Roasting hot in July/August and if you have any roaster tendencies you’ll find it tough going. I thought Dubrovnik was a beautiful spot. You’d have it seen in two days though as Mac says. Brilliant scenery and food, will be thronged with tourists mind. It’s a cunt of a spot then to travel from there to the next nearest city in Croatia which is Split and would be 4-5hrs on a sweltering hot bus. No trains between the cities, the infrastructure is really bad there. I found Split a bit of a kip anyway to be honest. Can’t comment too much on the islands but some of them are party islands might not be suitable to families. I would say look into the northern parts of Croatia around Zagreb and within easy enough reach of the Plitkovice (something like that) forest/national park. Will likely be cooler up north and maybe nicer for families. Dubrovnik struck me as more of a place you’d bring the girlfriend for a dirty weekend. It’s worth seeing but bear in mind it’s a bit isolated where it is, consider flying in and flying out again for your next stop.
True, but we Limerickmen perform brilliantly in sweltering heat.
We hit it even longer and higher in the warm air
Croatia is class. Go for it.
@bandage mate, weren’t you in South Africa recently? Any key tips? I’m going to tip off to South Africa at the end of March for two weeks or so I reckon. Loose plan to fly to J’burg, go on safari in Kruger (staying in the park), then internal flight to Cape Town where I’ll stay with a friend and base myself for other trips out from there.
It would be wonderfully ironic if you got eaten by a lion out there. (not wishing you dead or anything)
The st John’s port second beach is meant to be a lovely place for a swim.
Where would the irony be?
Your previous outrage at a man shooting a mangy old lion. One of the causes of Glas.
Be some craic of the lion turns out to be muslim. And a feminist.
Was it? I can’t keep track.
This thread should be brought to the attention of members of the Hutch family.
I was there last August, pal. Think I logged my itinerary / made some recommendations in the “holidays for the accompanied traveller” thread. I flew Dublin to Cape Town via Dubai and started off there. Cape Town is fantastic. Did the safari in the Eastern Cape after a road trip along the Garden Route which took us inland to the wine region before sweeping down to the south coast.
Kruger Park is meant to be quality too but we preferred to avoid Jo’burg because people scared us with stories about how dangerous it is. Most seem to fly in, stay in a hotel near the airport and then get a flight into Kruger the next day and then do the same on the other side before getting their next internal flight. I kinda saw that as two nights wasted so was happy to skip Kruger to get safari elsewhere.
I really enjoyed the holiday and it’s still very cheap there. I was wary of being mugged or killed but that should be avoided if you use some common sense.
You can get a direct flight now from Capetown or Jo’Burg to Skukuza which is in Kruger area, avoiding the potential danger of Jo’Burg and wastage of days
Having done both Eastern and Kruger safari’s I would definitely recommend the Kruger ones - definitely much more to see and can be done cheaply in good style and comfort with the ZAR being so favourable at the moment
Informative rating. I knew you could fly from Jo’burg to Kruger so that’s what I meant by wastage of a night on way/in out if you can’t get immediate connection and have to stay in Jo’burg. Didn’t know there were flights from Cape Town to Kruger - that could be ideal as Cape Town is definitely worth seeing.
waste of time going to kruger unless you just want to be able say you were there.
2 hours max drive from Oliver Tambo is Pilansburg national park, you will drive every road on it in 2 days and see all the big animals you need to see. It has 2 very nice Bush Lodge type accommodation places on its periphery id recommend either one.
Its also adjacent sun city but id avoid that unless you are golfing where Gary Player course is top notch and youll play it for something ridiculously small and have a black lad in a white jump suit carry your bag and give you your line all day.
Away you go then to cape town there are flights from OT Int every hour and fly home from there.
I spent three months living in the Mondior hotel in the Emporers Palace Casino in Johannesburg. I would highly recommend it for a night or two if anyone is thinking of staying in Johanneburg, it is very close to the airport and has some wonderful bars and restaurants. The Casino is pretty decent too
Pilansburg is a developed park by the same developers who built Sun City originally. It’s grand, and you can see animals on demand if you want. Kruger is a more authentic experience, in my opinion and has far more wow moments
Depends on what you want really @glasagusban - if you just want to tick a safai off your list, Pilansburg is grand. If you want to do a proper safari (in South Africa), Kruger is your man. Flight is 40mins from Jo’Burg
yep, if you want to be able say you ‘safaried’ in ‘krugar’ and are willing to risk seeing nothing of note while spending days and days driving and slapping mosquitoes off your neck in searing heat then krugar is the spot.
if you want to ‘safari’ and be 75% guaranteed to see all the big 5 and do it in reasonable comfort the Pilansburg.
of course if you want to do a supervised night time safari (which is a plastic version anyway) then it matters not a jot as both places give you the same ‘set up’ experiance where they go to where they know these fucking animals are at that time.