South Africa Family Travel Guide

Kruger and the private reserves beside it are a malaria area. Low risk, seasonal, and far lower in the dry winter months than in the wet summer. But it is a real risk and the standard advice for visitors is prophylaxis. Talk to a travel clinic, not to a forum.

The problem is not the malaria. It is the tablets and small children. Malarone is generally well tolerated and is dosed by weight, so it can be given to children, but a lot of parents simply do not want to put a five year old on a daily antimalarial for two weeks. That is a completely legitimate position and you do not have to justify it to anybody.

Malaria free reserves are the family answer and they are excellent. The Eastern Cape, an easy drive or short hop from Port Elizabeth, has a cluster of them. Shamwari, Kwandwe, Amakhala, Addo Elephant National Park. Big Five, malaria free, and they slot neatly onto the end of the Garden Route. Madikwe and the Waterberg in the north west are the other malaria free options.

What you give up is honest to state. Kruger is bigger, wilder and has higher game density than the Eastern Cape reserves, several of which were re stocked farmland a few decades ago. Experienced safari people will tell you that. With a six year old who has never seen an elephant, it does not matter even slightly.

Tarred main roads, ordinary rental car, no four wheel drive needed. Gates open at sunrise and close at sunset and the times are enforced with fines. You drive slowly, you stop when you see something, and you keep the windows up around anything large.

SANParks rest camps are the cheap and cheerful option. Fenced camps inside the park with self catering chalets, a shop, a pool and a braai stand outside your door. A family sleeps in Kruger for a fraction of what a private lodge costs. Book months ahead, they sell out.

What you lose against a private reserve. You cannot go off road, so a leopard forty yards into the bush stays forty yards into the bush. You have no radio network telling you where the sighting is. You will see plenty and you will work harder for it.

The hybrid is what I usually book. Three or four nights self driving and camping in Kruger, then two nights in a private reserve like Sabi Sand with a ranger and a tracker. The kids get the adventure of finding things themselves and then the ranger delivers the leopard. Best of both, and cheaper than a week of lodges.

Fourteen to sixteen hours in the air, and almost no time zone change. New York to Johannesburg direct is around fifteen hours. Atlanta to Johannesburg similar. From the west coast you connect through Europe or the Gulf and it is a full twenty four hour day. But South Africa is only six or seven hours ahead of the eastern United States, so there is barely any jet lag. That is the good news nobody mentions.

Fly into one city and out of the other. Open jaw, Johannesburg in and Cape Town out or the reverse. Backtracking across this country costs you a whole day and there is no reason to do it.

Do not attempt South Africa in under ten days. Twelve to sixteen is the right length. Two days of it are flying. If you have a week, go somewhere closer and save this for when you have the time it deserves.

Land and go straight to the bush, not to a city. Arriving at Johannesburg in the morning and connecting to a lodge airstrip means your first afternoon is a game drive rather than a hotel room with the curtains shut. It is the best jet lag cure I know.

Howzit. The all purpose hello. English is spoken everywhere, and a bit of Zulu or Afrikaans back gets a big smile.

Talk about the history. Apartheid ended in 1994. Robben Island, the District Six Museum and the Apartheid Museum are for kids over ten and they are the point of Cape Town.

Be sensible about safety. Cape Town and Johannesburg have real crime. Use Uber, do not walk after dark in the city, keep phones away. The safari areas and the Winelands are calm.

Tip ten to fifteen percent, and tip the car guards. Rand, small notes. Safari guides and trackers get a set tip per day, ask the lodge for the number.

The braai is sacred. A barbecue is a social event, not a meal. If you are invited, bring something and stay late.

Rent a car. This is a driving country and it is an easy one. Roads are good, distances are signposted, fuel is cheap and there are attendants who fill it for you. They drive on the left, which is the only real adjustment. The Garden Route in particular is one of the world’s great family drives.

Two driving rules that matter. Do not drive between cities after dark, because of pedestrians, livestock and potholes rather than crime. And treat a red light late at night as a stop sign in the cities, which is standard local practice and the police will not blink.

Domestic flights are cheap and frequent. Johannesburg to Cape Town is two hours and often costs less than a tank of fuel. FlySafair and Airlink run the routes. Use them for the long legs and drive the scenic ones.

Uber works everywhere urban and it is what you should use. Public minibus taxis are the backbone of the country and they are not aimed at visitors with luggage. Metro rail is not a good idea in most cities.

The rand makes South Africa such good value. Restaurant meals, wine, hotels and car rental all cost a fraction of Europe. Cards are accepted almost everywhere including small shops. Tipping is ten to fifteen percent and there is a car guard in every parking lot who gets a few rand.

No visa for Americans, Canadians, Brits or the EU for ninety days. Two consecutive blank passport pages are required and airlines do check. If your children are traveling with only one parent, carry an unabridged birth certificate and a letter of consent from the other. That rule has caught families out at check in.

Crime is real and it is also manageable. The statistics are bad and they are heavily concentrated in areas visitors never go. Do the ordinary things. Nothing on the seat of a parked car, no phone in your hand on a city street at night, drive with doors locked, use hotel safes. Cape Town’s tourist areas and the Garden Route feel entirely relaxed. Central Johannesburg is not somewhere to wander.

