The whole trip
The band is most of it. On one of the six, it is not.
Every shape on this site carries two published numbers and they are published on two different pages. The band is on the destination page: the bed, the driving, the days out, per person sharing. The on-ground allowance is on money on the ground: what a day costs outside the band. Nobody adds them in public, so this page does. Eighteen shapes, one column each side, one total at the end.
Two numbers, and neither one is new
The band
The figure on the destination page, for one traveller in a twin room. It is the supplier's price and our planning number for that shape, and it does not move because this page quotes it. What the band includes is written on the basis line of each shape, in that shape's own words.
The day money
The published allowance for the money the band does not cover, per person per day, in rand. This page uses the middle line, because that is the line most travellers settle on after a day or two. The lean and generous lines are in the table further down, so you can see the swing rather than take ours.
What this page is not
It is not a quote, it is not a discount and it does not rank the six. A package night and a land night are different things, and ranking them by the night is the mistake this site refuses to make. This page only adds two numbers that were already published.
The arithmetic is band plus allowance times nights, per person. The two-traveller column is that total doubled, because every band here is built on one traveller in a twin room and two is the smallest party that pays it as printed.
Eighteen shapes, down to the bottom line
| The trip | The shape | Nights | The band | Day money | The total, one | The total, two | Band share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only | 4 | R 9 800 | R 3 800 | R 13 600 | R 27 200 | 72% |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands | 5 | R 14 500 | R 4 750 | R 19 250 | R 38 500 | 75% |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands, private | 5 | R 24 000 | R 4 750 | R 28 750 | R 57 500 | 83% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, three nights | 3 | R 18 500 | R 2 100 | R 20 600 | R 41 200 | 90% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, four nights | 4 | R 23 400 | R 2 800 | R 26 200 | R 52 400 | 89% |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands and the lowveld | 4 | R 31 900 | R 2 800 | R 34 700 | R 69 400 | 92% |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, three-star | 6 | R 7 400 | R 5 400 | R 12 800 | R 25 600 | 58% |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, four-star | 6 | R 10 600 | R 5 400 | R 16 000 | R 32 000 | 66% |
| Garden Route drive | With a private driver-guide | 6 | R 16 900 | R 5 400 | R 22 300 | R 44 600 | 76% |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, half board | 7 | R 26 500 | R 5 600 | R 32 100 | R 64 200 | 83% |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, all inclusive | 7 | R 29 900 | R 5 600 | R 35 500 | R 71 000 | 84% |
| Mauritius beach week | Five-star, all inclusive | 7 | R 38 500 | R 5 600 | R 44 100 | R 88 200 | 87% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, bed and breakfast | 7 | R 22 800 | R 4 900 | R 27 700 | R 55 400 | 82% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, half board | 7 | R 26 400 | R 4 900 | R 31 300 | R 62 600 | 84% |
| Zanzibar slow week | Five-star, half board | 7 | R 34 900 | R 4 900 | R 39 800 | R 79 600 | 88% |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Deira or Bur Dubai | 4 | R 14 200 | R 5 200 | R 19 400 | R 38 800 | 73% |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Downtown | 4 | R 17 900 | R 5 200 | R 23 100 | R 46 200 | 77% |
| Dubai short break | Five-star, Marina or beachfront | 4 | R 24 600 | R 5 200 | R 29 800 | R 59 600 | 83% |
Every figure in this table is derived from the two data files the destination pages and the money page already read. Nothing here is typed by hand, and a change to either file is refused rather than rounded if the two disagree.
Where the band stops being most of the trip
The share is the interesting number. On a safari most of the money is settled before you land, because the band carries the room, the vehicle and three meals a day. On a self-drive it is the other way round: the band buys a car and a bed, and the fuel, the food and the stops are the bigger half.
The widest band share is Kruger safari, Sabi Sands and the lowveld, at 92 per cent: R 2 800 of day money against a R 31 900 band. The narrowest is Garden Route drive, Self-drive, three-star, at 58 per cent: R 5 400 of day money on a R 7 400 band, which is R 2 600 more on the ground than the safari spends, on a smaller total. One of the eighteen shapes puts less than 60 per cent of the trip in the band. The style you live at moves Mauritius beach week, Four-star, half board at 7 nights, from R 30 000 lean to R 37 700 generous, a swing of R 7 700.
What a high band share means
Less to decide on the ground and less to carry in cash, but also less room to spend less. A safari at 90 per cent is close to a fixed cost once you have chosen the lodge. The part you control is the drinks list and the gratuity.
What a low band share means
More of the trip is a series of small decisions, made by you, on the day. That is the point of a self-drive and it is not a defect. It does mean the day money is a real budget line and not a rounding allowance.
What it does not mean
A low band share is not a cheaper trip. The Garden Route three-star total is lower than most shapes here on the strength of a smaller band, not on a cheaper day. Read the total, then read the nights.
The style you live at is the half you control
The band does not move between these three columns. Only the day money does, at the three published allowances, for the entry shape of each destination. This is the part of the trip where a decision actually changes the number.
| The trip | The shape | Nights | Lean | Middle | Generous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only | 4 | R 12 000 | R 13 600 | R 17 400 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, three nights | 3 | R 19 700 | R 20 600 | R 22 700 |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, three-star | 6 | R 10 400 | R 12 800 | R 17 900 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, half board | 7 | R 30 000 | R 32 100 | R 37 700 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, bed and breakfast | 7 | R 25 950 | R 27 700 | R 32 600 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Deira or Bur Dubai | 4 | R 17 000 | R 19 400 | R 24 600 |
Lean is one paid meal a day and the free things. Middle is two meals out when the band does not include them, a taxi when walking is not sensible, and one paid activity every second day. Generous is the table you want, the private transfer and a paid activity most days. The three definitions are on money on the ground and they are the ones this table uses. The same three definitions printed against the band on every shape, rather than the middle one alone, are on what the day adds.
What the total still leaves out
Visas and entry
Where a border charges for entry, the charge is set by that country and it is not in either number here. The paperwork page carries the seven trips and who decides entry to each.
Cover
Travel insurance is bought from an insurer and this site sells none. It is a real line in the budget and it is the one most often left out of a planning total, including this one.
The things you decide on the day
A second bottle of wine, an upgrade at the gate, the shop at the airport. The allowance absorbs an ordinary day. It does not absorb a decision, and no allowance on this site pretends to.
The live check for this page is scripts/verify-the-whole-trip-deploy.py. It
re-derives all eighteen rows, the six style rows and the finding from the two data files,
and it compares the bytes the domain serves against the committed file before the deploy is
called good.
Ask for the total, not the band.
A quote that arrives as one number hides which half you control. Ask for the band and the day money on separate lines and the decision becomes obvious.
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Two lines, one total.
The band and the day money, added in front of you, so you can see which part of the trip moves when the plan moves.
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The shape stays the shape.
Nothing here changes a price on a destination page. The allowance is added beside the band, never inside it.
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No money of yours passes through us.
Travel & Beyond never takes traveller money. The booking is settled through the trade, and the cash in your pocket stays yours.
How the bands build up is on what it costs and what the bands buy. The day money is worked through on money on the ground. The nights are on how long to go.