A few days ago, on my way back home from office, a series of giant hoardings caught my tired eyes. Apparently all were a part of a campaign, lined up one after the other urging Mumbaikars with a enticing message, ‘South Africa...Leave Ordinary Behind’. What was more attractive was that each had a breath taking and thrilling image breathing life into it.
Having just come back from a vacation to this beautiful Rainbow nation, I could not agree more on the brand promise. It took me back in the recent past and suddenly unfolded a myriad of beautiful experiences safely locked in my memory chest.
Truly, our South African family holiday had been unique, had a lot of firsts to its credit and in many ways, we had left ordinary behind for an extraordinary sojourn.
To begin with, it was a first international holiday for Ashish and me with our respective parents and parents in laws both together. It was the first time my mom was to visit her dear sister and my sweet maushi’s residence (aunt) since the time she had been inviting her over (for more than 15 odd years that too!).It was our first holiday overseas where we were to spend our New Year's Eve away from home.Leave ordinary behind ...was indeed the flavor of this holiday right from the time we embarked on the journey.Last but not the least it was our first holiday where we had no idea what our next day was going to look like...A holiday without an itinerary!
An international holiday without a planned itinerary! ‘Are you serious?’…is what I can hear you say out loud and see your raised eyebrows touching the top of your forehead.
Yes, I am serious. It’s unbelievable but true isn’t it?
We did travel without a fixed itinerary for the whole of 15 days. Notwithstanding that we had 2 sets of senior citizen couples in tow and that we were holidaying in the thick of a tourist season, the entire holiday panned out extremely well. Given the situation, it would have been hard to believe that it was going to be a plausible and a viable situation at the start of the holiday. But, as I mentioned, South Africa...It’s possible!
The only invaluable possessions we had with us were the air tickets, the South African visa, Maps, ‘What to do, what to see?’ kind of information on SA (all thanks to Google and http://www.southafrica.net/ ) and of course the unbridled child like enthusiasm and unquenchable thirst for new experiences within all 6 of us.
Disclaimer - The above situation is strictly recommended only if you have relatives/near and dear ones (who will bend over backwards for you in the tightest of situations) based at the holiday destination. Otherwise, holiday without an itinerary can be foolhardy and a situation completely avoidable.
Once the destination and dates were decided, the next step was to get the flights booked and also start with the visa process. The best place to check for flight tickets and availability is the myriad of online Indian travel websites viz. makemytrip.com or cleartrip.com. And for visa it is VFS India website or your local travel agent for the details of the formalities. If you want direct flights into Johannesburg, then nothing better than Jet airways (says my personal experience) and the next best option being South African Airways.
I would suggest you to go with a reliable travel agent if you don’t want to run around for the paper work and other stuff.
In my prologue I had mentioned that we had a complete 2 month window to plan our holiday, but alas it remained only on paper. Though flight bookings and visas for SA were done on time, our Botswana visas took immensely long, so much so that we never got them in hand before we left India. However with the warm reassurance from my uncle and aunt that everything will be alright and our unwavering faith in them, we decided to not be bothered by the situation.
The group had plans for an ambitiously long road trip of about 5000 kms as taking planes within the country was going to be a horrendous cost for the big group.
The road trip was to cover the length and breadth of SA, visiting the must see places and activities we wanted to experience in the 15 day period. The roads in SA being smooth with 100 kms /per hour speed limits and accompanied by scenic beauty in most places we were gung-ho with the idea of a road trip. Also, exploring SA by car is what most tourists would do and recommend.
Though we had plans to see a lot of places, we didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves with excess travelling too. Knowing that we were a group of 8 (6 of us plus my maushi and uncle) travelers with 2 ½ pairs in the senior citizen category; we thought it apt to take each day as it came along. A risky proposition but a gamble we were ready to take. And that was the reason why we didn’t do any hotel bookings or any bookings of the local sightseeing tours.
With relatives such as my maushi and uncle, we knew we were in safe hands (taking into account my previous SA experience) and we had no reason to be anxious about what lay in store ahead.
Moreover, we didn’t want to travel the typical tour operator style and do the usual drill of 6-7-8am. We wanted a holiday which had all the perks including fun sightseeing, unique experiences and flavors and yet was going to be at our own pace and requirements.
