An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
Last week I wrote about the problems I had with my plane ticket to Spain. After being told by an Iberia Airlines agent that name changes are not possible, I needed to take action quickly. The problem was that my passport was still in my maiden name, while my plane tickets had been booked in my married name. So, if...
When I had initially planned our Panorama holiday, I wanted to camp in the little prospecting town of Pilgrim’s Rest, which is situated in a valley at the end of a nail-biting hairpin mountain pass about 40km from Sabie. The town was established in the early 1800s during South Africa’s gold rush, and visiting it is like stepping back in...
Gareth and I are visiting Spain for two weeks in November 2010. We started planning this holiday roundabout a year ago, but since there is now only a month and a half left before we depart, the time had come to get all the arrangements in place and get everything sorted out. Everything had gone fairly smoothly up to now,...
Earlier this year I wrote about a longing to be surrounded by mountains, tall trees and crystal clear lakes. I wanted to go to Alaska, but we settled on visiting South Africa’s “Panorama” area in Mpumalanga, combined with a few days’ visit to the Kruger Park. It was a surprisingly enjoyable holiday – not only was the area picture-perfect and...
Lately, I’ve found myself more and more drawn towards destinations that feature animals and the beauty of nature as the main attraction. I went swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar last year and recently jetted off to Hermanus to do some whale watching. A friend of mine also suggested travelling to Rwanda, the last place where the endangered silverback gorilla can...
The Deutsche Schule in Pretoria holds an annual Oktoberfest in line with München’s well-known beer festival. Since I don’t drink beer, I’ve never gone to the trouble of attending, but my mother, who loves all things German, persuaded us to try it out this year. We were a little disappointed. With such a high entrance fee (R100 per person), we...
When two people are travelling together, there are bound to be some things that the one didn’t enjoy quite as much as the other one. I think it’s a good idea to reflect on the trip afterwards, to learn from possible mistakes and to better plan for the next one. So… the verdict is out on our recent whale watching...
After our stopover at Betty’s Bay, we continued along the scenic R44 on our way to Cape Town. We were undecided on how to best use the few hours we had before we had to head back to the airport – we wanted to visit some friends we hadn’t seen in a while, but since Gareth had never been up...
I consider myself to be a very good driver (don’t we all?), but I’ll be the first to admit that if there’s one virtue I have not been blessed with, it’s patience. Especially after 16:00 on the N1 when stuck in the fast lane behind someone with a foreign province number plate (you know who you are, Mr FS and...
On our way back from Hermanus to Cape Town last weekend, Gareth and I opted to take the more scenic R44 route, which winds along the coast with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean. We happened upon a small holiday town called Betty’s Bay. While most people come to this area to admire the exquisite fynbos, we were excited to...