this could perhaps go in sports talk but it's about the entire trip and not just the world cup - i'll bttt the thread from time to time since it's such a long time away - june 11 - july 11

is anyone else planning on going? my wife and i are planning to apply during the second phase coming up in the beginning of may - we're going to apply for two cat 3 tix for the final game but if we can't get those then we're going to apply for 2 games of the group matches in johannesburg and if we can't get tickets there we are going to try for the games in either cape town or durban

while we're there we are planning on doing some sort of safari and we're in the process of checking on a few other activities - my boss was just over there for an RFP for the police dept. to get their systems ready for the large influx of people

has anyone been to south africa? have any personal recommendations?

4/9/2009 11:50:56 AM

I was planning on going but I don't know if I'll be able to follow through. It's gonna be an expensive trip and I was planning on buying a house this year too.

4/9/2009 11:54:28 AM

when they first announced this, I had planned to go with my dad because he's been to South Africa and has a masters in Sub-Saharan African Studies... and he loves everything Africa, especially South Africa

but I decided not to go because there's just so much I want to see in the country that cramming in soccer games and following the World Cup would have taken away. Not to mention, the security questions and you know the price of everything is going to be jacked up like hell

but if you're going - I know his first recommendation would be that Cape Town is a must, especially Table Mountain... and Robben Island

I can ask him for more details specifically if you're interested

4/9/2009 12:03:42 PM

I went to the last world cup and have been considering going in 2010

4/9/2009 12:06:27 PM

I'm thinking about going. Got enough miles for a free plane ride and enough hotel points to probably stay for free most of the nights I'd be out there, but I know I'll probably end up spending mad G's anyway if I go. And I just bought a house, so.... I'm still trying to decide.

4/9/2009 12:44:09 PM

Quote :

"has anyone been to south africa? have any personal recommendations?"

Last time I went is 2006. Thinking about going for 2010. My wife's uncle is heavily involved with the world cup, so we have free tix if we go.

Definitely do a safari in Kruger if you can. I can't remember the name of the company we used, but they picked us up at the JoBurg airport in a Mercedes SUV and drove us out to Kruger. We stayed at Pretoriuskop, which is one of the larger camps, and has pretty good facilities/amenities. If you don't stay there, skukuza is the other good option, but it's a bit farther away IIRC. The safari was possibly the most relaxing 5 days of my life.
We stayed in a hut (air conditioned) that basically had a bed, and a bathroom. If you want more luxury, they have more resortlike units and even large houses you can rent. There's a restaurant and bar onsite as well.

You spend probably 5-7 hours each day with safari guides driving around the park. We were pretty lucky and saw all of the big 5 within the first two days. Some may not see all of the big 5 at all. When we came back to the campground the staff would cook up awesome meals over a fire pit. Beer and wine were also included.

Any way, I could talk about this for hours, but if you have time, definitely get out to kruger.

If you're going to all of the match sites, I hear Durban is awesome (escpecially if you surf), but I didn't make it out there when we went. Cape town is also an awesome city. If you go there, definitely hike up table mountain. Or if you're pressed for time, the cable car is pretty cool too. South Africa's wine country is in the cape town area, highly recommend hitting up some wineries.

We took a sleeper train from Joburg to Cape town, with a layover in Kimberly, which was also an awesome experience. Kimberly is where the "big hole" is and where the history of the diamond mining industry pretty much starts.

Joburg itself has a lot to see, but it's not the safest place to be... even in the upscale neighborhoods, all of the houses are surrounded by 8 ft stone walls topped with razor wire, and all the windows and doors are prison style bars in them. If you have someone with you who knows the area you'll be fine, though.

4/9/2009 12:44:29 PM

I was strongly considering going, but it looks like that might fall through due to the advanced planning required and uncertain employment and financial situations.

4/9/2009 1:01:40 PM

go to the golf course there with the longest par three in the world

4/9/2009 2:14:26 PM

Try not to get killed.

4/9/2009 2:25:33 PM

man, if i went to south africa i'd have to go see the great white sharks where they explode out of the water.

4/9/2009 2:33:49 PM

Phase 2 started today, about an hour ago. Just put in an application for three games, two in Nelson Mandela Bay and one in Cape Town.

