Money in South Africa

MrsRocky20852

Hello! We are going on the February 23rd "South Africa: An Elegant Adventure" tour. Question: is tipping in US $ acceptable or do we need bring some Rands? Also, anyone else going on this tour? We live in the Greater Washington, DC area. Thank you!

AshvEd

In South Africa, Rands are the currency of choice and that is what we tipped in. In Zimbabwe they would prefer US$, which is the unofficial currency. It's a fabulous trip.

MrsRocky20852

AshvEd, thank you, appreciate your prompt reply! One more question if you don't mind. Do we need to spray all our clothes with permethrin we will be wearing on the Safari portion of the trip?

AshvEd

MrsRocky20852---We did the trip in September which was Spring in Africa. We sprayed our two sets of safari clothes that we wore in KNP and Victoria Falls. We also took Malarone as prescribed by our physician. We did not encounter any mosquitoes until we got to Victoria Falls. You may be there in a more "buggy" season than we were.

British

We have been to South Africa three times now and have never used anything but dollars. The only person you have to tip is the tour guide, who is usually American and even if they live in South Africa they go back to the US, or some people are bound to tip with dollars from the hundreds of Tauck travelers they will encounter each year. Any locals will be glad of dollars, money is money and don't forget South Africa is a first world country with third world problems, the people you are likely to encounter will be used to going to banks.
We sprayed our Safari clothing with Premethrin we wore on Safari. We were bitten by mosquitoes at Victoria Falls, it was very buggy when we last went. Clothing we wore in Johannesburg and Cape Town was very slightly more non-Safari amd we did not spray those on the Elegant Safari tour.

AshvEd

We arrived in Cape Town three days prior to the Tauck tour. The non-Tauck activities were all requested to be paid in Rands such as: private tour to the winelands, tour with a nonprofit to several townships, and walking tour of Cape Town. Our TD was from the US and was tipped in US$. Rands or US$ all depends on the circumstances.

MrsRocky20852

Thank you for your advice everyone!!

SnJ

Hi, Traveler. We are on the Feb 23rd trip as well---also coming from the DC area! We are leaving from IAD a few days early and have a tour of the Cape Winelands booked for the Wednesday and Thursday, arriving at the Cape Grace on Thursday night. Friday we have a walking food tour (yum!) before meeting the group.

Does anyone know about doing laundry on the trip? We are bringing 2 shirts/slacks each suitable for game drives, but wondered where and when we could do laundry, as well as availability of laundry facilities elsewhere on the trip.

We look forward to meeting everyone.

Sue (and Jack)

SnJ

Just noticed that your are MrsRockey 20852--so are we! (If that's your zipcode)

MrsRocky20852

susany wrote:

Hi, Traveler. We are on the Feb 23rd trip as well---also coming from the DC area! We are leaving from IAD a few days early and have a tour of the Cape Winelands booked for the Wednesday and Thursday, arriving at the Cape Grace on Thursday night. Friday we have a walking food tour (yum!) before meeting the group.

Does anyone know about doing laundry on the trip? We are bringing 2 shirts/slacks each suitable for game drives, but wondered where and when we could do laundry, as well as availability of laundry facilities elsewhere on the trip.

We look forward to meeting everyone.

Sue (and Jack)

MrsRocky20852

Hi Sue! We leave Sunday, 2/18 from IAD for Cape Town, and arrive late Monday night. We have a family wedding at a vineyard on Wednesday, and planned extra time visiting Cape Town on our own. Will be staying at the Cape Grace the whole time.

I understand they offer laundry services on the Safari Reserves, but otherwise I'll do some hand wash and use the various hotel laundry services.

Look forward to meeting you in Cape Town as well! :-)