Africa travel tips

South Africa has diverse landscapes, from beautiful beaches to rugged mountains, making it a perfect destination for nature lovers. One of the unique accommodations in South Africa is the Stargazing Cube Misty Mountain Cube, located in the scenic Garden Route region.

Bringing private safari experiences to adventurers from across the world, Tswalu Kalahari’s trips reach far beyond a stereotypical safari. The largest private game reserve in South Africa, Tswalu doubles as the home of the Tswalu Foundation. Dedicated to environmental research, the foundation joins Tswalu’s lauded safari camps in sharing the secrets of the Kalahari with curious visitors.

Being an eco-friendly visitor is about more than avoiding plastic bottles (although that helps). It’s also about adding enjoyment to your holiday by learning more about your destination and giving something back, something that’s especially easy in South Africa’s Limpopo province. Here are our favourite sustainable tourism and conservation projects in this exciting region.

We recently invited community projects and travel businesses to tell us their stories. We especially wanted to hear from initiatives that do things differently to make a difference — projects like the inspirational Creseldah Education Foundation (CEF), based in the Mpumalanga province of eastern South Africa.

Subtropical heat, golden beaches, craft distilleries and spicy curries: Durban is an intriguing mix of urban South Africa and the Indian subcontinent, with a generous sprinkling of hipster culture thrown in. From surf to spirits, we reveal six reasons you should make time for this sunny city.

Johannesburg is a much-misunderstood city but despite misconceptions it’s one well worth visiting too, with a wealth of museums and galleries, world-class jazz and – as it turns out – a thriving street art scene. With Past Experiences guide and founder Jo Buitendach, Rebecca Hallett takes a walking tour of Maboneng Precinct to discover a lesser-known side to the city.

For intrepid and adventurous backpackers, the enigmatic African continent will always possess a particular allure. But Africa is not for the faint-hearted, and even more seasoned travellers will undoubtedly face a steep learning curve during their time here.

With a good network of roads, and so many interesting places to see along the way, a road trip through South Africa is a great and easy way to explore the country. Here’s our guide to some of the highlights.

South Africa's ever-changing landscapes, pristine coastlines, quirky small towns and abundance of wide open spaces have cemented the country's reputation as one of the world's best road trip destinations.

From the Indian Ocean beaches in the east to the desert coasts of the west, and from the beautiful winelands around Cape Town to the jagged peaks of the Drakensberg, South Africa has some amazing scenic sights. Here’s our selection of the very best.

South Africa has so much variety, whether by day or by night. In fact, like the wildlife action in a safari park, sometimes it’s only once the sun is set that the real fun begins. From world-class restaurants to cocktail bars and jazz clubs full of life until dawn, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

The variety to be found in South Africa is nowhere more apparent than in its two biggest cities. Cape Town has a scenic coastal beauty that brings the Mediterranean to the mind of many first time visitors. By contrast, Johannesburg is landlocked amid the vast plain of the Highveld, but its charms, while hidden deeper, as just as rich – like the mines that made it the “City of Gold”.

South Africa’s giant Northern Cape is a wild and sun-seared landscape of rugged lava mountains, rolling red desert, sandy plains – and acres of solitude, where huge skies explode with stars after sundown. See lions prowl in the Kalahari Desert and wildebeest gather on the plains. Tap into history at a 19th-century diamond mine, paddle the Orange river and hike to South Africa’s largest falls. There are so many things to see and do in South Africa’s largest and least populated region. Here are just 10 reasons to choose the Northern Cape for your South Africa holiday.

Ranked third in the world in terms of biodiversity, South Africa supports all the iconic big game for which Africa is renowned, but it is also home to some of the world’s known plant species. Culturally, South Africa is equally diverse: a unique and engaging blend of European, Asian and indigenous influences. Given all the variety, here's our take on the best things to do in South Africa.

You might think that South Africa, with at least 35 indigenous languages and a large immigrant population speaking many others, would have a wide range of cuisines. And you’d be right. Here’s our guide to the many amazing restaurants in South Africa.

From Kenya's white sands to South Africa's penguin beach, chosen from a selection of our Africa guidebooks, these are some of the best beaches in Africa.

Of the many amazing things to do in this beautiful county — a South African safari is among the most awesome. With game parks and reserves scattered across the country, covering vast areas of the stunning landscape of every description, you are never far away from an encounter with nature and an experience of a lifetime.

Set at the very western tip of the African continent and surrounded by water on three sides, Dakar is quite simply West Africa’s most spectacular city. In centuries past, the Mali Empire (of which Senegal was a part) was known as the Bright Country for its wide-open skies and savannahs – and while wide-open spaces are a rarity in metropolitan Dakar today, the city still shimmers in a crisp oceanic light, bathing all corners of the Lego-block cityscape in a dazzling glare.

While many African reserves are only accessible to those with the thickest wallets, Kruger, South Africa’s first national park, offers the chance for a far more affordable self-guided safari. Here, on the border with Mozambique, you can see giraffes and even rare African wild dogs from a rental car little different to the one you might drive at home. It’s a place to be enjoyed at your own pace, going wherever a road or a water hole draws the eye, stopping to consult a dog-eared map or reach for your supply of biltong.