So, which all places did we eventually visit in SA and whether travelling on an unplanned itinerary was a wise decision, we would only know in Part II.
Having just come back from a vacation to this beautiful Rainbow nation, I could not agree more on the brand promise. It took me back in the recent past and suddenly unfolded a myriad of beautiful experiences safely locked in my memory chest.
Truly, our South African family holiday had been unique, had a lot of firsts to its credit and in many ways, we had left ordinary behind for an extraordinary sojourn.
To begin with, it was a first international holiday for Ashish and me with our respective parents and parents in laws both together. It was the first time my mom was to visit her dear sister and my sweet maushi’s residence (aunt) since the time she had been inviting her over (for more than 15 odd years that too!).It was our first holiday overseas where we were to spend our New Year's Eve away from home.Leave ordinary behind ...was indeed the flavor of this holiday right from the time we embarked on the journey.Last but not the least it was our first holiday where we had no idea what our next day was going to look like...A holiday without an itinerary!
An international holiday without a planned itinerary! ‘Are you serious?’…is what I can hear you say out loud and see your raised eyebrows touching the top of your forehead.
Yes, I am serious. It’s unbelievable but true isn’t it?
We did travel without a fixed itinerary for the whole of 15 days. Notwithstanding that we had 2 sets of senior citizen couples in tow and that we were holidaying in the thick of a tourist season, the entire holiday panned out extremely well. Given the situation, it would have been hard to believe that it was going to be a plausible and a viable situation at the start of the holiday. But, as I mentioned, South Africa...It’s possible!
The only invaluable possessions we had with us were the air tickets, the South African visa, Maps, ‘What to do, what to see?’ kind of information on SA (all thanks to Google and http://www.southafrica.net/ ) and of course the unbridled child like enthusiasm and unquenchable thirst for new experiences within all 6 of us.
Disclaimer - The above situation is strictly recommended only if you have relatives/near and dear ones (who will bend over backwards for you in the tightest of situations) based at the holiday destination. Otherwise, holiday without an itinerary can be foolhardy and a situation completely avoidable.
Once the destination and dates were decided, the next step was to get the flights booked and also start with the visa process. The best place to check for flight tickets and availability is the myriad of online Indian travel websites viz. makemytrip.com or cleartrip.com. And for visa it is VFS India website or your local travel agent for the details of the formalities. If you want direct flights into Johannesburg, then nothing better than Jet airways (says my personal experience) and the next best option being South African Airways.
I would suggest you to go with a reliable travel agent if you don’t want to run around for the paper work and other stuff.
In my prologue I had mentioned that we had a complete 2 month window to plan our holiday, but alas it remained only on paper. Though flight bookings and visas for SA were done on time, our Botswana visas took immensely long, so much so that we never got them in hand before we left India. However with the warm reassurance from my uncle and aunt that everything will be alright and our unwavering faith in them, we decided to not be bothered by the situation.
The group had plans for an ambitiously long road trip of about 5000 kms as taking planes within the country was going to be a horrendous cost for the big group.
The road trip was to cover the length and breadth of SA, visiting the must see places and activities we wanted to experience in the 15 day period. The roads in SA being smooth with 100 kms /per hour speed limits and accompanied by scenic beauty in most places we were gung-ho with the idea of a road trip. Also, exploring SA by car is what most tourists would do and recommend.
Though we had plans to see a lot of places, we didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves with excess travelling too. Knowing that we were a group of 8 (6 of us plus my maushi and uncle) travelers with 2 ½ pairs in the senior citizen category; we thought it apt to take each day as it came along. A risky proposition but a gamble we were ready to take. And that was the reason why we didn’t do any hotel bookings or any bookings of the local sightseeing tours.
With relatives such as my maushi and uncle, we knew we were in safe hands (taking into account my previous SA experience) and we had no reason to be anxious about what lay in store ahead.
Moreover, we didn’t want to travel the typical tour operator style and do the usual drill of 6-7-8am. We wanted a holiday which had all the perks including fun sightseeing, unique experiences and flavors and yet was going to be at our own pace and requirements.
So, which all places did we eventually visit in SA and whether travelling on an unplanned itinerary was a wise decision, we would only know in Part II.
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