South Africa advice

74jax

Looking at going to South Africa over Christmas and New Year this December.

We live in the North East so would ideally like to fly from Newcastle or a North East airport, but would consider flying from London if it was substantially cheaper.

What are our best options and how do we work out where we can do a stop over at?

We are wanting Cape Town as our base, but would like to travel about once there, so could fly in to a variety of airports, if the price was cheaper elsewhere than Cape Town.

We've only ever flown from A to B, so don't know how to work out cheaper routes by including a stopoff.

Any help appreciated:T

mgdavid

aren't almost all South Africa flights direct? Only 10 hours, hardly worth a stopover IMO.

robdog1

All airlines price hike about 10th Dec to cover Christmas hols, it may be cheaper to fly KLM go via schipol or from Manchester-Dubai- jnb or cpt emirates are comfortable to fly with, but the flying time is approx 15-16 hrs + stop over time in dbx. South Africa is a wonderful country you will have a great time.

Alan_Bowen

Emirates fly daily from Newcastle via Dubai but you will be travelling at the very highest prices. These flights fill very quickly as they are used by the thousands who want to get to Australia, New Zealand and the Far East as well as Africa for Christmas. These fares will never be in a sale so book as soon as you can. Jo'Berg is usually cheaper than Cape Town, have a look at netflights, talk to Trailfinders on the phone, since they don't sell on line and if you are not experienced travellers, actually talk to local travel agency

sandsy

Suggest you look on a website like Skyscanner which will give you multiple options from Newcastle.

When we used to live in SA, my parents mostly used to fly from NCL-Heathrow and then onwards to Cape Town which is certainly the quickest routing. One of their trips they did NCL-Amsterdam then onwards with KLM. There are links to South Africa from many European cities, eg. Frankfurt, Paris etc so lots of options and certainly the Dubai option is fairly popular too.

I_Love_Shoes

South African airways fly between the main cities, and the flights are about £50-100 each, so if there is a substantial saving between flying into Joberg or Durban then getting an internal flight to Cape town, this might be worth doing.
Im flying out on the 28th, Gatwick to Dubai, Dubai to Cape town, spending a few days in cape town, getting a south african airways flight to joberg, spending two weeks there, then joberg to Dubai and back to Gatwick.
Im flying all bar the internal flight with Emirates, which cost about £700 booked 9 months in advance. I could have got it about £100 cheaper with Turkish airlines but Im a bit of a snob and would rather travel with Emirates, and as a young blonde female, I dont really want to be stuck in Istanbul airport for a few hours, I know dubai airport luckily.
Just keep looking at all the options from different airports. Travelsupermarket lets you put in a few different departing airports so it should show you the cheapest option. If the flights are not already out (not sure of the exact dates youre going but they should be released 11 months before) book them as soon as they are out or they will only go up in price!
Good Luck!

jackomdj

If you want a laugh use kulula for internal flights.... We used them and have since seen this...

https://www.servicecentral.com.au/article/kulula-quotes/1547/

74jax

I_Love_Shoes wrote: »

South African airways fly between the main cities, and the flights are about £50-100 each, so if there is a substantial saving between flying into Joberg or Durban then getting an internal flight to Cape town, this might be worth doing.
Im flying out on the 28th, Gatwick to Dubai, Dubai to Cape town, spending a few days in cape town, getting a south african airways flight to joberg, spending two weeks there, then joberg to Dubai and back to Gatwick.
If the flights are not already out (not sure of the exact dates youre going but they should be released 11 months before) book them as soon as they are out or they will only go up in price!
Good Luck!

Thanks for that, we will hopefully be booking flights soon.

mgdavid wrote: »

aren't almost all South Africa flights direct? Only 10 hours, hardly worth a stopover IMO.

Not if we were just going to South Africa, but we want to try and tie in 2 places, hence looking for a stop over.

robdog1 wrote: »

All airlines price hike about 10th Dec to cover Christmas hols, it may be cheaper to fly KLM go via schipol or from Manchester-Dubai- jnb or cpt emirates are comfortable to fly with, but the flying time is approx 15-16 hrs + stop over time in dbx. South Africa is a wonderful country you will have a great time.

ooo will look at this thanks.

sandsy wrote: »

Suggest you look on a website like Skyscanner which will give you multiple options from Newcastle.

There are links to South Africa from many European cities, eg. Frankfurt, Paris etc so lots of options and certainly the Dubai option is fairly popular too.

Thanks.

Lots to look at :T

ince_mon

jackomdj wrote: »

If you want a laugh use kulula for internal flights.... We used them and have since seen this...

https://www.servicecentral.com.au/article/kulula-quotes/1547/

Fantastic:rotfl:

markandkate

use https://www.kayak.co.uk and you can put in all the local airports and compare times/ lay overs etc.

I am just planing a similar trip[ and am looking at the overnight train to Cape Town from Jburg

74jax

markandkate wrote: »

I am just planing a similar trip[ and am looking at the overnight train to Cape Town from Jburg

oooo thanks.... goes off to google the train :j