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Hi all, we are looking to travel to Mexico (Cancun, Riviera Maya, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico City just to name a few, as well as Cape Town, SA.
For SA we would be mostly looking to stay within Cape Town, as we have been lead to believe this is the more safer destination for tourists as opposed to other cities.
Please advise if your view differs?
We would also be looking at possibly doing a safari, so not sure if someone like Trailfinders should arrange this for us or Amex Travel Concierge or to just enquire with the hotel direct.
For Mexico we are open to slightly more options. Currently thinking Mexico City, Cancun, Riviera Maya and Playa Del Carmen.
The only direct flight with BA we can find so far originates from LGW instead of LHR. The majority stop off in Mexico City first.
Is this common for this particular route?
Any hotel recommendations would be ideal too, no emphasis on kids facilities but we do like a hotel pool for those chill days.
Would anyone recommend car hire for either location, if so what is the driving experience in either location?
Thank you in advance!
They are very different destinations and i’d suggest a fair bit more research on your part as to what you fancy, Internet and a trip to the travel section of your local library is what we’ve done when looking at brand new destinations to our family.
Personally, we like to hire a car and do everything ourselves (book hotels/visits/safaris) and build our own trip, but we realise that not everyone finds that fun or it takes the holiday feel out of it! Trailfinders etc seem good – we met a lot of their customers in SA but they certainly paid a lot more for exactly the same things that we had.
Car hire in both countries is fine. Mexico City (commonly written as CDMX) is absolutely huge with tricky parking so best to use Uber or similar, but once you are leaving the city, cars, buses or flights to other cities are fine and then continue on your own.
There are several threads on this forum about both Cape Town (and South Africa in general) as well as Mexico. Search through those and see what you think (instructions to search are at the top of the forums section). I too highly recommend a copy of the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide to get you started.
You still seem a bit confused about the flights. You mentioned the LGW-CUN departure on the chat thread – this is the only BA service, and the only direct one from the U.K. where you’d be able to use avios/companion voucher. They don’t “stop off” in Mexico City, that service terminates there and you’d need to get a connection to CUN on another airline, which would have to be separate from your voucher booking.
Your other options would be on charter airlines such as Tui, or via another airport – if you took that option and didn’t mind transiting the US, there are plenty of connecting flights, including on AA which might have avios availability.
The 3 Caribbean resorts are quite near each other and you could stay somewhere in the middle and visit all of them. In terms of sightseeing though, there’s not a huge amount unless you venture a bit inland to Chichen Itza and other Mayan sites.
Despite its fine tourist attractions, Mexico remains one of the most dangerous countries on earth so make sure you read FCDO advice about where you need steer clear of (a very long list of regions!) if you’re planning on travelling around.
The company I use for South Africa is East Cape Tours, a local agent set up and owned by an expat Brit. They are fantastic, particularly in their hotel selection, which are mostly independent gems. Booking this through an independent agency will get you a better experience than some of the more generic tour agencies, for around the same price. South Africa is probably the only African safari destination I would suggest it is OK to book yourself, so it can be done this way (I grew up in Kenya so am comfortable self-booking elsewhere, but I wouldn’t advise it, you are adding hassle for minimal if any saving over a good operator).
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