CAPE TOWN IN SOUTH AFRICA

Send

Day 1: Lloret de Mar - Barcelona Airport - Cape Town in South Africa

Cape Town in South Africa. That has been the first word with which we woke up this morning and it is that although there are still a few hours left, today is the day when we will start one of the most anticipated trips of the year, which will take us to know South Africa for free.

For many trips for free, the flights we take are usually in the morning or at the earliest in the afternoon, so today, taking the flight from Barcelona to Cape Town in South Africa with Iberia at 9:30 p.m. , we have to confess that the day is quite long, although we take the opportunity to finish leaving work up to date in addition to doing the luggage, which with the hustle and bustle of the last days, we were not finished yet.

Spend a few minutes of 5 pm when we leave Lloret de Mar towards Barcelona airport, where we arrive at almost 7 pm and where after leaving the car in the parking lot, we go directly to the Iberia counter where we check our Suitcases for the flight to South Africa, we pass the security checks and wait, coffee in hand, the moment of boarding with which we will begin this incredible trip to South Africa in 25 days.

Barcelona Airport

Flights to South Africa with stopover within the country

Something very important to keep in mind when flying to South Africa is that if your flight stops within the same country, as it happens to us that we fly to Cape Town with a first stop in Madrid and a second one in Johannesburg, it is that in the First of all, where you stop in South Africa, you must pass passport control, pick up your luggage and put it back on some specific luggage tapes for transits.
The process is very simple and fast, but it must be taken into account to avoid further problems with your luggage.

Barcelona Airport

After a while with the nerves to the surface, it is time to board, accommodate in our seats, which we have to confess are much better than we expected and enjoy a flight between movies, reading and itinerary reviews, It happens much faster than expected.

We arrived in Madrid, the first flight stopover, when it is practically 10:30 p.m. at night and the first thing we found is that this airport is much more intuitive than we expected in addition to having much more pleasant facilities.
We also see that the restoration options are of better quality than those of Barcelona, so we take the opportunity to make a quick dinner that includes a couple of ham, drinks and coffee snacks for 20 euros, which we have to say, we are very surprised by the quality, something that happened to us with the Iberia flight we did not expect at all.

Madrid Airport

And so, when there are a few minutes to 12 o'clock at night we begin the boarding of what will be the second flight of the day, which will take us to Johannesburg first, where we will stop, and then finally enter Cape Town in South Africa, which will be the place where we start the route of this trip.

Touch accommodate and enjoy Of the 11 hours of flight, we spent almost entirely sleeping, something that will allow us to start the trip in the best possible way and full of energy.

Stopover in Johannesburg

After a much more comfortable flight than we expected, we arrived in Johannesburg when it is 10 in the morning and the first thing we do is pass customs controls, as we were told at the check-in point of the Barcelona airport and that you We explained above due to the regulations of the country, which forces you to remove your luggage at the first point of stopover you do in the country.

Even if you have a short stopover, don't worry, South African passport control is usually quite crowded, but access for visa-free tickets and for the rest of the world's passports usually goes very fast, so this process does not It will take you more than a few minutes.
Once you have the passport stamp, something that will also allow you to go faster in Cape Town in South Africa, since you will have the procedure done, you will access the luggage tapes, where you must pick up your luggage and go directly to another tape that It is a pre check-in, where you must leave your luggage so that it goes to the plane of your domestic flight.

Directions at Johannesburg airport

At this point it is necessary to ensure that your luggage is properly documented from the point of origin. For example, in Barcelona, they already told us what we should do with the luggage and they documented them to Cape Town so that we only had to make that change of tapes and not have to re-invoice it.

Once you have your luggage you must pass a security arch and go to the transit terminal of domestic flights where you will see that there is another baggage belt in which it is indicated Recheck.

Re-check in Johannesburg

Once all this process is done we go directly to the terminal from which our flight to Cape Town leaves in South Africa, which has a boarding time at 12:10 in the morning and that will finally take us to our destination and at the beginning of We intuit this incredible journey.

Seeing that with the 2 hours that we had as a link we have done all the paperwork and we still have practically an hour left, we took the opportunity to go to a Vodacom store where we bought a couple of SIM cards to be able to be connected throughout the entire trip to South Africa .

More practical information to prepare your trip to South Africa
- 10 essential places to see in South Africa
- 10 essential places to see in Cape Town
- The best tips for traveling to South Africa

SIM card South Africa

Keep in mind that in South Africa there are several companies that offer free SIM cards to connect to the internet or call in the country.
In our case we have opted for Vodacom, which is the one that offers the best coverage in the country, including many of the areas of the Kruger Park.
Although you will find shops in the cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town, in addition to the main areas of South Africa, we advise you to buy it directly at the airport, since here they are very accustomed to this process and they will provide you with all the data in addition to the activation they same.

Vodacom

Vodacom has countless plans, depending on the data you need and the days you are going to use them. We choose the 20Gb for 30 days for 1010 rands and the 10Gb, also for one month, for R605.
As we mentioned before the process is very fast, it has not taken us more than 5 minutes and you can also pay with Visa or MasterCard.

SIM card plans in South Africa

Another option is to choose to buy one Holafly SIM card being in Spain, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, saving you all the time of the negotiations and making the whole process to have internet in South Africa much more comfortable, fast and easy.
In this case, with the Holafly SIM you will have several Gb to surf the Internet (depending on the option you choose), they will send it to you for free at home, you will keep your WhatsApp number and you will have assistance service in Spanish. You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader

More information on the Holafly post, the best prepaid SIM card for travel

Keep in mind that this day that we are recounting in this post would already belong to the day after the trip, but we wanted to include the issue of transit in South Africa and the purchase of the SIM card for you to take into account in this first part of the trip to In the next post, focus on the car rental process in South Africa, with this we will continue this practical guide.

And so, after all the procedures, we embark on what will be the third flight of the day with which we will finally arrive in Cape Town in South Africa, the city that will be the gateway for a trip, which we are sure, It will end up being one of the most incredible destinations in the world.