South Africa on NGN556k Budget

Hey guys!, how are you doing? I am sure you saw the title of today’s newsletter and you are probably wondering if that N556k is in Naira or Japenese Yen. E shock me too o.

I am sending out this newsletter today because of the plenty requests to write about South Africa and I figured since today is a public holiday, it will give you ample time to read it.

Few days ago, I wrote a travel budget breakdown for Kenya and Twitter people came for me, lol. I almost started to reevaluate my life decisions regarding this newsletters. It is all good, the aim is to demystify travel and I will continue to do that.

Like I have written in previous newsletters, travel is not as expensive as we think it is, it is not cheap either but it is also very doable with proper planning. The hack is to travel to places within your tax bracket. Remove your mind from Instagram aesthetics and optics and focus on budget friendly countries.

I visited CapeTown in 2018 and the whole trip cost me NGN580K at the time. This was a group trip with a travel company, so I didn’t think, I was the right person to share my experience because that’s over 4years ago. Anyways, I met someone on Twitter that went to SA in June 2022 and spent NGN556k for a four days trip. I was intrigued and got him to share his experience.

Muna in Capetown in 2018 ( Rihana was found shaking)

I will tell this story in a first-person narrative, so it is easy for you to follow. So anywhere you see I, I am referring to Farooq. Here goes his story…

I have always wanted to visit SA, so I started to plan my trip since January. At first, I applied for the E-visa and waited for ages with no feedback. I reached out to VFS, got the E-visa application withdrawn and reapplied at the application center.

As soon as my visa came out, I applied for personal travel allowance from the bank in order to get the dollars at the CBN rate.

Flight

I booked my flight directly with South Africa Airways at the return rate of NGN226,000. I decided to visit SA because all I wanted was to travel, runaway from Nigeria’s stress and breathe, feel like a king you know.

As the original Yoruba Boy, I wore a kaftan with Fila (cap) so they can easily know that I be confirm 9ja man ( first mistake). Flight time was about 5hours 45minutes. While onboard, I drank white wine twice and slept for about 4hours of the flight. Osheyyyyyy, a king and more.

Visa

South Africa requires a visit visa for entry. You can either apply for an e-visa or directly at the embassy in Abuja or via VFS in Lagos. The visit visa cost NGN32,271 (Visa fee of NGN7071 and service charge of NGN25200).

The visa processing time was 21 working days. The visa requirement includes passport photo, International passport, return flight ticket, 2 coloured copy of bio data page and a copy of all visas in the passport, self introduction letter from an employer, copy of yellow fever card, 3 months bank statement and hotel reservation.

Port of Entry/Immigration

Like our parent used to say that “There will always be someone in power that will want to exercise his/her power”. At the Heath Control, some Nigerians holding yellow fever cards were asked to step aside because they felt the yellow fever cards were fake.

I had my yellow fever vaccination at Entebbe Airport in Uganda so I scaled through. After matching up like king David to the immigration, the lady looked at me and said what do you do for a living (in my mind I said posting memes lol). I replied “I am an accountant/model/tour agent” and this lady started asking me different questions, she even asked for my Instagram handle to verify my work. After series of questions, she let me go.

There is Bolt and Uber in SA. However, the apartment got a cab for me and it took the cab guy more than an hour to pick me up. It is advisable to take a Bolt or Uber when you arrive.

Payment

All payments were charged in South African local currency. Currency conversion is 1Zar=22Naira as seen on Google.

Hotel

I booked my apartment directly on booking.com, I prefer apartment than hotels because they are cheaper most times and gives the luxury vibes. I stayed at Odyssey luxury apartments in sandton, Johannesburg, it was a 30msquare apartment with two single beds, I would have gone for the double bed apartment but it was quite expensive so I moved the two beds together and turned it to a big bed (the Nigeria in me, Ogbon sodiq lol). “They tink say they wise”.

The apartment was really good. The hospitality and daily housekeeping was top notch. The apartment cost $112 ( NGN82k) for the three nights. E shock you too abi?

I always plan and check my budget ahead. As an accountant you have to spend wisely.

Booking.com is helpful in choosing good hotels as there are lot of reviews and objective ratings.

Odyssey luxury apartments

Food

As a food lover, I spent at average of 45$ per day on food and drinks which made it $180 ( NGN133k) for the 3nights/4days stay. I had a taste of food from almost all the restaurants close to the apartment, from the Italian restaurants, the pizza place and Mediterranean restaurant. ln-country transportation cost 160-180ZAR ( NGN3K-4K) daily.

Activities

I didn’t do all the activities I planned, all I did was a city tour, visited golf reef city and did half day tour to Soweto. I met with amazing people while on this holiday especially in Soweto and we had a lot to drink and dine the night before I parked my bags to Lagos.

Here is my nomad Johannesburg, South Africa experience. This was just a beautiful holiday experience.

Nelson Mandela Square

This was clearly a fun read, Farooq definitely had fun on this trip, he also mentioned that he bought some T-shirts from this NGN556k budget, omo, Peter Obi no do pass like this o. I had to add my pictures because Farooq was focused on enjoying the moment instead of capturing the moments, when he is not George Okoro abi Bedge.

Anyways, Farooq owns a travel company that organises trip to various countries in Africa, please reach to him @larinka_ng on Instagram. Let him know you are from Muna, who knows, you might get small discount.

We now have over 3k subscribers. Thanks to everyone who is reading and sharing! Please keep sharing to your family and friends and we might just be hitting the 5k mark soon). Nigerians need to know that you can travel the world on a budget.

Until next week

Love

Muna