If you live in PE, are visiting for the summer holidays or are thinking of visiting Nelson Mandela Bay, this one is for you. The cosmic gods of adventure have aligned and bestowed upon us lucky friendly city people a whopping 5 incredible brand new family activities to delight and entertain us all.
So round up your kids and get ready for a holiday full of fun, new things to do for the whole family!
The well-worn leather bound South African National Park Visitor’s Book at Narina Bush Camp in Addo National Park is such an entertaining read that it is reason enough to visit this delightfully rustic camp.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a multitude of other reasons to visit Narina and it remains one of our all-time favourite SANparks spots. But each time we arrive, the very first thing I do after settling in is head for the gas fridge, on top of which is a trio of books. The first is a recipe book where campers can add their favourite fireside concoctions. The second is a comprehensive list of all the flora and fauna in the area and the third is the bee’s knees in camp side entertainment.
One of the reasons we relocated our family to Port Elizabeth was the fantastic lifestyle the city offers, at an affordable price. While our teenage relatives in the bigger cities are trawling shopping malls, our PE kids are catching waves, climbing dunes and hugging ancient trees in hidden forests. As our kids have grown into teens, their taste has started to become more pricey with the lure of IMAX movies, trips to the ice rink and trendy restaurants. But the good news is that while our purse strings are being pulled tight by politicians, it is still possible to have a fabulously affordable and fun time with your family in PE.
Here are 17 of our top things to do in Port Elizabeth for under R30 per person:
When we published an Open Letter to the Universe, listing 17 adventures that our family would love to do during 2017, we included the Owl House and Nieu-Bethesda as No. 5 – Somewhere New. Although we had heard and read so much about the Owl House, we were completely ignorant about how amazing the entire village and area is. So, here are 6 other reasons, besides the Owl House, to visit and fall in love with Nieu-Bethesda in the Karoo Heartland of South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
One of the things we love most about travelling are those rare moments when the world seems to shrink in on itself around you. The times when you end up in a place that literally sucks the reality out of your being and leaves you feeling teeny tiny but at the same time hugely significant. Those places where time ceases to exist, where your spirit takes charge and where the meaning of life is within your grasp.
Travelstart asked us to share what we love about travelling. For us, travel is about more than just seeing new places and doing new things together as a family. It is magic in its simplest and most humanly accessible form.
There are certain places where the fabric between magic and reality is torn. Places where people gather and become still and contemplative. These places recharge your spirit and make you content, they strengthen you emotionally and remind you what an amazing gift it is to be alive.
Here are 9 of our most magical places in our beautiful rainbow nation, South Africa:
