Jaunted

Tags: World Cup / 2010 World Cup / Soccer / Football / Sports / Sports Travel / Sporting Events / → All Tags

U.S. Earns 2010 World Cup Berth. Games Now 37% More Interesting

I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the U.S. World Cup soccer team because: A. It's my country after all, my homies; and B. It's always fun to root for the underdog. The U.S. dominates in so many sports, but in world soccer it has almost no impact at all. That gives the current squad - which qualified for a 2010 World Cup berth on Saturday - an aura of rebellion, like they've got the potential to upset the natural order of things. I like that.

more ›

Tags: Movie Set Travel / District 9 / Johannesburg Travel / Movie Travel / South Africa Travel / → All Tags

Discovering South Africa's Apartheid History Through 'District 9'

District 9, in theaters now, is a sci-fi extravaganza that has thrilled critics and geeks alike. The movie centers around a group of refugee aliens that arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa, and are segregated into an area called District 9.

The film's title is a direct reference to District 6, the area where thousands of South Africans were relocated during the years of apartheid. Unlike most Sci-Fi fare today, the film addresses issues like segregation head on and actually creates a real social commentary. That's not to say it doesn't have cool special effects; it still has plenty of "how'd they do that?" moments too.

Here's a look at how to get into the spirit of District 9 while visiting South Africa.

more ›

Tags: Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / World Cup / Nelson Mandela / → All Tags

Goal!: Obama to Attend 2010 World Cup in South Africa

President Obama may have a lot left to accomplish on his inaugural year agenda, but that doesn't mean he can't start planning his 2010 vacations.

According to soccer's governing body, the hopeful one has accepted an invitation to attend the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next June, the first major sporting event to take place in Africa. But where will Obama stop when he's in SA? It's still a year away, but that doesn't mean we can't start guessing:

more ›

Tags: Competitions / Contests / South Africa Travel / → All Tags

Cookies Could Send You To Cape Town

Eat cookies, win trip. That's a no-brainer if we ever heard one, so the marketers at the Khaya Cookie Company might be on to something. They've started up the Quest for Cape Town competition and the winner gets a 10-day trip around the Cape Town area in South Africa, choosing from food and wine, eco-tourism or sun and surf themes.

Khaya Cookies include various shortbreads and granolas that are made with organic materials sourced from the winelands area near Cape Town, and the "cranberry rooibos shortbread" sounds like the most delicious one to us. If you buy a pack, you get an automatic entry into the competition to win the trip, or runner-up prizes like a Kindle, or extra boxes of cookies.

You can even check fellow cookie-addicts at the contest's stats page - when we checked, the leading entrant had scoffed down 22 packets of cookies so far. Entries close on July 15, after which time buying extra packets of cookies will become a slightly more "guilty conscience" action – although at least these cookies say you're helping create local jobs in South Africa. Eat up!

Do you love travel contests? Enter the Jaunted-Competitours Contest here!

Related Stories:
· Quest For Cape Town [Official Site]
· Cape Town Travel Guide [Jaunted]

Tags: Volunteer Travel / Laid-Off Travel / Gap Year Travel / → All Tags

Spend Your Gap Year Going Green

Looking for a good excuse to put off college? We have just the thing. Greenforce uses volunteer tourists to create sustainable communities and conduct research for conservation projects. What sets the organization apart, is that they specialize in gap year programs in which students take a year off in between high school and college.

The gap year concept is also becoming popular with people who are looking to take time out of their current career or are looking for a new purpose after losing their job.

Greenforce offers a four-week program collecting data on white sharks in South Africa for $2,000 a person. A new group departs the first of each month. If you don’t find the imminent danger of swimming with sharks appealing, they also offer trips to study pandas in China or rescue animals in the Amazon.

Related Stories:
· 10 Great Summer Volunteer Vacations [Peter Greenberg]
· Greenforce [Official Site]
· Volunteer Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: Greenforce]

Tags: Movie Set Travel / Matt Damon / Clint Eastwood / George Clooney / Brad Pitt / Morgan Freeman / Celeb Travel / South Africa / → All Tags

Matt Damon 'Goodwill' Hunting in South Africa

For the past two weeks, Matt Damon has been multitasking in South Africa. First, he visited Musina, a border town where Zimbabwe refugees have fled to escape violence. Matt was there as a representative of Not on Our watch, an organization he created with Brad Pitt and George Clooney to “focus global attention and resources towards putting an end to mass atrocities around the world.”

Last weekend, Matt took part in the difficult 110km Cape Argus Cycle Tour to raise money for Make A Difference. Sixty mile per hour winds made the ride difficult for cyclists, some of whom were unable to finish the race.

more ›

Tags: Sporting Events / Wheelchair Races / Paralympics / Accessible Travel / → All Tags

Crowds Cheer On South Africa's Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge

If you happened to be in the historic town of George in South Africa’s Western Cape last weekend, you’d have seen an extraordinary sight. At 8.15am on Valentine’s Day, 625 competitors were lined up at the start of the world’s biggest, brightest wheelchair race: the Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge.

