My husband and I are considering a trip to South Africa to visit family this coming summer. Our daughter will be about 18 months old. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has traveled to SA recently with children. How was the plane trip (layover in Europe or just tough it through the whole way at once)? Where in SA did you go and did you feel safe being out and about with your kids? Keri

Second, I would strongly recommend renting a car. I believe we arranged this prior to leaving the Bay Area but don't recall specifically. Be aware that they drive on the opposite side than here, and most rentals are manual transmission. Michael drove for the entire trip as he had more recent experience with a manual transmission car and drives for his work (it would have taken me a good half-day to get comfortable driving there). I don't know about car seats, but I would think you would want to take your own, if possible. South Africa's roads have one of the highest accident rates anywhere, but we had no difficulties as we drove very cautiously and only drove during the day. Renting a car enabled us to travel to many places we could not have gotten to via public transportation. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have -- feel free to email me. Lori