What the day adds
The band is fixed. The day is the part you choose.
Every price on this site is a band for one traveller sharing a twin room. That number is quoted to you by the trade and it is not yours to set. The money you spend once you are there is a different number, it belongs to you, and nobody prints it against the band. This page does. It multiplies the published allowance for each destination by the nights of each shape, prints the total beside the band, and shows how much of the trip you are actually deciding. Every figure below is derived from money on the ground and the destination pages, so a number that moves there moves here the next time the page is generated.
Eighteen shapes, three styles, one number the band does not set
The band column is the indicative per-person price for the shape. The three day columns are the published allowance per person per day, multiplied by the nights. The last column divides the generous day by the band, so it reads as the share of the trip you spend after the booking is paid. A shape where that share is above 100 per cent is a shape where the day costs more than the trip.
| Destination | Shape | Nights | Band, per person | Lean day, whole trip | Middle day, whole trip | Generous day, whole trip | Generous day as a share of the band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only | 4 | R 9 800 | R 2 200 | R 3 800 | R 7 600 | 78% |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands | 5 | R 14 500 | R 2 750 | R 4 750 | R 9 500 | 66% |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands, private | 5 | R 24 000 | R 2 750 | R 4 750 | R 9 500 | 40% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, three nights | 3 | R 18 500 | R 1 200 | R 2 100 | R 4 200 | 23% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, four nights | 4 | R 23 400 | R 1 600 | R 2 800 | R 5 600 | 24% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands and the lowveld | 4 | R 31 900 | R 1 600 | R 2 800 | R 5 600 | 18% |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, three-star | 6 | R 7 400 | R 3 000 | R 5 400 | R 10 500 | 142% |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, four-star | 6 | R 10 600 | R 3 000 | R 5 400 | R 10 500 | 99% |
| Garden Route drive | With a private driver-guide | 6 | R 16 900 | R 3 000 | R 5 400 | R 10 500 | 62% |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, half board | 7 | R 26 500 | R 3 500 | R 5 600 | R 11 200 | 42% |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, all inclusive | 7 | R 29 900 | R 3 500 | R 5 600 | R 11 200 | 37% |
| Mauritius beach week | Five-star, all inclusive | 7 | R 38 500 | R 3 500 | R 5 600 | R 11 200 | 29% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, bed and breakfast | 7 | R 22 800 | R 3 150 | R 4 900 | R 9 800 | 43% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, half board | 7 | R 26 400 | R 3 150 | R 4 900 | R 9 800 | 37% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Five-star, half board | 7 | R 34 900 | R 3 150 | R 4 900 | R 9 800 | 28% |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Deira or Bur Dubai | 4 | R 14 200 | R 2 800 | R 5 200 | R 10 400 | 73% |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Downtown | 4 | R 17 900 | R 2 800 | R 5 200 | R 10 400 | 58% |
| Dubai short break | Five-star, Marina or beachfront | 4 | R 24 600 | R 2 800 | R 5 200 | R 10 400 | 42% |
The allowance is a planning number, per person per day, and it is set in each country's own currency on money on the ground, which also carries the cash float, the tipping habit and the charge that turns up on the folio. The band is the indicative package price for the shape, held on the destination pages and on packages. Neither number is a quote. Both are planning numbers until a consultant confirms the live price and the availability.
What the table says
On seventeen of the eighteen shapes the band is the bigger number. On one it is not: Garden Route drive, “Self-drive, three-star”, where a generous day over 6 nights comes to R 10 500 against a band of R 7 400, or 142 per cent of it.
The share runs from 18 per cent on Kruger safari, “Sabi Sands and the lowveld”, to 142 per cent on Garden Route drive, “Self-drive, three-star”. At the lean end it runs from 5 per cent on Kruger safari, “Sabi Sands and the lowveld” to 41 per cent on Garden Route drive, “Self-drive, three-star”. The gap between those two ends is the price of the choice the band does not make for you.
On four of the six destinations all three shapes run the same number of nights, so the day money prints as the same figure on all three rows and only the band moves. A better hotel does not change the day. In Cape Town and the Winelands, the first shape runs 4 nights where the other two run 5, so its day money is one day lower than the other two rows. In Kruger safari, the first shape runs 3 nights where the other two run 4, so its day money is one day lower than the other two rows.
