Africa

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Africa is a beautiful continent that assures travelers of an adventurous tour through her rich and unique heritage. Come and enjoy her rich wildlife that guarantees to blow up your imagination with her real and amazing animals. An adventure travel through Africa will open up your eyes to the magnificent things in life. You coil in your couch while you watch that national geographic but come to Africa and have a thrill of a lifetime. You will get to see these animals live in their natural habitats and this can be nothing but pure adventure. Meet the big five of Africa that will definitely send a chill down your spine. The mighty lion with its roar, the heavy elephant with its huge stump, the rhino with its all so graceful horn, the leopard with its fascinating record breaking speeds and the all so awesome buffalo that will thrill you with its huge physique and large curled horns.

Other animals that would interest you include reptiles such as pythons and other species of snakes. Watching them at close range is nothing but hair rising and you will not have enough snap shots to take back home. So, just make sure that your camera is fully charged to ensure that you do not suffer an embarrassing moment of a low battery when you want to capture the lion devouring a wailing gazelle. Other than the fauna, Africa is home to fascinating flora and the adventure travel through Africa will unravel this mystery to you. Watch the beautiful tropical flowers blossom and get to smell their awesome scents that fill you with inner peace. They make the whole wild look peaceful and beautiful and you would give anything to have a piece of it.

The natural attractions will definitely take your breath away and these will sure keep you coming back to Africa. The most fascinating features that include high mountains, long rivers, magnificent waterfalls, deserts, and amazing rocks are all in Africa. The famed latest addition to the wonders of the world includes the wildebeest migration that takes you to Kenya to watch this intriguing migration. The national parks in Africa will be memories you will live with for the longest time thanks to the adventure travel through Africa. The beautiful islands of Zanzibar will bring you to the breathtaking coastline that fascinates you with its warm and inviting sandy beaches coupled with the warm waters of Africa.

An adventure travel through Africa will teach you several lessons on the culture of the Africans. These people have not allowed their culture to be eroded and this provides an interesting interaction with them. Their hospitality is significant to no other and you will feel so much at home that you would wish to live here forever. Their cuisine is unique and it will be an adventure getting to taste these foods from the different tribes of Africa. Fall in love with the beautiful weather that sends beautiful sunrays to your hotel suite signifying yet another beautiful morning to unravel the mystery of this prolific land.

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South Africa is in the spotlight now with a million soccer fans converging on the country’s most famous cities for the World Cup, and in between games, the charms of the nations tourist attractions are beginning to gain a little well-deserved attention now, perhaps for the first time. So if you happen to be there in Johannesburg right about now for a fun-filled African holiday, which would be the best beaches, restaurants, shopping districts and nightlife to take in? And what would it all be like?

Let’s center our South African holiday in Cape Town with a kind of day trip that takes in a little bit of all the best stuff. Let’s start in a way that can rest your spirit and calm your soul with a visit to the Kirstenbosch Gardens. These sprawling gardens are filled with spectacular landscaping touches and cozy coves all through, and the beauty can be somewhat preternatural.  When you see families sitting about on their checkered picnic cloths enjoying themselves with great  spreads, and children tossing Frisbees around with playful dogs, you’d be forgiven for wondering if you had just stepped into a picture book. While you’re there, make sure that you make your way to Signal Hill for the sunset; there are few more beautiful experiences you could hope to have in life. And while on the subject of sunsets, try one of the most beautiful white sand beaches you’ll ever see this side of the Fiji, at Camps Bay. Wherever you go, you can be sure that you will have a good bit of pantomime and music to entertain you; street entertainment is really big in South Africa.

