Travel Contest: The Blog Hop is On

The Blog Hop is On

Here you go — Your Blog Hop Travel Contest Play Card!

• Click here to down­load the play card for this week, April 26^th to May 2^nd.
• Click here to get your play card for future weeks.

Playing the Blog Hop?
You'll find the answer to the ques­tion for this blog by click­ing on the cor­rect art­icles / posts below ... Continued

Travel Contest: Win Prizes Doing the Blog Hop

The Blog Hop

Love to travel? Here’s a Travel Contest for you!

SA-Venues.com is a mem­ber of the Global Bloggers Network and next week, we're kick­ing off an amaz­ing 3-week travel con­test that you'll want to play.

Win Great Prizes

• $2,000 cash prize thanks to Contiki
• $1,000 worth of cam­era equip­ment thanks to SA-Venues, South Africa Explored
• 3 hotel nights in a European city thanks to Splendia
• 3 hotel nights in a European city thanks to EasytoBook.com
• 16GB ipod nano w/ video thanks to TravellersPoint
• $100 Budget Accommodation from TravellersPoint
• Great travel gear from Pacsafe.

Continued

In South Africa but got to do it in 9 days? Here are the 'must see' spots

Cape Town Aerial

You've hit the shores of our rugged, gor­geous, riddled with con­tra­dic­tions, big on diversity land, and have but 9 days in which to say you've done it all? A tall order at the best of times, but not impossible. South Africa is huge by anyone's stand­ards, with unfor­get­table scenery, and memory-making places to visit, whether it's moun­tains, beaches, deserts or cit­ies you're after.

You will already have heard of the 'big­gies', the 'must do's' when on our soil. And they've been selec­ted because they truly are incred­ible places to visit and sights to see. For those of you who haven't been here EVER, we've tried to squash as many of these into the 9 days as pos­sible (it isn't easy). Whilst you could safely spend a life­time on our shores, and not have to visit the same place twice, these guidelines on what to see when will safely give you a taste of South Africa, a cam­era full of pic­tures, and the urge to return ... Continued

Family Holidays in South Africa

Family Holidays

Newly launched on SA-Venues.com is our Child-friendly Accommodation sec­tion. Catering spe­cific­ally for fam­il­ies trav­el­ling with chil­dren from birth (age 0–3 months) to teen­agers, the sec­tion fea­tures over 1,200 estab­lish­ments cater­ing for chil­dren, includ­ing fam­ily hotels, game lodges that cater for kids, guest houses, bed and break­fasts, self cater­ing hol­i­day suites and apart­ments that wel­come chil­dren of all ages.

And whilst you are look­ing for that per­fect fam­ily hol­i­day des­tin­a­tion in South Africa, visit the Family-friendly Provinces pages for some great ideas on what to do with the little ones in dif­fer­ent parts of the country.

Port Elizabeth boasts fant­astic beaches, an ocean­arium and snake park at which to enter­tain chil­dren, the Garden Route is a won­der­ful escape for fam­il­ies with chil­dren of all ages, par­tic­u­larly for those chil­dren who can join you on walks through magical forests where the elu­sive knysna loerie serves as part of an enter­tain­ing diver­sion. Continued

Stately "Lehututu" may not be around for much longer

Article by: By Fred Katerere, BUA News

Bela Bela — The stately Southern Ground Hornbill or "Lehututu" as it is loc­ally called, may not be around for much longer. These huge black birds with their dis­tinct­ive beaks and bright red wattles are part of the horn­bill fam­ily that occurs nat­ur­ally only in Africa and Asia. However, horn­bill num­bers are declin­ing due to loss of habitat.

Southern Ground Hornbill

Many spe­cies will not sur­vive without human inter­ven­tion," says chief exec­ut­ive officer of the Limpopo Tourism and Parks Board, Benny Boshielo. "For any suc­cess­ful con­ser­va­tion effort, the act­ive involve­ment of pro­vin­cial author­it­ies, con­ser­va­tion agen­cies and com­munit­ies is needed," said Boshielo.

The world's 60 spe­cies of horn­bills are rap­idly declin­ing in num­bers world­wide. There are less than 1 500 Southern Ground Hornbills left in South Africa. Their num­bers have dropped by more than 10 per­cent in the past three dec­ades. The province has made the Lehututu its avian flag­ship in the same way it has made the mighty baobab its pro­vin­cial sym­bol and flag­ship of the savan­nah biome.

Mabula Game Reserve is also the base for the The Ground Hornbill Research and Conservation Project star­ted in 1999.

Article from BUA News

Related Links:
South Africa Birds
Visit Limpopo

In Wake of Storms, U.S. Travelers Look To South Africa As New Vacation Destination

Cape Town, South Africa — After a par­tic­u­larly rough storm sea­son with many tra­di­tional vaca­tion des­tin­a­tions rebuild­ing, Americans are begin­ning to book travel to South Africa.

"South Africa has some of the best and least crowded beaches in the world," says Stefani Searle of SA-Venues.com, a site serving as a dir­ect­ory to vaca­tion options in South Africa. "We've seen a big upswing in interest from Americans in recent months," Searle said.

Visitors enjoy renowned wild­life parks such as Kruger National Park, beau­ti­ful nat­ural scenery, and a stable post-apartheid envir­on­ment. South Africa, long a vaca­tion favor­ite for Europeans, has a very well developed tour­ist industry that offers world class accom­mod­a­tions and an unusu­ally diverse range of nat­ural won­ders and cul­tural activ­it­ies. Continued

Cape Town December Holiday Bookings

Cape Town Holiday Bookings for December 2005: If you are plan­ning to spend your December January Holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, NOW is definately the time to secure your accom­mod­a­tion, as many areas are already fully booked from 15 December right through January 2006. To avoid dis­s­a­point­ment please do enquire and book now.

To facil­it­ate your search for that per­fect place, here are a few dir­ect links to some of Cape Town and the Western Cape's most pop­u­lar hol­i­day des­tin­a­tions, with list­ings of Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts, Guest Houses, Self Catering Villas, Holiday Houses, Suites and Apartments ... Continued

Featured Destination — The Garden Route

Knysna Loerie

Scattered along the Garden Route, fash­ion­able sea­side resorts abound, attract­ing jet-setters from around the globe. Tiny coastal vil­lages appeal espe­cially to out­door people who enjoy an unstruc­tured hol­i­day agenda.

Mountains crowd close to the shoreline which is dot­ted with beaches and bays, and won­der­fully col­oured wild flowers delight the eye. Between Heidelberg and Storms River, the Garden Route runs par­al­lel to a coast­line fea­tur­ing lakes, moun­tains, tall indi­gen­ous forests, rivers and golden beaches.

Meandering trails are fol­lowed by hikers, the forests invite long, leis­urely drives, and the lakes and rivers lend them­selves to swim­ming boat­ing and fish­ing. A wide range of leis­ure options, spec­tac­u­lar scenery and a mild cli­mate guar­an­tee a truly unfor­get­table hol­i­day exper­i­ence ... Continued