5/4/2009 7:16:00 AM

we changed our minds since i first posted this - wife and i applied for the QF game in cape town for cat. 1

depending on if we get it or not will probably determine if we go to more games - starting to get a bit excited

5/4/2009 9:44:26 AM

I just went last year and stayed with my cousin in Stellenbosch. Definitely one of the best experiences of my life. Hike Table Mountain, Safari at Kruger, and, if you get a chance, I highly recommend shark cage diving in Gaansbai out at Dyer Island. I was lucky enough to be with my cousin and go to local events as well, just knowing which bar/pub to go to (watched the UEFA championship with people who actually are in to soccer) & attending a braai (basically, just a cookout). All the wineries are pretty cool. Spend a day down the Cape Peninsula, see the penguins at Boulder's Bay, and watch out for baboons at the convenience store at the Cape of Good Hope, one jumped on my sister's leg to get some potato chips.

But yea, pretty much everything's been mentioned already. Be safe, have a blast.

5/4/2009 11:15:42 AM

Other than safaris South Africa is quite the weak sauce.

5/4/2009 1:34:07 PM

cape town is a world class city - it's incredible. the city is booming for the cup - so much construction going on, it's crazy. i was just there in march and was amazed at how much is being developed as a result of the world cup. the city is absolutely beautiful and the dollar is really strong. if you're looking for safari, i'd recommend joberg and head to krueger. if you do cape town, definitely hike table mountain and as BobbyDigital said, wine country is close and you can head to stellenbosch for some great wineries. shark cage diving in gaansbai is also an excellent idea, it would probably be in season - its only a couple hours southeast of cape town. driving north along the western cape is also cool, there are some beautiful unpopulated beaches along the cape. if you're lucky and the weather is warm enough, cpt also has some beautiful beaches (clifton, camps bay, gordons bay).

5/4/2009 9:49:40 PM

I did a study abroad all over South Africa in 2005 with the Organization for Tropical Studies where I traveled all over SA and visited numerous parks, including about 6 weeks of stay within Kruger park.

I loved Cape Town. It's absolutely stunning, rivaled only by Rio de Janeiro in my opinion, and there is tons to do there if you don't leave the area. Here's some suggestions for Cape Town. I'll start with the things that nobody has mentioned.

-Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Absolutely beautiful and huge. Do not miss it!
-Cape Point National Park at the Cape of Good Hope is nearby and well worth the trip. Go out as far as you can to actually see the lighthouse, we all did. Sights are breathtaking there. You can also see a fair amount of wildlife. I even saw Southern Right Whales in one of the bays. Also there is a nearby penguin colony of jackass penguins that you should visit. I had a wet suit and was with the group and actually got to swim with the penguins!
-Eat, eat, eat! Restaurants there are world class. My favorite was Nelson's Eye Steakhouse on Hof Street. Best ostrich I've ever had, and don't be afraid of the monkeygland sauce, it's really good. Try as many different kinds of game as your palate can handle. No two kinds of antelopes taste the same. Croc tail is just like gator tail.
-Do the Robben Island tour, very informative, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
-Hike or cable car up Table Mountain. Keep an eye out for rock dassies while you're up there, they like to hide in the bushes. Rock dassies are little prairie dog looking little guys. If you're really into hiking there are other small mountains to hike up on.
-We stayed at Ashanti lodge, a hostel on Hof Street right by the aforementioned steakhouse. It was only R100 a night when I stayed there, and the place was very nice, safe, and secure and in a good part of town.
-Long street parties on the weekend bring back memories of old Mardi Gras. Partying goes late into the night. I can't even imagine what it'd be like with the world cup going on.
-Being married this might not interest you, but keep an eye out for some of the most beautiful women you've ever seen. Cape Town is one of the modeling photography capitals of the world.
-Stellenbosch is the continent's wine country. Check it out.
-Weather is really weird around Cape Town so it might always be a good idea to always have a plan B when sightseeing outside the city proper. Go 10 minutes from Cape Town to "Obs" (Observatory) and you might think you just wandered into a completely different climate.

Now I could go on about Kruger forever, like I said I lived there for over a month and a half at several of the camps. Spend money on a very good pair of binoculars if you haven't already. I have a nice pair of Nikon 7 x 40 but a 10 x 50 would have been better. Skukuza is the headquarters of the park and probably has the most to offer. The one big restaurant they have with the rail cars isn't very good (the buffalo was awful I remember). The wildlife viewing around there was superb, as the Skukuza River is one of only two perennial rivers in the park, all the others dry up. So even though there are man-made watering holes around the park, there will be lots of wildlife in the southern part of the park because of the river and because you'll be going in the dry season. Of all the campsites we stayed at Mopani was my favorite. It was relatively new, the bungalows were SWEET, and you fall asleep to the sound of nearby hippos. If you decide to drive yourselves around instead of taking a tour, you can check on where people have been seeing what wildlife and where at all the rest stops and base camps. I only saw one leopard the whole time I was there and I cherished that viewing, that's the hardest of the Big 5 to see in Kruger.

