South Africans share their favourite local getaways

Local is Lekker!

Just in time for the hol­i­days, we asked local South Africans to share their favour­ite South African hol­i­day des­tin­a­tions and get­aways with us. From pop­u­lar des­tin­a­tions like Knysna and the Kruger National Park to lesser known gems like Barrydale, Beaverlac and Prince's Grant, here are their favourites...

We hope they inspire you to travel loc­ally this hol­i­day sea­son. Because ... Local is totally Lekker! Continued

Women's Day Events

Photo © ANC.org

wath­int' aba­fazi, wath­int' imbokodo, uza kufa!

If you don’t know these words then you are miss­ing out a piece of very import­ant South African his­tory and if you are a women liv­ing in South Africa it is vital you know these words because it such a part of your own his­tory. On 9 August 1956 more than 20 000 women par­ti­cip­ated in a national march to peti­tion against the pass laws. They marched towards the Union Buildings in Pretoria in solid­ar­ity because they wanted to voice their dis­pleas­ure at the pass laws which pro­posed even fur­ther restric­tion on the move­ments of women ... Continued

What to do with the kids this winter in Cape Town – 10 great (mostly) indoor activities

Kids Winter holidays

What were they think­ing when they des­ig­nated five whole weeks to the June / July hol­i­days this year? This is the time of year when it rains and chil­dren end up on the couch in front of tele­vi­sion or before the com­puter screen, rather than out of doors where they would rather be. And par­ents end up tear­ing their hair, and each oth­ers', out.

My sis­ter always has a back-up plan. A list the length of her arm of options she can do with her kids at the drop of a hat. I con­fess, I tend to leave a lot of this up to inspir­a­tion. And on the desired after­noon, a I've-been-infront-of-the-computer-working all morn­ing stupor usu­ally pre­vents my addled brain from com­ing any­where close to cre­at­ive, and my attempt at com­pet­ence falls flat on its face... Continued

Holiday Fun at Emperors Palace

Holiday Fun

If you are a par­ent with a child at school you will be well aware of the long school hol­i­day that has been set dur­ing June and July. You may be pan­ick­ing slightly about how you will keep your kids enter­tained, because inev­it­ably you will hear the words “I’m bored” dur­ing this time.

If the World Cup is not your child’s thing and you would like a safe and fun envir­on­ment for them, then Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Gauteng has come up with a few options. They have a super child­care facil­ity, Jupiter’s, which is both run and man­aged by qual­i­fied and exper­i­enced child­mind­ers. They provide a safe, fun and stim­u­lat­ing envir­on­ment for young chil­dren. Your child can be cre­at­ive in the art room or get the cre­at­ive juices flow­ing in the play room or dis­cover new things in the edu­tain­ment room. Teens are not for­got­ten at Emperors Palace and they can play arcade games at the Magic Company with some of the latest video and arcade games. Perhaps they can even chal­lenge Mom and Dad to a round or two? Continued

Things to Do in Cape Town by a Capetonian

The V&A Waterfront

As a born and bred Capetonian and since it is almost time for hol­i­days I thought I would sug­gest my own list of activ­it­ies that I think every­one would enjoy while they’re in Cape Town. So if you plan to be in Cape Town dur­ing the hol­i­days (or at any other time of the year) give some of these a try ...

Top of my list would be a visit to Table Mountain. As one of Cape Town’s prom­in­ent fea­tures and also nature's GPS for the city (whenever I am lost my dad’s words come back to me “which side of the moun­tain are you look­ing at” and then it’s easy enough to find my way). There are numer­ous ways of get­ting to the top of the moun­tain, take walk up the steep Platteklip Gorge, or start in the Kirstenbosch Gardens and make your way up Skeleton’s Gorge or walk along the con­tour path if you’re feel­ing ener­getic ... Continued

September is Heritage Month

Not only is September Tourism Month, but this month is also devoted to her­it­age. Officially, it's an annual cel­eb­ra­tion of South African cul­ture, both tan­gible and intan­gible, so music and lan­guage has as much place on the agenda as his­tor­ical inher­it­ance or the food that we eat. Informally, it's a cel­eb­ra­tion of 'local is lek­ker', the quint­es­sen­tial exper­i­ence of just what makes South Africa so unique ... Continued