How long to go
The nights decide the trip more than the destination does.
Every destination page on this site prices three shapes at one length: the beach week is seven nights, the safari is three, the Garden Route is six, Dubai is four. This page puts those lengths next to each other and divides each band by its own nights. That division is the only arithmetic here. The bands are the figures already published on each destination page, and the script that writes this table reads them from those pages, so no number below was typed by hand.
The length each trip is priced at, and what a night costs at each end
Read the two per-night columns as the floor and the ceiling of the same trip. The gap between them is what the upgrade is buying, spread over every night of the stay.
| The trip | The shape priced | Nights | Entry band | Entry per night | Top band | Top per night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only, three-star, to city and Winelands with a private guide | 4 to 5 | from R 9,800 pp | R 2,450 | from R 24,000 pp | R 4,800 |
| Kruger safari | Three nights at Sabi Sands, four-star, to four nights at a five-star lodge on the lowveld | 3 to 4 | from R 18,500 pp | R 6,150 | from R 31,900 pp | R 8,000 |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive three-star, to the same six nights with a private driver-guide | 6 | from R 7,400 pp | R 1,250 | from R 16,900 pp | R 2,800 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star half board, to five-star all inclusive on the same coast | 7 | from R 26,500 pp | R 3,800 | from R 38,500 pp | R 5,500 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star bed and breakfast, two nights of town and five of beach, to five-star half board in the same split | 7 | from R 22,800 pp | R 3,250 | from R 34,900 pp | R 5,000 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star in Deira, to five-star on the Marina or the beachfront | 4 | from R 14,200 pp | R 3,550 | from R 24,600 pp | R 6,150 |
Cape Town is the one row where the length changes with the grade: the entry row is four nights and the top row is five. Part of its R 2,350 a night is therefore the fifth night itself and not the upgrade. The other five rows hold the length fixed and move only the grade, so their gap is the upgrade and nothing else. These are planning ranges built from the trade's published shoulder-season package pricing, not prices. The live figure comes back in writing once your consultant has confirmed it.
The one place a single extra night has its own price
The Kruger page prices the same lodge, the same shared vehicle and the same two drives a day at three nights and at four. Everything in those two rows except the night count is identical, which makes the difference between them the closest thing on this site to the price of one more night.
| The row | Nights | Band | Band per night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabi Sands, three nights | 3 | from R 18,500 pp | R 6,150 |
| Sabi Sands, four nights | 4 | from R 23,400 pp | R 5,850 |
| The fourth night, on its own | 1 | R 4,900 | R 4,900 |
The fourth night comes out R 1,250 below the three-night average. The reason is plain once you look at what sits inside both bands: the fare from Johannesburg that the Kruger page prices its bands from, the road transfer and the conservation fees are paid once, at three nights or at four, so the four-night row spreads the same fixed cost over one more night. Averaging those two rows and calling the answer a nightly rate would understate the fourth night by a quarter and overstate nothing else. It is the reason this page prints an average and then tells you where the average is wrong.
What each page recommends adding, and the length it makes
Every destination page names the extension it would choose. This is the same list, with the new total beside it, because a recommendation is easier to weigh when you can see the length it produces.
| The trip | Nights now | What that page suggests adding | Nights after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | 5 | A third wine-country night instead of driving back on the last day, so you fly out of Cape Town in the morning | 6 |
| Kruger safari | 3 | One night on the escarpment at Graskop or Hazyview, with the Panorama Route day on the way home | 4 |
| Garden Route drive | 6 | Two nights in Stellenbosch or Franschhoek at the front, or two at Plettenberg Bay at the back | 8 |
| Mauritius beach week | 7 | Two more nights on the same beach, which is the version most people take once they have seen the resort | 9 |
| Zanzibar slow week | 7 | Two more nights of beach on the north coast | 9 |
| Dubai short break | 4 | Two more nights, which buys a second beach day without touching the flight cost | 6 |
Five of those six extensions are quoted separately, because the night is added to a shape whose band was built at a fixed length. Only the Kruger escarpment night has a published band of its own, and it sits in the five-star lowveld row at four nights, which is a different lodge and a different basis from the Sabi Sands pair above. So the right-hand column gives you the length, never the price of the extra nights.
Three things a per-night figure cannot tell you
| The thing | Why it matters | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| The flight is inside the island bands | The three overseas bands carry the return flight from Johannesburg. The South African bands are built on the ground arrangement. A per-night figure that includes a flight is not comparable with one that does not | Add two more nights to an island week and the flight is not paid twice, so the extra nights cost less than the average. Add them to a self-drive and the car and the fuel do ride along |
| An average is not a marginal price | Dividing a band by its nights tells you what the trip costs per night on average. It does not tell you what the next night costs | Only the Kruger pair isolates a single night, and there it lands at R 4,900 against a R 6,150 average |
| The season moves the band, not the length | School holidays, the December coast and the June bush all price differently at the same number of nights. The bands are shoulder-season planning ranges | Tell your consultant the month with the nights. A length that fits a budget in May can miss it in December by the width of the season alone |
If you are still choosing between the six, the choosing guide rules them in and out by the number of nights you have. If the journey is the constraint rather than the length, getting there prices each trip in days. If you want two of them in one holiday, the two centre guide adds the nights and the move between them.
What to put in the brief
Send these six lines
- The nights you can actually take, school diary included.
- The month, or the two months that would work.
- Who is travelling, and the age of the youngest and the oldest.
- Where you are flying from, if it is not Johannesburg.
- Whether you want one base or are happy to move once.
- A ceiling you will not cross, if you have one.
What comes back, and when
The lengths that fit your nights, with the closest one first and the reason the others fall away. Where a night is worth more in one place than another, you will see the arithmetic on your own dates rather than on the averages above. That arrives the same day.
The live price and the availability follow once Lizanne has confirmed them with the trade, in writing. A plan that never becomes a booking costs you nothing.
Tell us the nights you have. We will tell you which of the six fits them.
Three lines are enough: the nights, the month, and who is travelling.
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Free to the traveller.
The planning lane costs you nothing. A plan that never becomes a booking costs nothing either.
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One named human.
Lizanne van Niekerk plans it and books it. She is the person you message on the day of travel.
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Indicative until confirmed.
Every number before the booking is a planning range. The binding price is confirmed in writing.
Read what it costs for the three steps and the fee, or what a finished plan looks like. For what the step between the first band and the third buys on each of the six, see what the bands buy. If the nights are settled and the question is money, what your budget buys filters all eighteen shapes by your number. For the band and the day money on one line, all eighteen shapes at once, read the whole trip.