Travel and stays

Booking a stay direct

Many of South Africa’s best small places to stay are owner-run bed and breakfasts and guesthouses that take bookings themselves. Booking direct often means talking to the people who will host you, getting a straight answer about the room you will sleep in, and sometimes a better rate, because there is no booking-site commission to cover.

The catch is that a small business’s website can be hard to find, and harder to judge. Every ad on Find4U links to a website we have read ourselves, so you know there are real rooms, real photos and a way to get in touch before you click.

What to look for on the website

• Photos of each room, not only the garden and the view. Look for the bathroom too.
• Clear prices, with what is included: breakfast, parking, Wi-Fi and the number of people per room.
• Where it is. A map or a street address, and how far it is from the places you plan to visit.
• Recent guest reviews, either on the site or linked from it.
• How to book and pay, and the cancellation policy.

Star grading

Some places are graded by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA), from one to five stars. Grading is voluntary and lasts a year at a time, so an ungraded place is not necessarily worse. It has simply not been assessed. If stars matter to you, ask when the place was last graded.

What you will find here

Browse bed and breakfasts, or go straight to bed and breakfasts in Nelspruit for stays near the southern Kruger National Park and the Panorama Route.

Written by the Find4U team at QX Software in Pretoria. We read every website before its ad runs.