After travelling South Africa I am in love with this beautiful country! I am totally surprised by the huge diversity. We start our journey in Johannesburg and drive to Kruger National Park. Its impressive to see lions, elephants, zebras and all other animals in the wild. From Kruger we go south west, the landscape changes all the time, from flat and dry, to marshy and wet, lush green, mountains and of course the beautiful coastline. Capetown has stolen my heart. What an amazing city, so much to do for all ages……
South Africa is an amazing holiday destination and travelling South Africa with your kids is something I highly recommend. Therefore I give you 5 reasons why travelling South Africa with kids, should be on your bucket list.
1. Wildlife
Floris and Lotte love animals, all animals;from the little worms in the garden to the elephants in the zoo, they literally watched the movie Madagascar over 100 times and we just bought ourselves a zoo card. Most kids love animals, imagine how cool is it for them to watch all those amazing creatures in the wild?! South Africa has plenty easily accessible parks for travellers with kids: Addo National Park, Kololo Game Reserve and Pilanesberg National Park are perfect examples. Africa here we come!
2. No jet lag
After flying almost 13 hours from Amsterdam to Johannesburg it’s a relief there is hardly any time difference! Which means: no jet lag!! It takes our kids one hour time difference per day to get used to the new time zone. This means it takes them a week to adapt when there is 7 hours time difference. Flying to another continent and not experiencing any time difference feel like luxury!
3. Easy to travel
The roads in South Africa are very good and almost everyone speaks English, this makes it easy to travel around by yourself. We rented a car to drive from Johannesburg to Capetown (with a short domestic flight), it gave us all the freedom to explore this amazing country at our own pace. South Africa is also very suitable for travelling by RV. We like travelling by RV with very young kids as everything you need is always at arm length. Tenzing Travel even offers special kids holidays to South Africa, enabling you to explore travelling South Africa in a rental car.
4. Child friendly
South Africans are very child friendly. Your kids are welcomed with open arms. Child friendly accommodations aren’t hard to find and almost all restaurants have children’s menus and even toys or a whole play area for your kids to enjoy.
5. Good health care
Unfortunately we have seen quite some hospitals from the inside when travelling with the kids. This is the reason why we always check health care quality before we decide to visit a country. Luckily for us the health care in South Africa has high standards. In urban environments you find government hospitals as well as private clinics. Health care is good in both. The private clinics tend to be less busy and a little more expensive. Always check what your health or travel insurance covers before you travel abroad.
Are you more adventurous? Jenny travelled Africa overland with her kids. Such an amazing adventure! They bundled all the questions you might have in this article “FAQ: Overlanding Africa with kids“. This is for sure a bucketlist experience!
Has travelling South Africa with the kids earned a spot on your bucket list after reading this article? Can’t wait to hear your travel stories :).
Ostrich in Oudtshoorn
Spotting rhino’s in Kololo Game Reserve
Mum I see an elephant!
