The number of tourists arriving in South Africa every month has apparently shot through the one million mark for the first time since 2009, signalling the industry’s recovery from last year’s decline. The rise has been attributed in part to a revision to controversial immigration laws and the fall in the rand against foreign currencies. In January […]

LONDON – Cape Town was voted the favourite city in the world and South Africa the third-favourite country in the Telegraph newspaper’s annual travel awards, based on what it calls the most comprehensive, wide-ranging and reliable travel survey in Britain. The ceremony was held on Tuesday. The survey, which is reportedly based on the responses of 75,000 people, named Cape Town as […]

After a lifetime of being isolated from the world, the Atlantic island of St Helena, where Napoleon was exiled and died, had its first major flight from Johannesburg land this weekend. The flight, chartered by Air Safety Support International to bring its team of five personnel to St Helena to assess the airport, touched down on Sunday morning […]

An Egyptian student captured the following video of his recent school trip to Cape Town and surrounds. Youssef Hanna was part of an excursion that the American International School of Egypt offers its students with a leaning purpose outside of the classroom. Watch Video: Cape Town – as seen by Egyptian student, Youssef Hanna The group visited […]

“It was another crazy week in the Ukraine,” a South African there reported this week, after he had gone out on the streets of Kiev to record the latest goings-on. “First, the President was found to have an offshore account. Then the Dutch voted against the EU-Ukraine agreement (this is what set in motion the […]

The Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad will run a flight to Johannesburg for three months over the northern hemisphere summer, filling the gap left when embattled carrier South African Airways cut the route from its offerings last month. These will be added to the flights to the region already operated by Qatar Airways and Emirates, which both […]

They say life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. And as British photographer ALEX NAIL has discovered, the Drakensberg Escarpment provides a platform for an abundance of those moments. His video of the dramatic landscape in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has swept social media […]

If you haven’t visited Durban for a while, you’re in for a stunning surprise … as you can see in these brilliant photographs taken by PETER DE GROOT of PdGPix Photos. Apart from the beachfront, which has been transformed with a beautiful boardwalk that’s become popular with families, joggers and surfers… … there’s been a lot of development and […]

Cape Town has again made it into Trip Advisor’s Top 25 Destinations in the world…however, at number 20, this is a drop of ten places from last year which may be because of the stringent immigration laws which were implemented last year. The full 2016 Awards Winners were recently announced by Trip Advisor on their […]

British Airways will start flying to Cape Town from Gatwick airport later in 2016, adding to the existing daily flights from London’s Heathrow, the airline announced on Thursday. The (northern hemisphere) winter-only flight, which starts in November, will join the two flights a day that already fly to Cape Town from Heathrow. BA also flies twice daily to […]

PRETORIA – The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department has called on international travellers, who will be visiting South Africa during the Easter holidays, to comply with the country’s import requirements for agricultural and related regulated products. “Compliance will assist our country in preventing and/or minimising the potential risk of introducing alien invasive species, foreign pests and […]

Take a scroll through spectacular Sani Pass – which connects KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho – with these beautiful photographs, captured by LOUISE VAN DEN AARDWEG… Sunrise Day 1 at Sani Top Lesotho Lesotho is a landlocked kingdom, surrounded by South Africa. Rivers cross the hauntingly beautiful landscape, and mountain ranges rise as high as 3,500m. Basotho […]

For decades one of Rome’s biggest heartaches has been the Tiber – the gorgeous river snaking through its heart has been totally overlooked. Until now, that is – and renowned South African artist William Kentridge is creating lots of buzz with a mural bigger than the one in the Sistine Chapel. The largest public art work in […]

For anyone overseas feeling homesick for South Africa, or even for someone in Cape Town feeling lus for some views of the Kruger Park or the Blyde River Canyon, Google Maps is partly answering the call. Short of taking a trip on a second’s notice, you can click on Google’s newly launched South Africa, the Mzansi […]

Settle back for ten minutes and enjoy this beautifully edited visual diary of a Dutch couple’s “amazing road trip on the beautiful African continent, filmed in HD. What a beautiful journey. We visited South Africa, Swaziland and The Seychelles…” The clips were filmed with Gopro Hero 3 and Nikon D5500, and the video was edited with Final […]

Cape Town might be high on many a traveller’s bucket list but there are at least 9 other destinations in South Africa equally worth seeing, according to the US site Mashable. “For a medium-sized country,” Mashable says in a recent story, “South Africa has a lot going on.” (We choose an 11th at the end.) The list, which […]

The far-flung island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic – not to be confused with the one off Australia – might be known to many in South Africa, but opportunities to visit Napoleon’s last place of exile have been few. At least until now. British Airways-owned Comair has announced that it will soon start flying weekly from Johannesburg to a […]

South Africa is train-travel country. It has not only one of the world’s best luxury trains, but two – Rovos Rail (pictured above) and the Blue Train. As we reported yesterday, now there’s a third train that is almost luxury, the Shongololo Express, which has been taken over by Rovos. What’s more, all three trains offer something […]

The luxury South African train company Rovos Rail – which has long been running neck and neck with the Blue Train in pampered rail travel – has bought the “three star” Shongololo Express, a 19-coach train that has been running a select number of two-week tours across the country. For a fraction of the cost of […]

Last year LLOYD KOPPEL was invited along for both the local and international #meetsouthafrica bloggers’ road trips… to film and capture their experience on video. “What a privilege to travel around South Africa with some of the best travel bloggers and travel writers in the country. Amazing people! Amazing road trip!” says Lloyd of the first video. […]

Get lost in nature… Go hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains… 2. Or cool off on the river banks… 3. Relax in a tree-hide… 4. Visit our beautiful gardens – like Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens… 5. Or take a road-trip – be prepared for views like this… 6. Then there’s Table Mountain – one of the world’s Seven […]

In this elegy to Johannesburg’s magnificent ridges, Kathy Munro of the Heritage Portal says this striking geographic feature of the city for some reason often gets overlooked, as do the three gorgeous roads that run up their sides – Sylvia Pass, Munro Drive and Stewart Drive. She reflects on the history and the lore, and how the ridges were tackled […]

South Africa’s legendary playground Sun City is due to undergo a dramatic rejuvenation project worth R800 million rand over the course of 2016. According to a media release from Pilanesberg National Park, which lies next to the iconic resort, Sun City will offer new food options including a micro-brewery themed gastro pub, as well as a “raft […]

Travellers to South Africa have been confused by headlines claiming that the law requiring minors to travel with an Unabridged Birth Certificate (UBC) had been “scrapped”. The law has not yet been scrapped… but Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom said in a statement today that his department is in “intense discussions” with Home Affairs to implement […]

You could call it a Johannesburg hat trick. The latest travel pages of the British Guardian newspaper have posted a trio of major articles about the City of Gold, including 1) some fantastic readers’ pictures of the city shared on Instagram, 2) the paper’s own alternative guide and 3) some insightful readers’ tips. Here’s a taste of the […]