Top 10 places in Southern Africa to visit this festive season

If this festive season, you are looking for a place to enjoy yourself with family and friends, it might be worth your while to check out these great places.

1. Cape Town

Cape Town has wonderful tourist destinations like Cape Point & Cape of Good Hope; Boulders African Penguin Colony; Table Mountain Aerial Cableway; Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens; V & A Waterfront and Robben Island; and Cape Winelands, the largest wine producing region in South Africa.
In Cape Town, you can do virtually everything from sigth-seeing, mountain hiking, shopping, night-clubbing, and as well as enjoy the scenic wine farms in Constantia, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Robertson and Wellington.
If you are looking for township experience, you can check out the Mzoli’s Place, a butchery/restaurant in the heart of Gugulethu. Mzoli’s famous meat, is popular hotspots with both locals and internationals, and you get to enjoy it while you are listening to the booming sounds of how music, R&B, hip hop, and or other exotic music genres.

2. Gansbaai

It doesn’t matter if you are an adventurous type or not if you want to visit Gansbaai. The beauty of nature will be all around you — in and out of the water. You can watch the whales from the Cliffs of De Kelders, enjoy the white sands of Pearly Beach or take a walk in the ancient milkwood forests. If you are looking for a thrill, you can dive with the great White Sharks.

3. Krugersdorp: The Cradle of Humankind

Just 50km away from Johannesburg, there is a complex of limestone caves. In these caves, scientists have discovered fossils that date back to the birth of humankind. The most famous among the fossils are the skull ‘Mr. Ples’ (which is a 2.1 million-year-old skull) and the skeleton ‘Little Foot’ (which is 3 million-years-old). Our earliest known ancestors evolved from The Cradle of Humankind.

4. Kruger National Park

Visitors can enter the Kruger National Park through 9 gates either through Mpumalanga or Limpopo provinces. The game reserve offers nine different wilderness trails where tourists can enjoy the park’s wildlife and the Big Five game is popular. Some of the trails are overnight and last several days in areas of wilderness virtually untouched by humans.
The park also has an array of accommodation to suit visitors’ needs. These include 21 rest camps, 2 private lodges, and 15 designated private safari lodges.

5. Sun City

Developed in 1979 by hotel entrepreneur Sol Kerzner, Sun City is by far the most visited casino resort in South Africa by both foreign tourists and locals. Its close proximity to Gauteng, the richest province in South Africa, makes the luxurious casino popular for weekend and holiday getaways, and the nearby Pilansberg Game Reserve is always a must-see, where visitors can get up close and personal with the Big Five game, lion, the African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhino.
The resort has four hotels, namely Sun City Hotel; Cascades Hotel; the Cabanas; and the Palace of the Lost City. It boasts notable facilities such as The Sun City nightclub (Silhouette); Motseng cultural village; Animal Farm; Aviary, and Waterworld.

6. Knysna

Situated on the beautiful Garden route in the Western Cape, Kysna is a popular destination for both tourists and senior citizens entering retirement, especially among the British and former expatriates due to the year-round warm climate. The town is also a preferred destination among golfers because of its several world class golf courses including Pezula Golf Course, Simola Golf Course and the well established Knysna Golf Course, situated on the lagoon. Knysna is also a favourite destination for artists, restaurateurs and hippies. The nearest beach is located at Brenton-on-sea which is not far away from the Buffalo Bay, a popular surf spot.
Knysna is also home to Knysna Yacht Club. The town also hosts a number of annual events that attract lots of visitors such as the Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival and the Knysna Forest Marathon.

7. Panorama Route – Mpumalanga

The small town of Graskop is the gateway to the Panorama Route. It’s a good place to set up base. Scenic landmarks with evocative names like God’s Window, Wonder View, the Pinnacle, Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels beckon. The awe-inspiring Lisbon Falls, Berlin Falls and Mac Mac Falls are also just a short drive away. Adding some historical romance into the mix, half an hour’s drive from Graskop, the gold-rush town of Pilgrim’s Rest gives you the chance to relive the 1873 gold-rush. The Blyde River Canyon’s lush subtropical foliage makes it the world’s largest ‘green canyon’.

8. Oudtshoorn

Oudtshoorn, situated in the Little Karoo region of the Western Cape, is home to the world’s largest ostrich population, with a number of specialised ostrich breeding farms, such as the Safari Show Farm and the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm.The area is also famed for its biodiversity and is home to an unusually large number of species of succulent plant. It also has several wine producers.There are several tourist attractions in Oudtshoorn which include the Buffelsdrift Game Lodge; the Cango Caves; the Cango Ostrich Farm; the Safari Show Farm; the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm; and the Cango Wildlife Ranch.

9. Hluhluwe-Umfolozi

Hluhluwe–Umfolozi Park is the oldest proclaimed natural park in Africa, located approximately 280 km north of Durban in central KwaZulu-Natal. It is known for its rich wildlife and is the only state-run park in KwaZulu-Natal where all the big five game animals are present. Due to conservation efforts, the park now has the largest population of white rhino in the world. The area was originally a royal hunting ground for the Zulu kingdom, but was established as a park in 1895.

10. Madikwe Game Reserve

Madikwe Game Reserve lies 90 km north of Zeerust on what used to be farm land. There are 30 lodges on the property, and six lodges in the private farms outside the main reserve.Madikwe has been regarded as one of the better conservation areas in Africa, offering all the major species, including lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, both white and black rhino along with almost all the plains antelope species.
The reserve is the land of open vehicle game drives, guided bush walks, traditional lapa dinners and exciting night drives. Madikwe is for the exclusive use of its lodges’ residents and no allowance is made for day visitors.