Travelling Safety Tips | Hermanus | Western Cape

Safety Tips for travelling in South Africa

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South Africa may appear, from the over-hyped media on the other side of the planet, as a rather unruly and slightly dangerous place to holiday in, but the truth is that South Africa is actually a lot safer to journey through than one would imagine. As long as you follow a few basic rules, that you would adopt when travelling anywhere in the world.

Let’s be honest, crime is everywhere on this planet and the best way to avoid any hot spots is to use your best friend – common sense.

TripAdvisor Percy Tours, Hermanus, Cape Town, South Africa

If you were holidaying or even living in, New York or Sydney or London or any place really, would you go to the shops to buy a newspaper with an expensive camera around your neck, with a pile of cash in your pockets, while wearing expensive jewellery? NO, should be your immediate answer.

When travelling anywhere, it is very wise to take a small rucksack with you that contains the barest of essentials. Hide your cameras in there, your wallet, money and mobile phone; never take with you your passport, airline tickets or such like. If you look like a million dollars then you are sending signs to everyone that you are worth mugging, so basically don’t do it unless you want unwanted attention.

The simple answer to it all is – always go out with what you can afford to lose.
After all we all know what a meal and a few drinks will cost, so why go out with 10 times more than that in your pockets? Credit cards are taken everywhere in South Africa.

Anyone standing on a street with a large map flapping in the wind is also sign-posting that they are a tourist and a lost tourist too! Just simply go into the nearest shop and ask the shop-keeper for directions.

It is Percy Tours company policy to always accompany clients, who are on tour with us in South Africa, around all the cities and towns that we go to. We also orientate clients within those locations before we drop them off, so that they are always well aware of their surroundings and where to go safely.

As you will be in Percy Tours constant care while on holiday you will not be driving, but if you ever have to drive on the roads, please be aware of a few things.

South Africans love to undertake – a very dangerous practice in any country.
Mirrors are for checking your make-up, not for checking the surrounding traffic.
Drinking and driving is common, while there is also very little public transport, so do your utmost to not drive at night. In fact the drink drive laws have recently been changed from 0.08g to 0.02g of alcohol per 100ml of blood, but this will still not deter people from drink driving as the police very rarely do breath testing.
Indicator lights are for illuminating night clubs and not for showing the intended directions by the driver of the vehicle in front of you.
Seat Belts are not worn that much, however always wear yours.
Yellow lining (driving along the hard shoulder) is very common, irrelevant to whether that slower vehicle is going around a blind corner or over the brow of a hill. Therefore only ever overtake these vehicles if you can see miles ahead of yourself.
Always drive with your lights on.

And remember – a Smile goes a million miles. Especially when you can’t understand or speak the local languages - thankfully ALL South Africans speak the international travelling language of English.

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