Most people would go to the shopping district for shopping; in Cape Town, you certainly have a sparkling shopping experience in store for you, but the street entertainment is not to be missed -  the street jazz bands, the clowns, the tightrope walkers, you name it, are all here working up a commotion. Kloof Street has lots of great Bohemian eateries and stores for little souvenirs and odds and ends. Somehow, Cape Town seems to have the lock on really cool little Bohemian stores all around. Try the Baobab mall on Long Street and the Canal Walk mall too on the waterfront. There are vintage African clothing, wonderful secondhand buys and books, jewelry and everything you could want for great shopping expedition.

All this shopping is bound to put you in a mind for a good old South African culinary experience; and you’re certainly in the right place. Cape Town’s cuisine is so famous, people actually fly in from all over the rest of the country to eat at some of Cape Town’s best restaurants. Curiously, one of the best restaurants of this kind, Mzoli’s, is right next to a ghetto near Klipfontaine Road. And here’s a chance at a spot of poverty tourism as the fashionable like to call it these days. Anyway, the restaurant gets pretty crowded. If you want something less formal, try the Royale on Long Street for great burgers or Texies Seafoods for unbeatable fish and chips. At the end of the day, you’re bound to be of the mind to celebrate, if you just finished a burger at the Royale on Long Street, you’re in for a treat; you’ll find there is the famous Zula Sound right next door with South African ethnic music, and the Waiting Room for dancing. If you are the karaoke kind person, try the Dubliner; it’s like the Philippines in here. Everyone loves karaoke.

That should put a wrap on a rollicking South African holiday in Cape Town. The town has a long history, and it reflects in the thousands of tiny little undiscovered attractions there are all around. All you need to do is to explore.

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If admiring the majesty of wildlife is where your heart is, you can do a little better than to travel to perhaps the one place on earth that has everything, the water buffalo, cheetah, rhino, hippo, leopards, penguins, all magnificently wild and natural in over 500 national parks and wilderness reserves – South Africa. Think of it this way, if it weren’t for South Africa, National Geographic would probably have nowhere to go. As thousands travel to South Africa this World Cup season, there will be plenty of opportunity for many people to come face-to-face with what their whole lives was only a deeply moving image on the television.

The greatest game reserve in South Africa, and perhaps in all of the world, is the Kruger National Park; if you need to place the name, it’s right outside Nelspruit, the city in the north of the country that has a couple of important World Cup matches slated. Kruger is famous for its untamable wildness, for the fact that it is a single national park that is about as big as an average US state, and also for how with a size that large, and a wildlife population of hundreds of elephants, rhino and big cats it can somehow still seem to have too many people. If there is one game reserve you are to take in when you travel to South Africa, it should be this one.

However, Kruger does demand a lot of your wallet; if you have be to be on a tight budget, you don’t have to worry about having the best sights being out of your reach. The thing about this country is that the wildlife is actually wild. If what you need is a way to get at the sights of Kruger without the high price of entry, how about going on a drive from Cape Town to Cape Point? The whole region is a massive wildlife habitat, and you’ll probably see most of the animals you are after, walking along the highway. There is a happy middle ground there though; why not try one of the less well-known wildlife parks when you travel to South Africa? Right next to Johannesburg and Pretoria is one of the smaller national parks – Pilanesburg. “Smaller” in South Africa would be about 10,000 animals, all the large ones included, spread over about 150,000 acres. They have affordable options at this Park, in dormitories and camping grounds too – at their Golden Leopard Resorts site.

The middle of the year is the best possible time to travel to South Africa; it’s winter here around this time, it doesn’t rain, and the vegetation is kind of sparse to let you get a better view of all the animals. Make sure that you pack a little light winter clothing; temperatures can really fall after the sun sets. The best thing about Pilanesburg is how you don’t need to make any bookings to go out on a safari. You just need to get in your car, and hit the road all by yourself. Everything is all clearly marked out so that you don’t even need a guide. There’s nothing like the feeling of driving yourself closer to a couple of wild rhinos or leopards you see a couple of hundred yards away.

