How social media can 'find' you a holiday

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One mother's jour­ney to find a house swop on Facebook – the ins and outs, pros and cons

We recently found someone with whom we are swop­ping houses. Or, as she puts it, swop­ping lives. Because when you move into someone else's home, use their car, feed their cat, flick through their photo albums on a rainy day, stock their fridge with your food, and sleep in their beds, then you've prac­tic­ally taken on their lives, haven't you? Continued

Special Offers in April — give yourself a break

905 Dockside

April is one of my favour­ite months of the year, not only because South Africa has a boom of pub­lic hol­i­days but because it is the month of the year when the weather is still decid­ing what it wants to do. One day we will have winter and the next day a beau­ti­ful sum­mer day. What this means to me is a per­fect oppor­tun­ity to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and take a break.

We have two long week­ends com­ing up this month, the Easter week­end gives us a long week­end and the week fol­low­ing that has three work­ing days — so if you plan ahead you can have a nice long hol­i­day this month. Lucky for you there are plenty of spe­cial offers and dis­coun­ted rates being offered. So make the most of this time and give your­self a break! Continued

Luxurious L’ermitage in Franschhoek

L'ermitage Franschhoek

I don’t often get the oppor­tun­ity to enjoy five star treat­ment, but a night at “The Hermitage” in Franschhoek was a stay to be remembered. L’ermitage is exactly that, a retreat in the heart of the Franschhoek val­ley. The Franschhoek  moun­tains form the back­drop to this beau­ti­fully loc­ated chat­eau and vil­las. Our unit over­looked a quaint little dam, over­shad­owed by the majestic moun­tain range, and a chorus of bird song and duck har­mony greeted our sun­set and sun­rise respectively.

Increasingly pop­u­lar in the hotel con­text seems to be the self cater­ing unit, with the option to indulge in the res­taur­ant and room ser­vice on offer. The villa’s kit­chen was well equipped, com­plete with a com­bin­a­tion washer/dryer for clothes. The unit con­tained its own com­bined lounge and din­ing area, which was over­looked by the open plan kit­chen ... Continued

April Special Offers — special rates and accommodation packages at discounted rates ...

March is almost over and we’ll soon be in April which brings with it the Easter week­end as well as Freedom Day on 27 April. That said wouldn’t this month be a great time for a hol­i­day? I’m sure you’re feel­ing like you need some time out, April presents the per­fect oppor­tun­ity for a bit of a break. Why not treat the fam­ily or your other half for some time out or be com­pletely indul­gent and take your­self on a mini-holiday.

SA-Venues.com has some sug­ges­tions for you to make things a little bit easier on both you and on your pocket. Take a look at some of the spe­cial offers avail­able dur­ing the month of April 2010 ... Continued

March Special Offers (South African accommodation getaways that won't break the bank)

Its that time of the month when we do some invest­ig­at­ing and scount around look­ing for the best South African accom­mod­a­tion deals to include in our monthly news­let­ter. This month is no dif­fer­ent and again we’ve found some excel­lent deals for you – from deals at some of South Africa's finest Game Lodges and Luxury Hotels to deals on accom­mod­a­tion for the more budget con­scious trav­el­ler … check them out and we wish you happy travel planning!

Mkuze Falls

... in KwaZulu Natal
Mkuze Falls Game Lodge — Situated between the Kruger National Park and the Zululand Coast, Mkuze Falls is one of only two Private Game Reserves in the region where you can view the 'Big 5'. Mkuze Falls is beau­ti­fully situ­ated in the heart of his­toric Zululand in KwaZulu Natal. Mkuze Falls Game Lodge are offer­ing a "Partners Special". Continued

January and February Special Offers

So we are all back at work and the December hol­i­days are slowly fad­ing into our memor­ies ... so much so that a week­end away sounds like a really good plan right about now. Maybe not this week­end, but with Valentines Day around the corner it seems like a good time to start plan­ning a week­end or mid-week break. Still feel­ing the effect of over­spend­ing over Christmas? We've scouted around and found some great deals for you to assist with plan­ning a break that won't break the bank ... Continued

South Africa 2010 World Cup Accommodation

For the Fans: Find Accommodation in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup by using our new 2010 Accommodation Maps designed to show dis­tances in kilo­metres from the Match Stadiums to Towns within a con­veni­ent trav­el­ling dis­tance. Accommodation options include hotels, lodges, guest houses and self cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion (from self cater­ing apart­ments to cot­tages and hol­i­day homes) ... Continued

The Guest House Association of South Africa

A require­ment of advert­ising any accom­mod­a­tion estab­lish­ment on the SA-Venues.com and Suedafrika-Reise.net (German site) net­work of South Africa Accommodation and travel sites, be it an Hotel, Guest House, Bed and Breakfast or Self Catering Accommodation is that the Establishment be a registered, accred­ited accom­mod­a­tion provider.

One of our pre­ferred and recom­men­ded South African accred­it­a­tion asso­ci­ations is the Guest House Association of South Africa (known in short as GHASA). Their ser­vice offers many bene­fits. For us at SA-Venues.com the major bene­fit is that over­seas vis­it­ors eas­ily identify with the GHASA logo, are aware that the estab­lish­ment they are con­sid­er­ing book­ing with is a cred­ible, assessed estab­lish­ment and there­fore their con­fid­ence in book­ing with that estab­lish­ment is high. Over and above this the Association offers their mem­bers numer­ous addi­tional value added ser­vices (mar­ket­ing, advice and friendly, access­ible staff) so it is a worth­while invest­ment get­ting your accom­mod­a­tion registered with GHASA. Continued

Accommodation in South Africa

SA-Venues brings you a fine selec­tion of South African accom­mod­a­tion estab­lish­ments to choose from. Whether you are plan­ning a lux­ury vaca­tion to South Africa or back­pack­ing from region to region, South Africa offers a range of accom­mod­a­tion options to suit every budget and trav­el­ling style. Luxury 5 star hotels and South African game lodges or, to suit the more budget con­scious trav­el­ler, small hotels, lodges, inns, safari camps, gues­t­houses, South Africa bed and break­fast, lux­ury and budget self cater­ing facil­it­ies, cara­van parks, camp­ing sites can be found on SA-Venues.com. Continued

A Birders Delight — Avian Leisure

Avian Leisure

Avian Leisure — Simon's Town, Cape Peninsula, South Africa: For nature lov­ers and other dis­cern­ing tour­ists who want lux­uri­ous yet afford­able self-catering accom­mod­a­tion in nat­ural sur­round­ings, Avian Leisure has a mag­ni­fi­cent situ­ation at the top of Froggy Farm, Simon’s Town, over­look­ing False Bay. Set amidst pristine Cape Fynbos means you can see whales, pen­guins and a host of other birds right from your bedroom.

South Africa Birdlife and Wildlife Tours — We would be delighted to assist you in plan­ning your trip to the Western Cape and South Africa, whether it be guided or self-drive. In par­tic­u­lar we spe­cial­ise in com­pil­ing com­plete bird­ing and wild­life tour itin­er­ar­ies tailored to your spe­cific require­ments, through our net­work of per­son­ally selec­ted safari operators.

View: Additional Information and Photographs

Useful Links:
For addi­tional inform­a­tion see:
South Africa Birdlife
South Africa Tours