Family Adventure Holiday

Dear friends of ours are having a traumatic time because of the wild and unstable actions of a grand daughter in her teens. Other friends, fond of family adventures, have two daughters in their teens who, although rebellious at times, seem to be solid and stable. To claim a simplistic “cure” for that time when you have teenagers in the family is not something I would dare to do.

When our children were in their early teens, we reasoned that extended holidays at the beach would not work. We thought holidays that would keep every member of the family active without much time to get bored and interested in drugs and stuff should do the trick. And Southern Africa offered the ideal environment for these types of family adventures.

At some cost!

My wife, Catrien, and I had to do without movies, shows, dances, beach parties, and other entertainment during holidays. We missed it at the beginning, but it later became a lifestyle.

We duly explored much of the more remote places in Southern Africa. At the time the kids did not like it much. They missed the “fun” their friends were having at the more popular beach resorts. Today, however, as adults with families they too seem to favour family adventure holidays. This culminated in 2003 into one of the most adventurous family outings we ever had. You can read more by clicking here.

Demand for Family Adventure Holidays

For several years now we noticed the larger demand for family adventure holidays. Even friends as far away as California asked us to organise an adventure trip in Africa for them and their two teenagers. Every month thousands of searches are done on the Internet for “family adventure holidays.”

Perhaps people who grew up in Southern Africa take the accessibility to family adventures in the wilderness too much for granted. Our Dutch friends with the holiday rental business in Austria have now extended their holiday rental business to Southern Africa. You can read more by clicking here.

Gin Palaces?

I think there is a misconception in Southern Africa that all foreign visitors want to stay in rather vulgar “gin palaces” in the African bush. Our experience is that foreign visitors love bush chalets that offer the basic luxuries but blend in with the African environment unobtrusively.

The initiative of Safari Chalets partners with private owners of Nature Reserves that used to cater mainly for the South African market. The pricing, in spite of the South African Rand’s strength against other major currencies, is very competitive when compared to, for example, ski-holidays in Austria. Air fares from Europe to South Africa are at an all time low – in fact cheaper than tickets from South Africa to Europe!

Adventures on Offer

The list of family adventures on offer is endless. From hiking, biking, horse-back safaris, and game drives to bush-craft training, tracking, birding, white-water rafting, and hot-air ballooning!

I firmly believe that family adventure holidays are not only great fun, but it tends to keep families together.

Kind regards.

Philip de Bruin