There’s are great day trips to be had visiting the Rhino and Lion Reserve a half hour’s drive away from the north of Johannesburg. Entry will only cost you about $15, and you can drive yourself here too. You’ll see zebra, herds of them, surly looking rhinos, curious ostrich and lazy buffalo wandering about, and not really scared of you either. Make sure you go at high noon in time for the feeding. It’s the best time to visit. Make sure you go to the animal nursery where you can pet the lion cubs and the baby rhinos (how can those armor plated giants get so small?) for a modest price.

Wherever you travel on your safari, make sure you keep in touch with other visitors around you for where to head for the best animal sightings. The animals keep moving around, and you need to know where to find them. When you finally make contact, you’ll know why we are all part of the same animal kingdom. You’ll know why you absolutely have to travel to South Africa for an experience of this stature.

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The mention of the word adventure sends our adrenaline levels on a high and we cannot wait to be part of whatever it is. We visualize all we will encounter and we simply cannot afford to miss out. That is why an adventure Africa travel seems like the best recipe for an instant trial. Africa is a beautiful continent that gives us a sunny experience and their game life is to die for. That vacation you are planning to have sometime soon will not be complete without an adventurous African treat. Picture their awesome hospitality, the interesting people you will meet there and above all the tropical sun, which will leave you asking for more!

Africa is truly blessed and has a bunch of everything that can be considered exciting. It happens to be a melting pot for different cultures and you will thrill yourself as you interact with the friendly people who will be more than enthusiastic to host you. Africa has some of the best beaches in the world and you will enjoy basking in the huge African sun as you enjoy some of their best cuisines and biting. Your adventurous trip will meet the wild when you get into Africa’s best game parks that have the world’s big five. Thrill yourself with a close range roar from the lion and watch the elephants thump their way with authority. Marvel at how huge they can get and you have not seen this game anywhere else other than on the African soil.

Adventure African travel will open your eyes to fascinating flora and fauna you have only imagined in your dreams. South Africa would be a perfect stop now with the World Cup fever that has taken the world by storm. Enjoy the pure African hospitality and learn more about their culture. The vuvuzela, which is the official World Cup celebration instrument, will drive you crazy with enthusiasm. You can take an adventure African travel at any time of the month and you will be sure to enjoy it to the fullest. Travel to Kenya in August and marvel at the wildebeest migration that has found its way to the Wonders of the World list. While here, you can find your way to Mombasa and enjoy the inviting tranquil sandy beaches that will leave you mesmerized.

Tanzania is just some kilometers from here and you will have the thrilling experience of watching Mount Kilimanjaro and the elephants of Tarangire National Park. Rivers are long and fascinating in Africa and River Luangwa in South Africa will be a perfect inclusion in the adventure Africa travel. While at it, you will be sure to take a load of fascinating photos home for all to see and you will not hesitate to take the adventure Africa travel again. For ample preparation for an adventure African travel, it is important to read travel guides that detail important information for first-time travelers. They will also help you plan for your adventure Safari and give you guidance on when best to take that Safari.

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It was only six months ago that I returned to Africa. It was exactly the right time for anyone who’ll love a spruced up South Africa, but who will want fervently to keep away from the raucous crowds that inevitably follow the World Cup anywhere in the world. I particularly liked the time I spent in Cape Town in my travel to Africa this time around. It was summer in the southern hemisphere, but curiously, the sun wasn’t as hot as it usually is at this time of the year.

There is a certain quality to Cape Town – it seems impossible to tame, as much as the city has been built up. Right outside the city are the wide-open skies, awesome canyons, the freezing Atlantic, and vast white sands beaches with seals and pelicans flopping about in all their wild glory. There is something so remote about Cape Town, that it makes you feel like you’re in some kind of a tropical Alaska. It’s that grand, it is that vast, it is untamed. If you have never been to Alaska, travel to Africa, and come to Cape Town. This windswept corner of the world will transport you somehow to reaches far, far away.

