New age travellers....

Toothbrush - check
Kids - check
DVD Player, box full of kids DVD's - double check.

We recently did a road trip from Durban through Swaziland, Mpumalanga and up to Venda. We travelled up to 11 hours in one day. How did we survive such a journey without having to endure hours of endless sibling conflicts and repetitive "I'm bored" renditions? We invested in a DVD player that straps onto the back of the headrests so that each child has their own screen with ear phones. Thanks to my friend Kerry-Anne for the idea!

All the hotels we stayed at were very welcoming to families with small children, even the 5 star lodges. The staff were all friendly and our children were given a lot of attention. Kwa Madwala (near Malelane) even arranged for our children to interact with their two tame elephants. My son was delighted to be able to play football with an elephant and my daughter, who loves to hug anything alive, was ecstatic to be able to hold the smaller elephant's trunk and feel his tail. At Makakatana (St Lucia) the children were too tired to eat in the boma so the staff arranged a plate of fruit for them in our room. The guide on the game drive was fantastic with the kids and gave them loads of interesting facts about the animals we saw!

Many of the places where we made a pit stop had jungle gyms and child friendly restaurants. I was very impressed with the quality of our roads too. I think the signage could do with a little improvement though!

I am pleased to report that travelling around South Africa with children is a pleasure. Many of the hotels are offering something extra for the kids. The Palace of The Lost City provides a backpack for each child on check-in and gingerbread men and a glass of milk as a turndown. The Table Bay Hotel offers an activity box including playing cards, pencils, squeaky toys etc for each child on check-in and gingerbread men and a glass of milk as a turndown. The Cape Grace offers colourful and jam-packed activity packs carefully selected to be age appropriate.

The Three Cities Group of hotels even has a Kids Board of Directors made up of seven children who play a role in making and implementing decisions that affect young guests at the hotels and resorts in the Three Cities portfolio, including activities, menus, holiday packs and accommodation. Of course many of the above mentioned hotels are 5 star, if you know of any 3 star hotels who offer these "extras" let me know and I will post them on our "Kids Holidays" page.

I hope you enjoy our November Entertainment Diary. We have also included events for December so that you can start planning your holiday entertainment now. Look out for our Christmas Feature going live this this week!

Cara
Editor