Feel free to ask or PM any other questions.

[Edited on May 10, 2009 at 2:19 PM. Reason : ]

5/10/2009 2:19:03 PM

How intimidated are you guys with going to SA?

5/10/2009 10:39:55 PM

i haven't read this thread, but i have to say that i'm completely jealous of you for the first time ever, omar.

5/11/2009 1:39:57 AM

I was in SA this past summer. Stayed in Johannesburg, Durban, Kwazulu Natal, and Cape Town. I saw about 4 of the stadiums being built for the World Cup. I loved SA so much I am hoping to return for the World Cup, just need the game tickets. Cape Town is a must. Also, you should try to get tickets to a game in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg. Very special place and stadium is VERY impressive.

SA is a beautiful country filled with such wonderful people! I loved it. So glad WC 2010 is there, something I have always wanted to go to in my life. Hopefully (doubtfully) USA will do some business. If you have any specific questions about SA just shoot me a PM. I am very excited for you and your wife.

5/11/2009 12:24:01 PM

has anyone heard back if they got tix yet or not - still waiting they said within 10 days though

5/11/2009 5:59:27 PM

Quote :

"-Being married this might not interest you, but keep an eye out for some of the most beautiful women you've ever seen. Cape Town is one of the modeling photography capitals of the world."

yeah because married guys never look at other women

5/11/2009 6:05:11 PM

don't get AIDS

5/11/2009 6:59:35 PM

I second the recommendation of Nelsons Eye steakhouse - I, too, stayed at Ashanti and happened to wander in there. I had what I still consider to be the best steak I've ever had - a huge cut of wet aged sirloin, enjoyed with some carling black label. As far as price goes, it's on the upper end for CPT but it's worth it (the dollar is strong). Another place worth checking out is Nyonis Kraal (on Long St) - a lot of local fare that's well priced.

5/11/2009 9:20:32 PM

Quote :

"SA is... filled with such wonderful people!"

Now after all the positive comments I made about SA earlier in the thread, I would like to respond to this. On the whole I disagree with this comment. Truthfully, I have no intentions on going back to SA simply because of the people. The WHITE people that is. The black people were awesome, very curious and inviting (see below). On the contrary, I found Afrikaaners to be, fat, lazy, and uninviting. I'm not saying that Americans aren't cause we sure as hell are. But compared to other cultures/peoples I've met, I disliked Afrikaaners the most. Their shit apparently doesn't stink. I didn't get along with most Afrikaaners because the impression I got from them was that if you're not an Afrikaaner, you're not one of them and they really couldn't care less about you, end of story. Maybe it was because I was an American traveling abroad during the Bush regime, and if that's the case, I really don't blame them. But I really, really, disliked the white people. And for christ's sake, apartheid ended nearly 20 years ago, but you'll still see a sign in the window of many businesses in Cape Town that say "owner reserves right to refuse admission."

Now on the contrary, the black people there were so incredibly warm and friendly that my initial reaction was that they wanted something. And they did want something. They wanted to know about America; they wanted to be able to say "hey I met this kid from NY today in my tiny little village and he told me about what its like in the United States." Genuine and sincere curiosity. I will say this applied to the black people I met from rural SA. The few black people I met in Cape Town were much more interested in my white, American money.

Just my two cents.

5/12/2009 11:36:48 PM

well our first application didn't go through and now it won't allow any applications for any of the capetown games - doh!

put a second application in for a QF and a R16 game in J-burg

5/20/2009 10:56:50 AM

it's official - we're going!

Item	                                           Team/Venue	        Seat Category   Quantity	
Match 58 - QF - W49 v W50 - 2 July 20:30	Soccer City Stadium	Category 1	  2	
Match 52 - R16 - 1B v 2A - 27 June 20:30	Soccer City Stadium	Category 1	  2

5/21/2009 4:54:50 PM

Quote :

"Maybe it was because I was an American traveling abroad during the Bush regime, and if that's the case, I really don't blame them."

