two regions: Worldwide excluding USA, Canada, Mexico, Central & South America and Antarctica and Worldwide including USA, Canada, Mexico, Central & South America and Antarctica. Too easy.

I then went to QBE for that laugh and they didn’t disappoint. Not easy to add pre-existing medical conditions to the policy and the quote was $800. I’ll pass.

I went with InsureAndGo for $225. I read some reviews and they get some pretty negative ones. One was complaining that their claim was rejected when they had to return home as their terminally ill 90 year old Grandmother had died. Another was upset because her claim for expenses to return home for her sister’s funeral was rejected. Her schizophrenic sister had committed suicide. They are not unreasonable rejections in my view.

 

[love_the_life]

We have a son with a mental illness and from what I have found, no travel insurance will cover us if something happens to him as part of his disease. (It is part of the traveller/close family thing). It is what we live with and a few years ago lost several $000 when we canceled an extended trip rather than take the risk as he had been hospitalised a few weeks before we were due to leave.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Sounds to me like you have put together a wonderful adventure FroggerADL!

If your travelling domestically on BA ( Comair) the SLOW lounges at JNB, DUR & CPT are marvellous for a domestic lounge if you have choose BA.

As someone who has visited Southern Africa 3 times, the one warning I will give you is that is it an extremely addictive destination to visit.

Without talking it up too much, get set for an epic adventure, the culture and atmosphere gets into your blood.

 

[Fifa]

Looking forward to your next cheapskate trip as I really enjoyed your last TR.

I have used my Citibank Visa debit card to make international money transfers - fee free and not a bad exchange rate plus easy to do online.

 

[kpc]

I’d already done a bit of research on hotel options at JNB and was delighted to find that I could get a one night stay at the Intercontinental at the airport for just 30,000 IHG points. As I have 63,000 IHG points and need two single night stays, this works out perfectly.

The cash rate for the same room is R4590 for the non-refundable rate for two guests. This is a great value use of IHG points in my opinion at ~1.5 cents per point.

The Intercontinental is opposite the international arrivals hall so it is extremely convenient given we will only be staying for around 16 hours between flights. It’s also just 1.5km from the hotel to join the Kruger tour.

Both stays have been booked.

Flexibility: Free cancellation.

The cash rate for this hotel is very expensive so it is an excellent use of IHG points....when I stayed here in 2012, it was 30000 pts a night so it is unbelevable that it is the same rate now....very convenient location at Jnb airport, nice hotel and the restaurant food is excellent at a very reasonable cost...funny but good thing....we arranged an early am wakeup call and phone rang as expected. 5 minutes later, there was banging on the door as someone was sent up to make sure we were really up, and hadn't just answered the phone and fallen back to sleep

 

[froggerADL]

I was now ready to book the Epic Enabled safari/tour. I had decided on the 12 Day/11 nights Kruger and Cape Town tour. The first 8 days/7 nights are in the Kruger and then 4 days/4 nights in Cape Town. Interestingly, and a bit weird to me, the flight from JNB to CPT is not included in the tour price so that will be booked separately.

The price for the tour is R28,330 each, so R56,660 all up. This includes all food, accommodation, daily activities and ground transport in Kruger and bed & breakfast plus day tours in Cape Town. We’ll also pay R100 each to meet Jessica the Hippo! This works out at ~$500 per night for both of us for the eleven nights. As I said, it’s not cheap but I hope it proves to be good value.

Now I needed to pay the 20% deposit by electronic transfer. This was a first for me and there may be better options out there than the one I chose. If so, I'm happy to be told as I still have to pay the remaining 80% in March.

I spent a fair bit of time researching online forex sites but eventually decided to send the money from my Citibank Plus Transaction Account. This is fee free and seems to have pretty good exchange rates which are locked in when you click the send button. I think I got 10.15 rand to the dollar when the xe.com rate was 10.25. The money arrived in the recipients account within 24 hours.

 

[froggerADL]

Now that I'd paid a non-refundable deposit of over $1100 I figured I may as well book the Rhino River Lodge.

The Rhino River Lodge costs around $400 per night for both of us. This includes all meals plus a morning and afternoon game drive each day. This place gets great reviews and the accommodation looks really nice.

The total cost for three nights in a Family Chalet was R12180 which included the conservation levy of R300 (R50 per person per day). They accept credit cards without surcharge so I put the 50% deposit on my 28Degrees MasterCard (this card was an early AFF learning and has saved me heaps over the years).

Flexibility: Not good! The cancellation fee is 25% up to four weeks prior to arrival, rising by a further 25% each week until it reaches 100% one week out.

 

[mmchow]

I had so much fun reading your last TR so following this with interest. May is not that far away

 

[froggerADL]

I had so much fun reading your last TR so following this with interest. May is not that far away

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It is getting quite close. I'm getting excited!

 

[froggerADL]

The next thing I booked was the rental car. This took quite a bit of research as my son will be doing the driving and he is only 23 years old. As it turns out, South Africa is quite good in this regard. Most companies apply a surcharge at this age but the rates can still be quite reasonable.

After a lot of messing about I decided on a Toyota Corolla (“or similar”) from Avis. As we’ll be collecting the car in the morning and returning it late afternoon I’ll be paying for four days.

When you search on the Avis site it asks for the driver’s age and nationality. I noticed that a 23 year old from the U.S. pays about 25% less than the same quote for an Aussie. Does anyone know why this is?

Another strange thing is that when you do the search for a driver under 25 you get this message:



I had to ring the actual Avis location to find out what the young drive surcharge is! Just as well I have a very cheap VOIP service. It is R350 for the whole rental. From what I could find, this made Avis the best value overall as I found a few companies that charge R250 per day. It includes unlimited kilometres.

Total price is R1350 plus the R350 surcharge so around $170 for four days which I thought was quite reasonable. It’ll earn a few QFF points too!

If you can think of better options please let me know?

Flexibility: Free cancellation

 

[TomVexille]

I suspect because in most US states one gets a full licence at the age of 16 (and as low as 15 some places).

 

[froggerADL]

As I mentioned previously, the Cape Town tour finishes in the evening and our flight from CPT departs in the morning so this requires an extra night accommodation.

As I have HHonours Diamond status I always check Hilton properties first. Although I’m a self-confessed cheapskate I usually get great value out of my stays with them with free breakfast and good upgrades etc. They have a Hilton and a DoubleTree in Cape Town. Flexible rates are R1060 for the DT and R2800 for the Hilton. I could get non-refundable rates for R876 or R2030 respectively but I don’t want to lock it in yet.

I’ve made a flexible booking at the DT for now and will monitor rates. It's a pity that they don't have an Executive Lounge . If they have a really good deal at the Hilton close to the date I may move there.

Flexibility: Free cancellation.