Choosing
Four questions decide which trip. You can answer all four before anyone quotes a price.
Six trips are on this site. People arrive at them in the wrong order, price first, and then spend a week trying to make a destination fit nights that never suited it. This page is the order we use. How many nights you actually have, whether you want to move, the month you can travel, and who is coming with you. Answer those four and usually one destination is left standing. Planning stays free.
Four questions, in this order. The first one alone rules out more trips than the budget does.
How many nights you have
Not how many you would like. The nights you can take off work and away from home set the shape before anything else does. Three nights is a safari. Six nights is a drive. Seven nights is a beach.
A seven-night beach squeezed into four nights is a waste of two flights. A three-night safari cannot be stretched to a week, because the drives happen twice a day and the animals do not run to a schedule.
Whether you want to move
Some people want a road and a new view every second day. Some people want to unpack once and stay unpacked. Both are correct holidays and they are opposite products.
Moving costs you a morning each time. Staying put costs you variety. We will tell you which one the trip you picked actually is, rather than letting you find out on day three.
The month you can travel
The same seven nights cost materially more in the school holidays, at Easter, and over the December run. On the Indian Ocean the first quarter carries cyclone risk. On the east coast of Zanzibar the long rains fall in the autumn.
The month by month read for all six sits in the when-to-go calendar on the home page. Shift a week and the number can change, so we check the month before we check the property.
Who is travelling
Children change the room configuration, the flight timing and the pace. Two travellers change the room grade and the number of bases. A mixed-age group changes all of it, because the day has to work for the slowest and the fastest person in it.
The guides read the same six destinations by audience: with children, and as a couple.
Start with the number of nights
Each destination on this site is built on one shape, and the shape is set by the night count. This is that count, with the top published band from that destination's own page.
| Nights | What fits | Why that one | Top published band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three | Kruger safari | Two drives a day, with the middle of the day off. Three nights is the shortest shape that still gives you full days | from R 31,900 pp, three nights, five-star with private vehicle |
| Four | Dubai short break, or Kruger stretched by a night | Four nights is the Dubai shape. It is also the one place a safari can be stretched without thinning it | from R 24,600 pp, four nights, five-star Marina or beachfront |
| Five | Cape Town and the Winelands | City days, a wine afternoon and the Cape Peninsula day, without a transfer between them | from R 24,000 pp, five nights, five-star with private guide days |
| Six | Garden Route drive | Two nights per stop on the drive, which is the least that makes the moving worth it | from R 16,900 pp, six nights, four-star with a private driver-guide |
| Seven | Mauritius or Zanzibar | A week is one resort and one long day off it. Anything shorter and the flight eats the trip | from R 38,500 pp Mauritius, from R 34,900 pp Zanzibar, seven nights, five-star |
Every band above is the top band already published on that destination's own page, per person sharing, and it is an indicative planning range until Lizanne confirms the live price and availability in writing. The destination pages carry the night by night shape and the three grade bands under each of these. If two of them fit the nights you have and you would rather do both, two centres in one trip sets out the pairs that work and what the move between them costs.
The one thing that rules each trip out
Every destination has one honest catch. If the catch is a dealbreaker, the trip is wrong for you and no price fixes it. Here they are, in the same words we use on the phone.
| Destination | The catch | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | The wind and the weather turn fast. The mountain day has to stay flexible to the forecast | You want food, scenery and wine, and no long transfers between them |
| Kruger | It is an early-start trip, not a lying-in trip. The vehicle leaves before the sun is useful | Wildlife is the reason you are going, not the decoration on a rest |
| Garden Route | It moves every second day. That is the trip, and it is not a rest | You want a road, a new view and a coastline that keeps changing |
| Mauritius | The cyclone risk sits in the first quarter, and the school-holiday weeks carry the highest surcharge of the six | You want to unpack once and have the sea at the end of the path |
| Zanzibar | The long rains fall in April and May, the short rains in November, and the north coast base is an hour and a quarter from the airport | You want a town with a history and a beach in the same week |
| Dubai | June to September is too hot for the outdoor days. It is a winter and shoulder-season trip | You have four nights, not seven, and want a city and a beach in one |
Two that look alike, and are not
Mauritius and Zanzibar are both seven nights on the Indian Ocean and both five-star at the top band. They are not the same week, and this is the difference that decides it.
The flight decides the first day
The direct flight from Johannesburg to Zanzibar runs about three hours and thirty five minutes. Mauritius is a longer flight and sits two hours ahead of South African time, so the first evening arrives earlier than you planned.
On a seven-night trip that matters less. On a shorter beach break it decides whether you have a first day at all.
Where you swim decides the base
On Zanzibar the base is chosen by the tidal range. The northern tip at Nungwi and Kendwa carries a gentler range than the east coast, so the water is swimmable through most of the day rather than only at high tide. That single fact is why the shape puts five nights north rather than east.
On Mauritius the base is chosen by coast instead. The north and west put more restaurants within walking distance and give you a busier, shorter beach. The east, at Belle Mare or Trou d'Eau Douce, is quieter and windier and has the better beach.
The town decides the week
Zanzibar carries Stone Town for the first two nights, with the lanes, the doors and the history. Mauritius carries Port Louis as a half day out, and the island is the point rather than the town.
One is a week with a town inside it. The other is a beach week with one long day off it.
The price gap is real but small
At the top published band the two sit about R 3,600 per person apart for the same seven nights, with Mauritius the higher of the two. The Mauritius band is all inclusive and the Zanzibar band is half board, so the gap buys meals as well as nights.
That is not a reason to pick either one. Pick the week you want, then let us find the property and the month that pays for it. That is the order that works.
The routings, the coast and the town are covered in full on the Mauritius page and the Zanzibar page, which is where the bands above come from.
What to put in the brief
Send these six lines
- The nights you can take, not the nights you would like.
- The month, or the two months you are choosing between.
- Whether you want to move between places or stay in one.
- Who is travelling, and the age of the youngest and the oldest.
- The two destinations you are stuck between, if you are stuck.
- A ceiling you will not cross, if you have one.
What comes back, and when
An indicative plan with the shape, the nights, the month and the band for each option. That arrives the same day. The live price and availability follow once Lizanne has confirmed them with the trade, in writing.
If the honest answer is that your nights do not fit the trip you wanted, that is what you will hear, with the closest alternative next to it. A plan that never becomes a booking costs you nothing.
Nothing on this page is a quote. The live price and availability come from the trade, and Lizanne confirms them with you in writing before anything is charged.
Tell us the nights and the month.
Two lines are enough to start. If two destinations are still standing after that, say so and we will put them side by side.
-
Free to the traveller.
The planning lane costs you nothing. A plan that never becomes a booking costs nothing either.
-
One named human.
Lizanne van Niekerk plans it and books it. She is the person you message on the day of travel.
-
Indicative until confirmed.
Every number before the booking is a planning range. The binding price is confirmed in writing.
Read how it works for the three steps, or what a finished plan looks like.