Load shedding and the plug. Scheduled power cuts have eased but can return. Hotels and lodges run generators. Bring a battery pack. The plug is a large three round pin type M that nothing else in the world uses, so buy the adapter before you go.

Ten days. Cape Town for five, Kruger or a private reserve for four, a night in Johannesburg by the airport. The classic and it works.

Fourteen days. Add the Garden Route for three nights, or the Winelands for two. Kids love the elephant sanctuary at Knysna and the whales at Hermanus.

The safari piece. Three nights minimum at one lodge. Malaria free reserves in the Eastern Cape or Madikwe for families with young kids. Sabi Sands for the big five and the price tag.

Getting there. Direct from Atlanta, New York and Washington to Johannesburg, about fifteen hours. Cape Town is a two hour hop from there.

Cape Town. Five nights. Table Mountain by cable car, penguins at Boulders, the Cape of Good Hope, the V and A waterfront.

The Winelands. Two nights. Franschhoek’s wine tram, Stellenbosch, farm lunches with playgrounds.

Kruger or Sabi Sands. Three or four nights. Big five, open vehicles, a private reserve with a kids’ program.

Madikwe. Three nights instead of Kruger with young kids. Malaria free, family lodges, the same animals.

The Garden Route. Three nights. Knysna’s lagoon, the elephant sanctuary, Tsitsikamma’s suspension bridge, Plett’s beaches.

Age rules on safari are real, and South Africa is the most flexible country for them. Many private lodges set a minimum of six, eight or even twelve for shared game drives, because a bored four year old on an open vehicle beside a lion is a real safety problem. South Africa is where you find the exceptions. Family friendly lodges run private vehicles, shorter drives and kids programs, and self drive Kruger has no age limit at all.

Ask three questions of any lodge before you book. What is the minimum age for a game drive, can we buy a private vehicle so we set the length of the drive, and is there a kids program with a dedicated guide. The answers vary enormously and the brochure never leads with them.

Game drives are early and cold and long. Five thirty in the morning, three hours, then again at four in the afternoon. Two a day is a lot for a small child. Do one drive a day and swim in the middle, and nobody will melt down at the exact moment the rhinos appear.

English is everywhere and that matters more than people admit. Eleven official languages, English on every sign and menu, spoken by everyone in the industry. For a first trip to Africa with children, removing the language layer removes a lot of parental load.

South Africa with kids works because you can build the whole trip around them. A South Africa family safari does not have to mean compromising on the real thing. Pick the right lodge and everyone gets to see the animals.

The winelands are family territory. Stellenbosch and Franschhoek estates have lawns, playgrounds, cheetah sanctuaries and grape juice tastings for children while the adults do the real one. There is even a wine tram. Nobody expects a vineyard day to be the one the kids ask to repeat.

Penguins. In Africa. It undoes something in a child’s head and it is worth the drive for that alone.

The two oceans really are different temperatures. The Atlantic side of Cape Town is painful to swim in, around fifty five degrees. Drive twenty minutes to the False Bay side and it is fifteen degrees warmer. Muizenberg is where families swim.

How close the animals get. People expect binoculars and a distant shape. In a private reserve you sit fifteen feet from a pride of lions in an open vehicle with no doors, and the ranger turns the engine off. Nothing prepares a child for that, or you.

Finding a family friendly safari South Africa style is not the hard part. The hard part is choosing between all the lodges that do it well. That is the good problem to have.

Cape Town. Five nights. Table Mountain by cable car, penguins at Boulders, the Cape of Good Hope, the waterfront. Stay in Camps Bay or the city bowl.

The Winelands. Two nights. Franschhoek’s wine tram, farm lunches with playgrounds, Stellenbosch’s oak streets.

Madikwe or Sabi Sands. Four nights. Madikwe for malaria free with young kids, Sabi Sands for the big five with older ones. Open vehicles, a family lodge, a pool.

Do you need a visa? Americans, Canadians, Brits and the EU get ninety days visa free. You do need two consecutive blank passport pages, and airlines actually check that.

Is malaria a dealbreaker with young kids? No, and this is the question that decides your whole itinerary. Kruger is a malaria area, low risk and seasonal, but a lot of parents do not want a five year old on daily antimalarials. The Eastern Cape has malaria free reserves like Shamwari, Kwandwe and Addo that are just as Big Five and slot right onto the end of the Garden Route.

How many days do you need? Do not attempt it in under ten. Twelve to sixteen is the right length, and two of those days are flying. If you only have a week, save South Africa for when you have the time it deserves.

When is the best time to go? May through September is the best game viewing and the lowest malaria risk, since the bush thins out and animals concentrate at the waterholes. November through March is Cape Town’s summer, hot and dry with the beaches at their best. If you want both halves of the country to work, aim for the shoulder, late September especially.

Can you really self drive Kruger? Yes. Tarred main roads, an ordinary rental car, no four wheel drive needed. Gates open at sunrise and close at sunset with fines if you’re late. SANParks rest camps let a family sleep inside the park for a fraction of what a private lodge costs, but book months ahead, they sell out.

Is it safe with kids? Crime is real but heavily concentrated in areas visitors never go. Cape Town’s tourist areas and the Garden Route feel entirely relaxed. The ordinary rules apply, nothing visible in a parked car, doors locked while driving, use the hotel safe. Central Johannesburg is not somewhere to wander.