Customer Reviews

Frommer's South Africa (Frommer's Complete Guides)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We visited South Africa for 20 days in July 2000, driving from Cape Town to Kruger. Before we left we sat down at a large book store and reviewed all their South African travel books. This one looked the best and proved to be very useful, particularly for accomodations. Some of the prices had changed but the standards and services were exactly as described. This is a great book for travellers who are above the backpacker/budget level but not up to "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

I travel extensively and am a fan of Frommer's guides which I generally find to have a nice assortment of options in varying price ranges. The volume on South Africa however, was a great disappointment. If Frommer's were to be believed, you had to pay $200 and up for a decent hotel room. Fortunately I have often traveled in South Africa, enjoyed its reasonably priced accomodations, and knew such prices were nonsense. I stayed in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and other top destinations in season for less than half that much. The guide also overlooked destinations a bit off the beaten path and proved of so little use to me that I didn't bother to pack it home with me. I strongly suggest the Eyewitness guide instead or just surf the web for tons of great information from the South African Tourism Board.

In December 99 we used Frommer's 00 South Africa for a nine day tour by car through the Western Cape -- a good test for relevance and comprehensiveness. We found it by far the most helpful of the guides we looked at. An amazing amount of detail, good maps, lots of interesting background information, and thoroughly entertaining. How all guidebooks should be.

I went in March 2000 and returned a week ago from the Western Cape. ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL TRIP! But, talking about the book...

Prices for gas and some of the attractions, like Cape Point and a couple nature reserves we visited were already outdated. Gas is nearly R3/litre! I understand their economy isn't doing well, so they've had to increase prices to the visitors. Tourism is their no. 1 business.

There were several things I remember reading in the text, then later, when I wanted to see it again, I couldn't find them in the index...stuff like the Vergelegen Winery (which has amazing views and delicious wines!) and others. Not all boldface terms are in the index. This is something that could really be improved!

Lastly, I must reiterate what my hosts said: They've seen many rediculous books on Cape Town and the Western Cape and this is not one of them.

I debated between 3 and 4 stars, but remembering my frustrations with the index, I knocked it down to 3. :)

Just returned from a 2 week trip to South Africa - this book was very helpful in finding places to stay, things to do, how to keep safe, etc. I took "The Eyewitness Guide" with me too, but that book was not very helpful.

I would also recommend you talk to someone who has been there and make sure you have local contacts. This is a crazy but beautiful country. Have a wonderful trip!

The book has a very narrow view, focused on ultimate luxury and non-afrikaaner history. oddly, safe is equated with boring. hotel guide is absurd, with proices rangeing from expensive to stratospheric. despite the above, it does contain decent and useful information, and is worht the money. it cannot, however, serve as the sole bookin in planning a trip.

An excellent reference book for anyone visiting Southern Africa. We only found a few minor errors but the recommendations on where to go and what to see were very useful.

We're looking forward to going again and will certainly take this book along. We didn't have enough time to see it all.

My nephew and I are going to South Africa for the World Cup. I took all the South Africa travel books out of the library and thought this one was the most clearly presented.

I selected the Frommer's travel guide to South Africa while planning my trip because I always heard how superior a guide it was.

As far as information goes, it definitely has it. I plan on taking this guide with me to Africa because it is full of interesting and helpful details.

However, the drawback for me is that it would go on and on and on about all these great things about the country, but there were no pictures! And reading a travel guide is not like reading a novel where you can let your imagination roam. I wanted to see what I was going to be getting myself into since I would be spending 2 weeks in a foreign country with no idea what to expect. I would read something in the Frommer's guide, then have to look up pictures on the internet.

Like I said, I do plan on taking this guide with me when I go to South Africa, but as far as actually planning the trip, it was not very helpful because I couldn't see what it was describing. If you're looking for a better South Africa travel guide, try DK Eyewitness Travel on South Africa. Much better.

Bought this book on Kindle. It turns out to be impossible to navigate and is difficult to use as a guidebook. Maps are wortless on Kindle, but I knew this prior to buying it.

In addition to the Kindle shortcomings I find the guide suprisingly boring.
I dont care if a taxi company is run exclusivly by women and I do not understand what a "chi- chi" atraction is. Sadly it is impossible to return this Kindle book.
Bought Bradt and Rough Guide in paper format as replacements. Will not use this one.
Found this Kindle book to be worthless and as a result it got a bad rating.