South Africa

by D.K. Publishing and DK Eyewitness Travel

Book Overview

From the wilds of Kruger National Park, to cosmopolitan Cape Town, to the lush western cape winelands, to the stunning beaches along the Garden Route, this guide leads you straight to the greatest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756628741
• ISBN13: 9780756628741
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent comprehensive overview

The Eyewitness Travel products are excellent and I have used them in Costa Rica, Paris, and Japan. Recently I was on a short trip to South Africa and used the guides in Johannesburg/Pretoria and in Cape Town. Again, I found the guide to be excellent and very helpful. Because of the large number of beautiful color photographs in the guide, it certainly is a good keepsake. South Africa is an enormous country and the guide tries to cover all the major geographic regions. The history of South Africa is fascinating and the more you learn before you go, the more sense you will be able to make of the institutions. Cape Town was originally a stopping off point for Dutch traders on their way to Dutch colonies in Indonesia, however many of the Dutch decided to stay in Cape Town due to its pleasing climate and beauty as well as the fact that vineyards could be established in this part of Africa. French protestant Huguenots also moved to Cape Town to escape persecution in France, and they also contributed to the vineyard culture of the region. However native peoples were pushed northward and eastward as more Europeans arrived. The Ndebele people were displaced as pioneers moved north and the Xhosa people were displaced as the pioneers moved further east. This trend was increased several fold when the British began arriving and challenging the Dutch. These Boer farming families pushed further east in the great Voortrekker movement of the 1830's, displacing many native peoples, yet the British continued to push their authority into Boer areas. The stakes were dramatically increased with the discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa, tensions increased which erupted in the South African Boer War of 1899-1902. The character of Cecil Rhodes greatly influenced this period as expansion into Zulu, Botswana, Namibia, and Lesotho increased in the search for diamonds and gold. To maintain control of such a vast land mass with a broad range of native communities, the Boer and English forces together imposed Apartheid on the people to separate, as much as possible, Europeans from indigenous people. This system was upheld through highly repressive techniques. Only in 1990 were the Apartheid laws overturned and the democratic process begun for the vast number of South Africans. The release of Nelson Mandela from a political prison in 1990 and his subsequent election as the new State President in 1994 are stunning historic events with which every visitor to South Africa should be familiar before planning a trip. We stayed at a guest house in Pretoria in the same neighborhood with the Embassies and large historic homes. We found the neighborhood to be full of Victorian homes or large Dutch manor homes and we were within walking distance of the University of Pretoria campus. On the campus there is a pizza pub with outdoor seating. I noticed that for the most part, students grouped themselves according to race with only a few mixed race groups sitting together in th

beautiful photos, good start

This was one of several books we bought for a trip to South Africa. The book itself is beautiful-good photos, concise descriptions, good background and is itself a keepsake of the trip. It provided some good background and historical information about the different areas of the country and what to expect, but it is not the kind of book that will tell you all you need to know about where to stay, what time the trains run, etc. It is a great start to get excited about where you're going, but should only be considered as an adjunct to another book (like Frommers or Lonely Planet) that provides all the nuts and bolts information you actually need to travel there. If you have both, you're in great shape, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it ahead of time.

South Africa (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Excellent travel guide! It's very up-to-date and has a lot of detailed information. I especially loved the street-by-street and pictorial maps -extremely helpful!!! The only downside is that it doesn't really list any low-budget accomodation, the ones recommended are more on the high end...

Sets a high standard for travel books

Before I went to Cape Town, a thoughtful friend gave me this book, and I couldn't thank her enough. And although my comments below apply to the South Africa volume, they could well be applied to the entire series, which is excellent. The layout of the book is immediately arresting. Rather than imposing blocks of sheer text, the editors use tons of photographs, maps and other graphics. Just randomly flipping through this book is entertaining, which is not always the case with these types of publications. The typefaces are clear and well-chosen, and the enticing pages include many illustrations, the most unusual of which are cutaway diagrams of major buildings. These drawings are quite beautiful, and an unexpected delight in a book like this. Other sections deal with history, art and business. And still more sections cover "nuts and bolts" items like hotels and restaurants, and vital information such as availability of banks and ATMs, doctors and hospitals, and other trip considerations that one might overlook in the rush to depart. The book is a nice size to tuck into a bag, and will give hours of pleasure even after the trip is over. I've used guides by Fodor, Michelin and others, and although those are quite good, these Eyewitness publications really raise the bar.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I bought South Africa (Eyewitness Travel Guides) and have found it very helpful. We already had an itinerary planned and this guide showed us where we would be visiting, the weather, and gave useful background on each area. This guidebook gives pictorial views of historical sites, attractions etc. This was enlightening information, some of the places we will be going are far larger in area than we would have imagined. Also the attraction maps will help us keep oriented so time is not wasted being lost. With this guide and a good detail map of South Africa we gained insight about the length of travel needed each day. The biggest plusses were the pictures and drawings, they really are worth a thousand words as used in this guide. There is plenty of "survival" information; important phone numbers, medical suggestions, lodging recommendations etc. Lots of fun to read just for enjoyment!