LOCAL TRAVEL
crowds. With young children, this sound becomes louder and movement faster. For a four-year-old, it’ s thrilling. For a one-year-old, it’ s overwhelming. For me, it’ s a careful choreography of snacks, naps, bathrooms and entertainment.
Yet there is something incredibly fun to be found here. Something to be said for the exciting combination of movement, colour and possibility. It’ s a springboard for various adventures and a place where families, performers, business travellers and tourists all intersect.
Here, in a city defined by reinvention and resilience, Carnival City felt like a natural choice for us and Carnival City Hotel provided a functional base close to the airport as well as a fantasy escape.
There was a fun park with carousels and rides to burn off all kinds of energy, the arcades at Magic Kingdom drawing in teenagers and nostalgic adults in equal measure, and familiar, much-loved local favourites alongside other easy, crowdpleasing dining options.
THE ROAD TO MADIKWE
From Johannesburg, the safari options are endless. For us, Madikwe Game Reserve was an obvious choice and the perfect antidote of calm to Johannesburg’ s chaos. Madikwe is vast, roughly 75 000ha of protected wilderness on South Africa’ s northwestern border, tucked against Botswana. It is malaria-free, which already helps calm the nerves when travelling with little kids, and it is home to the Big Five, as well as wild dog, cheetah, hyena, giraffe, zebra, and more than 300 bird species.
Even just the drive there, the three and a half hour transition from dense urban infrastructure to open land, from buildings to bush, creates a physical decompression. By the time we reached Madikwe, I felt like I had shifted into a different state of being. I was instantly more observant, more settled, more grounded.
THE SAFARI EXPERIENCE
What defines Madikwe isn’ t just its wildlife density. The reserve feels open in a way that many of the country’ s high-traffic safari destinations do not. Limited vehicle numbers, and the absence of self-drive tourism create an experience that feels unpressured. There is time to sit with sightings, to read behaviour, to move on without urgency when the moment has passed. There is room to breathe.
But with over 30 different lodges to choose from with most offering a five-star all-inclusive experience, it can be hard to choose the right one
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