Travel Information
The closest international airport is Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB).
From Switzerland
The trip to South Africa from Switzerland is about 12-14 hours, depending on where you go through. There are no direct flights from Geneva, you have to go through Zurich or other major European cities.
From the US
Coming from the US, there are flights with one or two layovers. It depends where in the US you're coming from and which airline you prefer. From Phoenix, it looks like you have limited options with a single stop: British Airways or Delta. From San Francisco, there are more options with a single stop: Emirates, Swiss, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Turkish. Also more options from Seattle: Emirates, KLM, British, Virgin, Lufthansa.
Airline recommendations
There are a lot of airlines that make the trip, and we've tried a good number of them over the years.
Lufthansa, Swiss or British Airways are the ones we prefer as their service is usually pretty good and the layover times aren't too long. Virgin Atlantic is also pretty good and generally cheaper. Etihad, Emirates or Qatar often have cheaper flights, but the layovers are much longer (at least 4 hours, sometimes up to 7-8 hours) and the journey is longer when flying from Switzerland. If you don't mind how long it takes to get there or if you're flying in from Asia or the US, these could be an interesting option. Turkish Airlines is also good, but with longer travel time (from Europe at least).
Most airlines have night flights from Switzerland or Europe leave in the evening and arrive early morning the next day. The airlines going through Dubai or Abu Dhabi usually arrive later in the day. KLM has a day flight leaving early morning and arriving late evening. They are however often paired with Air France for the return trip.
We don't recommend South African Airways and we're also not too keen on Air France as we've had some bad experiences with them. For the same reason, for people flying from the US, we don't recommend United. This is only our opinion and if you want to fly with them, up to you.
Booking tickets
You can book tickets from 10 months in advance, so you can book now if you want. October isn't peak season, so prices shouldn't be too crazy. Booking in advance seems like a good idea to get a decent price, but we've also experienced booking flights for October 3 weeks before the date and still got a pretty good price. Flights are generally cheaper if you fly on week days rather than weekends.
Flights within South Africa
If you want to travel from the Johannesburg area to other areas of South Africa such as Durban or Cape Town, there are some low cost airlines (Safair, Kulula, Mango) that fly direct. It's about a 2 hour flight to Cape Town, a little over an hour to Durban.
Other tips
It's a long trip, and if you've never experienced something like this before, here are a few tips: have ear plugs or noise-canceling headphones. Try and get some sleep if you can, otherwise the next day will be very long.. even if you're like Luke and don't really sleep on planes, at least try and close your eyes for a bit. Eat a good meal before you leave: unless you're flying Business, airplane food isn't the best ;-)
Accommodation
We are arranging with the venue if we can have guests stay the night before but this can only be confirmed closer to the date. However there are a number of guest houses and hotels that are in close area to Erin’s parents house.
| Fa'Trez Guest House and Spa | www.fatrezguesthouse.co.za |
| De Zoete Inval Guesthouse | www.dezoete.co.za |
| Constantia Manor Guesthouse | www.constantiamanor.com |
| Protea Hotel Fire and Ice Menlyn | www.marriott.com |
| City lodge Lynnwood Bridge | https://clhg.com |
Transfers
Please do not use taxis. However you can use this company that Erin has had experience with previously and that offers excellence service.
| Ulysses Tours and Transfers | |
| Telephone number | +27 12 653 0018 |
| info@ulysses.co.za | |
| Website | www.ulysses.co.za |