Groups
Eight people do not get a cheaper rate here. They get a different booking.
Every band on this site is built on one traveller in a twin room. A party of eight is four twin rooms, so the per-person figure does not move: eight pay eight times. That is worth printing plainly, because most people arrive expecting the number to fall, and because the things that do change at eight are not on the price at all. Both halves are below, and every figure in the table is derived by a script from the same shape tables the destination pages print.
The multiplication, for all eighteen shapes
Read the fourth column as the price you have already seen on a destination page. The fifth and sixth columns are that number times eight and times twelve, because that is the whole of the arithmetic. Four twin rooms cost four times one twin room, and six cost six.
| The trip | The shape | Nights | Per person sharing | Eight travellers | Twelve travellers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, three-star Compact car, guesthouses and B&Bs along the route, breakfast included, Addo self-drive entry |
6 | R 7,400 | R 59,200 | R 88,800 |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only Three-star, one base, public day tours, no driver |
4 | R 9,800 | R 78,400 | R 117,600 |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, four-star Midsize car with full insurance, four-star hotels or lodges, breakfast included, Addo entry and one guided activity |
6 | R 10,600 | R 84,800 | R 127,200 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Deira or Bur Dubai Return flights from Johannesburg, four nights, airport transfers, breakfast daily, the creek and souk day, and the metro rather than a car |
4 | R 14,200 | R 113,600 | R 170,400 |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands Four-star, two bases, driver on the peninsula day, tram in Franschhoek |
5 | R 14,500 | R 116,000 | R 174,000 |
| Garden Route drive | With a private driver-guide Four-star hotels, breakfast included, a driver-guide for the full route, Addo entry and the Oudtshoorn day |
6 | R 16,900 | R 135,200 | R 202,800 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Downtown Return flights from Johannesburg, four nights in Downtown, airport transfers, breakfast daily, At The Top levels 124 and 125, and the Lahbab desert afternoon with dinner |
4 | R 17,900 | R 143,200 | R 214,800 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, three nights Four-star lodge, shared vehicle, two drives a day, all meals |
3 | R 18,500 | R 148,000 | R 222,000 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, bed and breakfast Two nights in Stone Town and five on the north coast, return flights from Johannesburg, airport and inter-hotel transfers, breakfast daily |
7 | R 22,800 | R 182,400 | R 273,600 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, four nights Four-star lodge, shared vehicle, two drives a day, all meals |
4 | R 23,400 | R 187,200 | R 280,800 |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands, private Five-star, private guide days, estate lunch, airport transfers |
5 | R 24,000 | R 192,000 | R 288,000 |
| Dubai short break | Five-star, Marina or beachfront Return flights from Johannesburg, four nights on the water side, private transfers, breakfast daily, a beach club day pass, At The Top SKY on level 148, and the conservation reserve desert day |
4 | R 24,600 | R 196,800 | R 295,200 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, half board The same split, half board on the coast, the Mnemba reef day from Matemwe and the Safari Blue dhow day from Fumba |
7 | R 26,400 | R 211,200 | R 316,800 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, half board North or west coast resort, return flights from Johannesburg, airport transfers, breakfast and dinner daily |
7 | R 26,500 | R 212,000 | R 318,000 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, all inclusive North or west coast resort, return flights from Johannesburg, transfers, all meals and local drinks, one catamaran half day |
7 | R 29,900 | R 239,200 | R 358,800 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands and the lowveld Five-star lodge, private vehicle, three safari nights plus one escarpment night and the Panorama Route day |
4 | R 31,900 | R 255,200 | R 382,800 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Five-star, half board Boutique Stone Town hotel and a beachfront room at Nungwi or Kendwa, return flights from Johannesburg, all transfers, half board and both water days |
7 | R 34,900 | R 279,200 | R 418,800 |
| Mauritius beach week | Five-star, all inclusive Adults-only wing or a family suite, return flights from Johannesburg, transfers, all meals and local drinks, one catamaran half day and a spa credit |
7 | R 38,500 | R 308,000 | R 462,000 |
Eight travellers on the eighteen shapes pay between R 59,200 and R 308,000 in total, a spread of 5.2 times between the cheapest and the dearest trip in the catalogue. Twelve pay between R 88,800 and R 462,000. The cheapest night for a party of eight is R 9,867 on Garden Route drive, Self-drive, three-star. The dearest is R 63,800 on Kruger safari, Sabi Sands and the lowveld, because a short safari carries its whole cost in four nights. The table covers 18 shapes across 6 destinations.