This isn’t a fact that escaped the early Dutch settlers, or one that escapes today’s Capetonians. There are beach communities who live right along the beaches living the rugged life; and then there are the depressing shantytowns that line both sides of the road on your way to the international airport. Like shantytowns elsewhere in the world these are filled with desperation, poverty, unemployment and alcohol. To lots of western tourists who travel to Africa, poverty tourism is a part of the attraction. The thing is, South Africa is particularly affordable now. The local currency, the Rand, has been devalued repeatedly over the last few years, thanks to political trouble in countries around. When you travel here, be pleasantly surprised at how much your dollar can buy.

Let’s say you take the best room in the fashionable Constantia boutique hotel in the Constantia Valley. A room like that would probably set you back $1000 stateside. Here, it’s fallen to no more than $345 today. The same goes for your trips to the best local restaurants, renting a car, safaris and the most breathtaking wildlife reserves. You could probably take in all of that for no more than $250 a day, and you travel first class all the way. This is a great time to travel to Africa.

As for the eating out in part, Cape Town could actually make it worthwhile if you were to travel to Africa just for the cuisine. There’s been a revolution of sorts here in this department in the last 10 years. But sometimes, it can be a little hard to get to. Take the Foodbarn in Noordhoek for instance (did you know that the beach out there is spectacular and untouched by tourists and everyone else?); getting there can be quite a trick, but it can be worth it. The affluent beachside community there feels disturbingly like something you’d see in California. And here you find the Foodbarn, which has been named South Africa’s best restaurant several times in a row. It’s a bistro dedicated to experimental cuisine that borrows from the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and French Provençal.

The highlight of your travel to Africa if you choose to make it that, could well be your visit to Cape Town. Take the Table Mountain for instance. Of course the monolithic mountain is a rare sight; but the way it is surrounded by tropical greenery, with natural wildflowers, is something else. The Kristenbosch botanical gardens are in the region, and for a $3 entry fee, you go past immaculately maintained plants that are riot of color. There is too much to be seen here to describe in one article; but all the serenity, beauty and  majestic wilderness you  always wanted out of Africa is right here exactly where you want it. You only need to make the trip.

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To locals, Johannesburg, the largest city of South Africa, is endearingly Joburg or Jozi; and when you are done with your visit to this teeming metropolitan town, there is likely to be a little endearment or two you have in mind for this place yourself. Johannesburg is a vibrant city of great extremes. It has deep roots in European culture as well as African culture; there is business, culture and art of the highest order in its old world atmosphere and its glittering skyscrapers; and there are miles of shantytowns, traffic that knows no laws, and people, people everywhere. The city is home to some of the worst apartheid atrocities ever known of; and it is the home of an inspiring freedom struggle. When you visit South Africa, travel to Johannesburg has to be the highlight of your trip; the city may be a bit dangerous in some of its seedier areas, but most of the places you would want to venture to are pretty great.

Let’s cover some of Jozi’s best offbeat attractions in pubs and restaurants, art galleries and everything else. Let’s start with Arts on Main, an exciting bunch of shops, all hidden away in a reclaimed warehouse right in the center of the city. The whole enterprise is a part of the city’s plans to take advantage of the history that the city possesses. There are galleries and little bohemian shops by the dozen that should easily take up a couple of hours spent exploring. Check out Artsonmain.co.za for details.

If you want a piece of history for your South Africa travel plans this time, try the Market Theater, otherwise known as the Theater of the Struggle. During apartheid times, the theater’s management felt that art could have a great contribution to make to the country’s political struggle, and frequently put up shows that challenged the government’s policies. A visit there today, and you’ll see some of the best that South Africa’s arts and music scene has to offer. Check out Markettheatre.co.za for details.