I thinks this is probably accurate for the most part. My wife is an afrikaaner, so when we were in RSA, we were pretty much always with afrikaaners, and I found them very warm and inviting for the most part. They do have a very strong pride in their own culture, which can be easily mistaken for elitism (and for a few of them it probably is-- my father-in-law is a good example of the worst kind of person on the planet).

5/22/2009 7:31:16 AM

Just heard back from my friends, application was approved. Was unsuccessful with first application and did not receive any tickets for Nelson Mandela or Cape Town, so applied again for matches 32, 39, 52 in Johannesburg and got the last two.

Item	                                        Team/Venue	        Seat Category   Quantity	
Match 52 - R16 - 1B v 2A - 27 June 20:30	Soccer City Stadium	Category 3	4
Match 39 - D4 v D1 - 23 June 20:30		Soccer City Stadium 	Category 3	4 

5/23/2009 8:00:13 AM

sounds like we'll be at the same game - keep this thread updated with anything cool you find to do over there

5/23/2009 9:04:08 AM

we've booked a safari

http://www.inyati.co.za/

it's exciting how they've raised the prices just for the month of the WC - we checked tons of different places and a lot of them were full so if anyone else is looking - book soon

it looks like we won't be able to use my hilton points for j'burg as well which kind of sucks but hotel/plane are the next things to conquer - we can just about book our plane tix - just another day or two i think until it's not too far out

8/6/2009 9:36:04 AM

^ One of my good friends is from RSA, and I had asked him what he would think of using the World Cup as an excuse for me to visit him next year. He said that basically the price of everything remotely related to tourism in the country will be going up by 3-5 times as much as usual to match European standards of pricing. If you love soccer, it's a great event, but if you want to experience South Africa, try to stay until afterwards when people go home and things go back to normal.

8/6/2009 8:32:14 PM

Quote :

"My wife's uncle is heavily involved with the world cup, so we have free tix if we go. "

Will pay you/your wife/your uncle good money for those free tix!!

8/7/2009 3:01:26 AM

bttt

everything is booked now for us minus a rental car

[Edited on November 20, 2009 at 9:02 PM. Reason : done]

11/20/2009 8:42:54 PM

if you are driving and see a [black] dude in the middle of the street lying face down, do not stop to help him.

11/20/2009 8:56:31 PM

assuming there are any tickets left - going to apply for the chile/spain game today

4/15/2010 10:34:36 AM

got the tickets to chile / spain - well at least an email saying the order was processed and they've charged my card

3 games now with the first being the night after we arrive in pretoria and the other 2 in j'burg at soccer city

reserved the camera lenses i'm going to rent for the trip today - getting very excited

5/4/2010 8:55:41 PM

Here are a couple of photos I took at the Germany 2006 WorldCup. Best experience of my life. I wish I could go this year.

5/4/2010 10:06:00 PM

I've got this on my list of things to do before I die

I'm sure you are pumped Omar and I look forward to hearing about your experiences after you get back.

5/5/2010 9:24:17 AM

starting to get very excited - most of the big planning is done - still working on the fine details

i'm a bit angry we still have no idea where we are sitting for our 2 later games but sounds like we'll just be in the dark until we pick them up

ordered a cheap vuvuzela for watching games here - going to vegas for a bachelor party next weekend that will involve some downtime watching games - not going to take it with me though to SA and pick a better one up there

6/3/2010 11:01:34 PM

have the day off to watch the games and then heading there tonight

6/23/2010 5:59:47 AM

Off to go watch the US game!

6/23/2010 6:03:55 AM

Now I remember why I never watch soccer

6/23/2010 11:09:53 AM

now i remember why i do watch soccer

6/23/2010 11:52:29 AM

in paris on the way back and this trip was everything i'd hoped for and more - this will not be my last world cup

7/4/2010 1:46:25 AM

^ That's all you've got? Come on man, we need great stories, and pictures, and more stories. Glad you had a good time.

7/4/2010 4:29:15 AM

ummm, OmarBadude, even the semis haven't taken place, let alone the final... you can't come back yet!!!

7/4/2010 7:43:21 AM

pictures plz

7/6/2010 10:06:14 AM

he was raped.

7/6/2010 10:21:00 AM

i haven't post processed any of the pictures i took at the matches - i uploaded some from the safari though in the DSLR thread - message_topic.aspx?topic=391741&page=167#14115595

i'll update this once i get to those pictures - the best ones are the fan pics though - i have some good game shots but none of any huge substance - the first game i was second row lined up with the 18 and for the last 2 games we were very close to center pitch but in the top section

7/6/2010 5:52:19 PM