Travel News
Peter Greenberg’s Hot Destinations for 2016
South Africa
The Rand just plummeted. A few weeks ago it was nine to the dollar (already a great bargain for us). Recently it was as low as 15. Talk about a buyer’s market. What this means is that Cape Town is affordable and Durban is a bargain.
While hotels may have adjusted for the drop in the South African currency, everything else is a bargain—meals, cab rides, safaris, and souvenirs. Now is the time to go.
The place to be is Cape Town. It is my singular favorite city in South Africa—think San Francisco, Key West, and Sydney rolled into one. The food is incredible, the wines unmatched, and a day trip out to Stellenbosch and wine country will not disappoint, especially with the rand so depressed against the dollar.
You can go whale watching by helicopter (Civair is the company in Cape Town) and, of course, climb Table Mountain. You can also take the ferry to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned). It’s a place that has been turned into a thoughtful—and emotional—center of reconciliation.