Buggies, tricycles, adapted bicycles mingled with sleek racing wheelchairs and hand cycles. South African Paralympic hero and world record holder Ernst van Dyk prepared himself for the marathon alongside athletes who had traveled from France, Namibia and Zimbabwe and all over the country to attend.

On the other side of the partition were a motley collection of participants in the fun race – from disabled 2-year-old babies to a 95-year-old granny in a buggy. It was both bizarre and wonderful.

Bizarre because South Africa is not generally known as a pioneer in promoting disability rights. That may be changing.

more ›

Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags

Recession Dining Goes Global

Finally, the US exports a food trend that doesn't suck.

Just about every high-end French resto in the States now has a "recession menu" or "permanent restaurant week" that aims to make foodie-friendly eats accessible to the poors and newly-poors.

As the financial crisis spreads far and wide, we're now seeing the idea of high-end recession menus show up further and further around the globe. Exhibit One is Auberge Micael, one of South Africa's only five-star restaurants. Set in Johannesburg's tony Sandtown neighborhood, this swank French resto is one of the country's best-reviewed eateries and a must-stop for any dedicated foodie passing through Jo'burg.

more ›

Tags: HOWTO / World Cup Travel / South Africa Travel / Sports Travel / → All Tags

Get to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

If you’re one of the expected 300,000 to 500,000 football fans flocking to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup 2010, don’t think you can just hop on a plane and go. Football fans are notoriously crazy about attending football matches (cue The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" which has become the de facto football cheer.) You really need to start planning now.

Tickets
Tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2010 finals will go on sale on the FIFA website, starting February 20. One million out of the three million total tournament tickets available will go to international visitors – the other two million go to sponsors, teams and South African fans. Tickets are expected to cost about $136USD a piece but can vary from anything from $80 to $900, depending on which of the 64 matches tickles your fancy and how close you want to be to the action.

If you’re reading this is May 2010 and the tickets are all sold out, you can still hop on a last-minute plane over there – giant screens in public areas will be set up, and pubs, restaurants and bars are shelling out big-time on mega-size TVs ready to keep the neighbours up all night.

more ›

Tags: World Cup Travel / South Africa Travel / Sports Travel / → All Tags

How Prepared is South Africa for FIFA World Cup 2010?

When the South Africans found out they’d be hosting the FIFA World Cup 2010, their reaction was probably like that of the Brits when they won the 2012 Olympics bid. Unbridled joy, heavy drinking and crazed celebrations until the helium balloons in everyone’s heads went flat and someone said, "Uh...what do we do now?"

Damn, South Africa badly needs this crazy football competition. They’re expecting upwards of 500,000 fans to flock into the country, waving their dollars and euros and tacking on a safari or two while they’re there. The Grant Thornton consulting firm have told the government they can expect a 55.7 billion rand ($5.42 billion) boost on their GDP for 2010 and the authorities are already sticking out their tongues to lap it up.

But damn, damn, damn, we just hope South Africa can pull the rabbit out of the hat next June. Here's what might harm their chances of making magic happen.

more ›

Tags: South Africa Travel / To Do / Wine-Tasting Travel / Wine Farms / → All Tags

Off-the-Beaten-Track Wine Farms Near Cape Town

Monica Guy is joining us again this week to tell us what more there is to do in South Africa. Enjoy.

Yesterday we told you about the South African Brandy tastings that you must experience when you make the trip to South Africa. But we can't forget about wine tours, can we? At the top of our list of Things To Do Around Cape Town still remains a tour of the wine farms in Stellenbosch and Constantia.

Did we say wine farms? We meant tourist farms. The two dozen or so farms who are fully kitted out for international visitors with industrial tasting rooms, restaurants that could feed the whole of Africa, international shipping options and marked up wine prices.

Okay, we take it back. Some of these places are pretty gorgeous – colonial-style white houses overflowing with summer roses and surrounded by fields of vines. Here's a few that you should stop by and see.

more ›

Tags: South Africa Travel / Brandy / Wine-Tasting Travel / Wine Farms / → All Tags

Variation On a Wine Tour: South African Brandy

Monica Guy is joining us again this week to tell us what more there is to do in South Africa. Enjoy.

Another way to get off the beaten track on the Cape Town wine routes, is to skip the wine farms altogether.

One of the biggest-selling, most award-winning alcoholic drinks you’ve never heard of is South African Brandy. Forty-five million litres of it are sold each year, mostly to South Africans but increasingly to an overseas market.

The French and Spanish producers of brandies like Cognac, Armagnac and Soleras are fuming after South African brandies have been scooping up golds and silvers at competitions including the International Wine & Spirit Competition and the International Spirits Challenge. Sales of the traditional European brandies are dropping, we hear, as hotels, cruise ships and restaurants order in the South African stuff instead – half the price without the pretensions.

more ›