A trip to South Africa is an experience you’ll never forget.
Although it can get a bad rap for being a violent country, the truth is, most violence is relegated to poverty-stricken areas of large cities and often includes squabbles over drugs and civil issues.
Millions of people visit South Africa each and every year without incident.
So, if you decide to plan a careful trip, why would you want to consider extending your South African visa for tourism purposes and stay for weeks, or even months, instead of days?
Many Nearby Countries to Explore
Although some people mistakenly believe Africa is a country, the fact is, it’s a continent.
That means each “state” is actually a country of its own. For the traveller who isn’t afraid to do a little moving around on their holiday, South Africa can make a great home base for travelling to other amazing places in Africa.
A few of the amazing places you may want to consider visiting if you extend your holiday include:
- Experience the great migration of over a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra in Tanzania.
- Feel like you’re truly in the heart of Africa by visiting the Djemaa el Fna in Morocco, where you’ll see snake charmers, henna-painters, and more.
- Get up close and personal with the mountain gorillas in the Rwandan rainforest.
- Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe put the Niagara Falls to shame. They dump as much as 12,800 cubic meters of water per second.
Live Like a Local
When you take a holiday anywhere in the world, the locals can usually spot you right away. With very little time to settle yourself into the culture, it can hardly be avoided. However, a longer holiday enables you to learn how to live like a local.
Living like a local provides you with a completely different experience than the traditional tourist experience. You’ll be exposed to new places, meet new people and eat delicious food at affordable prices.
You’ll return home feeling like you saw amazing things and learned amazing things if you have enough time to settle in and live like a local.
Make New Friends
Meeting new friends is hard in day-to-day life. It’s nearly impossible on holiday because you’ve only got a few days to make a connection with another person before you return home. You can make friends with new people when you travel, as long as you extend your holiday.
The more time you spend in a community, the more chances you’ll have to strike up conversations and get to know the local people.
They’ll trust you more, because they will see you more often and because you aren’t packing your bags and leaving in a few days, you can actually plan to get together. If you’re lucky, you may even get invited to their house for a meal. This will provide you with an unforgettable holiday experience you won’t get in any restaurant.
Feel Relaxed, Not Rushed
Rushing around is a huge problem in our society. Unfortunately, that need to rush carries over into our holiday and travel time too. One way to keep your holiday from feeling rushed is to pack all of the touristy things you want to do into one day, but why do that if you don’t have to?
Simply plan a longer holiday!
With more time to experience all the things you want to experience, there’s no need to rush around from one thing to the next. That enables you to actually enjoy your holiday and you’ll be more likely to remember it because you can take the time to savour each moment.
You Can Do Everything
Not only do people feel rushed, but many holidaymakers also return home feeling disappointed that they didn’t get to do everything they wanted to do. It’s an impossibility in South Africa! That is unless you take an extended holiday.
With multiple weeks or months to spend in this country, you can literally do everything you want to do.
That includes all of the touristy things, like taking a cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain. It also means you have plenty of time to accept an impromptu dinner invitation from a local or experience something unexpected, like taking a bath off a cliff in the Away With The Fairies Backpackers hostel in Hogsback.
Why spend a measly week in South Africa when you can extend your holiday! Take the extra holiday time and soak up everything this country has to offer. If you are able to of course.
- Collaborative Post
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