Why the per-person figure does not fall
The band is a room, not a booking
A band on this site is one person in a twin room, with the room cost halved between two people. Eight travellers use four such rooms, and no hotel discounts the fourth room because the first three were booked. A per-person figure that fell with party size would have to come from a group rate, and no group rate is quoted on these pages.
Where a group rate does exist, it is the supplier's
Hotels and airlines do publish group terms, usually above a room or seat count that varies by supplier and season. None of that is assumed here. Where a supplier offers terms on a specific date, Lizanne prices them at booking and the figure appears in the quote, not in a table that was printed months earlier.
What that means for planning
Budget the multiplication, then treat any group rate as a saving that may arrive rather than a price you can plan on. The party that plans against a discount it has not been offered is the party that books late and pays more.
The three sizes where the arithmetic stops being multiplication
| The size | What happens | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Odd numbers: nine, eleven, thirteen | One traveller has no twin to share with, so the party is not a whole number of twin rooms. | Name the odd traveller before the quote. Single occupancy has its own cost and this page prints no figure for it, for the reason on per person sharing. |
| Children sharing a room with parents | The room count falls without the head count falling, so the multiple overstates the cost. | Send the ages and the sleeping plan. Family trips sets out how the room is chosen. |
| Three or more rooms in one hotel, one season | Availability becomes the constraint before price does, and the shapes that fit eight are fewer than the shapes that fit two. | Book the rooms earlier than a couple would. The season advice on best time to go matters more at eight, not less. |
A fourth break sits outside the rooms: the flight. Seats are priced per seat, so eight seats are eight fares, and any airline group term is quoted by the airline for the route and date in question. This page makes no assumption about one.
What eight actually changes about the booking
The rooms
Four twin rooms, or two family rooms, or a mix. The choice is where a group booking earns or loses its money, because a family room for four can cost less than two twins and can also be the first thing to sell out in a school holiday.
The vehicle
Eight people and their luggage do not fit one sedan. A private-guide day priced for two becomes two vehicles without a second guide, or one larger vehicle with one. The shape tables say which days are guided, so the count follows from the shape you pick.
The table, the transfer, the check-in
One table for eight is a request, not a given, and it is worth making at booking rather than on the night. Airport transfers split the same way as the vehicle. Check-in for eight takes longer than check-in for two, which is a reason to take the earlier flight rather than the cheaper one.
What this page will not say
Three things are deliberately absent, and each absence is a fact about the catalogue rather than an omission.
- No group discount. No supplier has offered terms on these shapes, so no discount is printed.
- No group airfare. Seats are priced per seat, and group terms belong to the airline and the date.
- No single supplement figure. It is not one number, which is the subject of its own page.
The derivation is scripts/groups-numbers.py, which reads the same shape tables
the destination pages print and refuses if the count of shapes or destinations moves. The
live check is scripts/verify-groups-deploy.py, which re-derives every row and
compares it to the served page before calling the deploy good.
What to put in the brief
Send these six lines
- The number of travellers, and whether that number is even.
- The ages of anyone under eighteen, and who they sleep with.
- The month you want to travel, and the nights you have.
- Whether the party wants one base or a route.
- Whether any traveller needs a single room.
- Anything already booked, including flights.
What comes back, and when
A room plan and a total for the shapes that fit your dates, in writing, the same day. Where the party is an odd number or the dates fall in a school holiday, that answer arrives first, because it changes which shapes are worth pricing at all.
Tell us the number. We will tell you what it costs.
Six lines are enough to start. The multiplication is honest and the discounts are not promised.
Send the party size on WhatsApp
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Free to the traveller.
The planning lane costs you nothing, whether the party is two or twelve.
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One named human.
Lizanne van Niekerk plans it and books it. One thread for the whole party, not four.
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Derived, not typed.
Every total on this page is computed from the published shape tables and re-checked after the deploy.
Read what it costs for the bands, or how it works for the three steps.