Every figure above is multiplied from the two data files by scripts/what-the-day-adds-numbers.py, which rewrites this page rather than letting a total be typed by hand. The share is rounded to the nearest whole per cent. The band is the indicative per-person price for the shape, the same number the destination pages print. The day money is a planning allowance, not a quote, and not a number any supplier has agreed to.
The worked example
Three shapes, three styles, and a combination that is not the obvious one. The arithmetic is addition, and it is the whole point of putting the two numbers on the same line.
Garden Route drive is where the choice costs the most, so it is the worked example. The lowest band, “Self-drive, three-star” at R 7 400, with a generous day of R 10 500, comes to R 17 900. The middle shape at R 10 600 with the middle day of R 5 400 comes to R 16 000. The dearest shape at R 16 900 with the lean day of R 3 000 comes to R 19 900.
The lowest of the three totals is “Self-drive, four-star” with the middle day, at R 16 000. Raising the room and lowering the day comes to R 1 900 less than keeping the lowest band and spending generously on the day. The band and the day are one budget, and only one of the two is fixed by the supplier.
Three things the table is telling you
Upgrading the shape does not change the day
In four of the six destinations all three shapes run the same number of nights, so the day total is identical on all three rows and only the band moves. A better room buys a better room. It does not buy a better dinner, and it does not cost you one either. The one place the two numbers interact is where a shape is a night shorter, and that is on the first shape in Cape Town and the first shape in Kruger.
The safari is the smallest share on the site
A lodge that carries dinner and the drives has already paid for part of the day, so the allowance for that destination is set lower and the band does the work instead. The number that stays out of the band is the drinks list, which is the line that surprises people at check-out, and it is named on money on the ground.
The long, cheap trip is where the day decides the budget
A six-night self-drive has a small band and six days of spending, so the day money is not a rounding error against it. That is not a warning about the Garden Route. It is the arithmetic of a trip whose band covers beds, a car and breakfast, and whose days are mostly yours. If the budget is tight, the day is where there is room to move, and this page is the number to move it with.
How to use the three columns
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Step 1
Pick the shape, not the destination.
The band belongs to the shape. Read the row that matches the trip you are actually considering, then read the day total beside it, rather than starting from a daily budget and hoping a destination fits it.
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Step 2
Pick the style you will actually live.
Lean is one paid meal a day, local transport and the free things. Middle is two meals out, a taxi when walking is not sensible, and one paid activity every second day. Generous is the table you want and the bar bill without checking it. Choose the one you will actually live, not the one that makes the total look better.
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Step 3
Put the two numbers together, then send the brief.
Band plus day total is the planning figure for one person. Compare it with what fits my budget, which filters the same eighteen shapes by the band alone, and with the whole trip, which adds the two numbers at the middle style and prints the band's share of the total.
What this page deliberately does not do
- It does not print a daily rate for a hotel. The band is a package price and dividing it by the nights is not what a room costs. The day money is the only per-day number here, and it is an allowance, not a rate.
- It does not convert a currency. The allowance is published in rand and the destination pages carry the local currency, the cash float and the card habit. Exchange rates move and this page does not guess them.
- It does not price the flight. The band is the land arrangement. What the seat costs, and what it costs on your dates, is on getting there and it is confirmed by the airline.
- It does not take a payment. Travel & Beyond earns a flat referral fee from the trade and never takes traveller money. What it costs names who is paid by whom.
Read this with money on the ground for the allowance's
own reasoning, per person, sharing for why every band is
one traveller in a twin room, and what the bands buy for
what the step between the three shapes actually changes. The live check is
scripts/verify-what-the-day-adds-deploy.py, which rereads this page, re-derives
every row from the two data files and compares the bytes the domain serves before the deploy
is called good.
Tell us the shape, the nights and the style.
Three lines is enough for a real plan. The day money goes in it, and so does the number that is not the price.
Send the three lines on WhatsApp
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One named human.
Lizanne van Niekerk plans it, books it and answers on the day. Not a queue and not a bot.
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Two numbers, both in writing.
The band and the day money arrive together, so the total is never a surprise on the last night.
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Nothing charged in the dark.
The planning lane is free, and every added cost is put to you in writing before you accept it.
The booking is paid to the trade through Lizanne's back-office. Travel & Beyond never takes traveller money. See what it costs.