Johannesburg Archives - Mel On The Go

One of our favorite experiences of our time in South Africa was this educational and inspirational Alexandra Township bike tour from Alexandra Tours. I learned about the opportunity to cycle through one of Johannesburg’s original townships from a web search and was drawn by the fact it was owned and led by locals. At the very least, it sounded better than the “Hop on- Hop off” bus tour of Soweto. Well, it exceeded our expectations and we can’t stop talking about it!

We were picked up and delivered to the bike tours HQ where we met the founder of the operation, Jeffrey, and his right hand man, Papi. These two twenty-somethings have been running tours of their neighborhood since 2010. And they do a great job! We bicycled around with Papi on the 4 hour tour and enjoyed every minute. We learned a lot and were inspired by the people we met.

Papi took us through this crowded township of 6.9 km square, in which, they tell us, over a million people reside. We biked around different sections of the township, stopping to visit people, see historic sites and try the local food.

Kruger Park is huge: one of the largest game parks in Africa, it covers over 19,000 sq kilometers, and it has almost 40 different accommodation options. We visited Kruger National Park for 5 days in December, and stayed in a different camp each of 5 nights. Each one was quite different from the previous, and we enjoyed all of them! Here’s where we stayed our first night in the park and what it’s like to stay in Punda Maria Rest Camp.

Getting to Kruger pArk

We made Kruger Park our first stop in South Africa, so flew to Johannesburg Airport where we rented a car for the drive to the park. You can get to the park quite quickly as it is so large. However, we planned our trip from the north to the south of Kruger, so it was supposed to be a 7 hour drive. Factoring in holiday traffic, it’s a slog. But worth it because Kruger Park is a bucket-list destination.

Booking Kruger park Accommodations

We booked our rooms in advance through the Kruger Park website. We booked in August for our Christmas stay, and some of the places were already full, but we still got good rooms for each night. Christmas is a busy time at Kruger: a lot of South Africans spend their holidays there and plan well in advance. If you can book earlier in the year, do so.

Options range throughout the park – from north to south, you can camp out or stay in fancier places.

This is the first post about our accommodations in Kruger Park.

Tag: Johannesburg

Alexandra Township Bike Tour

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