Keeping with the apartheid theme, how about a trip out to the suburb of Soweto, a massive place that all blacks in Johannesburg were forced to leave for each evening in the apartheid era, after their work in the city was done? Soweto featured prominently in the country’s freedom struggle, and is home to hundreds of thousands black South Africans. Things aren’t as desperate around here as they once were. The economy in Soweto is booming, and the energy in the air is palpable. It would have to be, what with two Nobel Peace Prize winners living there, on the same street (Vilakazi Street) no less. What South Africa travel plan would be complete without a visit to Nelson Mandela’s home (converted into a museum now)? For a little authentic Soweto cuisine, try the Nambitha Eatery, the Sakhumzi Restaurant and Wandies Place. You could be in for a treat with ox tail stew and other South African delicacies.

If you truly want to get in touch with the earth in South Africa, travel to the world heritage site of the Cradle of Humankind. It’s just a half-hour’s drive outside the city, and here you will find stunning exhibits of exactly where it is that the human race came from. The Sterkfontein Caves are a part of the tour, and they contain the oldest fossils of pre-Homosapien primates ever found. Or how about trying the site of one of the lustiest gold rushes ever, the Old Kromdraai Gold Mine?

Your South Africa travel plans should be bursting the seams before long if you plan this way; if this is how long the list of offbeat attractions goes, just think about what the mainstream ones could do for you.

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Johannesburg is the very spirit of South Africa, in some ways; and a South Africa vacation would not be complete without a civilized introduction to the city. Let’s cover  a little bit of everything in Johannesburg, and take in a couple of day trips right outside the city too. Johannesburg has great shopping; spend time rifling through a bunch of attractive ethnic handicrafts and other odds and ends, and be sure to try Deer Hunter in Greenside; you’ll find it on Greenway Road. The reason it’s such a great place for souvenir hunters to go to is, the good folks who run the shop scour artisan workshops and collectors across the country for the best stuff to bring stock. Apart from your usual ethnic paintings and clothes, you’ll also find great old records and movie memorabilia. There are so many interesting little knick-knacks in there that you’ll find yourself lingering next to any number of little objects, probably reminded of one little thing or another there that caught your fancy when you were a child. If you are interested in antiques, try the boutiques on Queen Street in Kensington (in Johannesburg, not London).

Johannesburg has great cosmopolitan food. Try the Pimento (no, they don’t just serve chili) for great South African versions of Italian originals like pizza, pasta and filet steaks. Or how about the Lapa Fo in Emmarentia on Barry Hertzog Avenue? They make dozens of kinds of pizza too. If you hanker after something a little less Mediterranean, try the sandwiches at Solly’s Corner on Bree Street; they’ve made a kind of reputation for themselves, and people from all over the world make a point of coming here when they come on a South Africa vacation. For coffee, the local Starbucks knockoff, Vida E Caffè, is pretty good.

So there was your standard Johannesburg day out. How about exploring the places around, for a little improved perspective though? One of the best day trips there are to be had, involves a trip to the mountain range of Drakensberg, a couple of hundred miles from Johannesburg. There’s a lot of great  rugged activity to be had, horseback riding, fishing and so on. If you can’t venture that far, try Parys, a kind of historic old town set up with great antique stores and antique restaurants. And if you have even less time, try Lion Park, a place you can hold a lion cub in your hands. It’ll really make your day on this South Africa vacation.

If you have a little more time, The Cradle of Humankind is a wonderful day trip no more than a half-hour’s drive out of Johannesburg. This educational tour has something for everyone. Children will love all the outdoors experiences walking among the digs and the exhibits, and they will love the Rhino and Lion Nature Preserve. Those with more sophisticated tastes will love all the indoor exhibits of some of the oldest known artifacts from prehistory ever found. There is a great theme restaurant here called the Cradle Restaurant to round out your visit. No South Africa vacation would be complete without this one.

If on your South Africa vacation, you like the reassurance of having an experienced travel guide at your side giving you the perspective of a local, you cannot go wrong with Face to Face tours. Of course, there’s nothing quite like it if you have the luxury of your own personal tour guide.

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