Cape Town - Accommodation - South Africa - Helderzicht Cottage

South Africa

South Africa [SA] covers an area of approx 1.2 million sq kilometres, about an 8th of the size of the USA and has a population of 45 million.

It’s neighbouring countries are Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia and it is also flanked by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The 3 largest cities are Johannesburg in the North of the country, Durban on the east coast and Cape Town on the southern tip of the African continent.

To give you an idea of the size of SA, it takes 2 hours to fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg, a similar distance from London England to Marbella in Spain .

The southern tip of SA, the Western Cape, is subjected to a Mediterranean climate, of hot, normally dry summers (Avg Temp 25C ) and mild wet winters (Avg Temp 16C).

The seasons are opposite to those of Europe and North America i.e :

Spring from September to November, Summer from December to March, Autumn from April to June, Winter from July to September.

South Africa has a very modern economy with excellent communication infrastructures i.e. internet, email, fax, and cell phone service providers.

Electrical power systems are 220/230 volts AC at 50 cycles per second and adapters for electric shavers, hair dryers and laptops can be obtained locally.

The water systems are 100% purified and medical services are excellent.

The monetary system is called ‘Rand’ and a rand is made up of 100 cents.

VAT is currently at 14% and is reclaimable by visitors exporting goods back to their country of origin.