Good to know before you go South Africa

Passports, Visas, and Vaccinations

Good to know before you go South Africa to check your passport and visas. Most countries want you to have your passport valid for at least six months covering your holiday. Also, don’t forget the name on your ticket must match the name in your passport.

Sort out your visas if you need one to the country you are visiting. It can take several days and weeks – for the embassy to issue one, so don’t leave it to the last minute and sort out in time.

Also, ensure to check if you need vaccinations and arrange them with your doctor a few weeks prior to your departure date as they can take a while to take effect.

Check you have the essential documents for your holiday

No matter whether this is entry visas or your driving licence, your boarding pass or hotel confirmation, get organised and put them all together in a plastic folder so that you can find them easily when you need them.

Also, it’s helpful to make a list of useful telephone numbers, for example, emergency contact details if your mobile phone or debit or credit card is lost or stolen. Making a note of your passport number is also important in case you were suddenly to find yourself without it (let’s hope not). For seamless holiday please read the information in this section of good to know before you go South Africa.

Ensure you know your luggage allowances:

Make sure to know your luggage allowance as over-packing and being stuck at the check-in desk at the airport i.e. something you cannot really afford to start your holiday.

Make your home secure

Nothing will snap you out finding someone has broken into your home. So please double and triple check doors and windows and make sure you cancel any milk or grocery deliveries. In addition, ask a family member or a trusted neighbour to regularly check on the home and remove any post from behind your front door. You may also consider investing in light timers or CCTV cameras.

Remember that if you were to have a home break-in while you were on holiday and you had not secured your house properly, your home insurance could be deemed invalid – thus taking the good time to do this is utmost important.

Ensure you have valid travel insurance to cover your holiday:

Making sure you have in-date travel insurance is equally important. To get the best possible deal on travel insurance, compare policies on a comparison site to find the best one to suit your needs.

Lumle Holidays have partnered with some of the travel insurance service providers. If you check our “Holiday Essentials” section to get a quote. However, any further dealings with travel insurance are between customers and the insurance company.

Adequate and valid travel insurance that covers cancellation and curtailment due to various reasons including but not limited to government travel warning and incidence related to force majeure (such as a war, strike, terrorism, riot, crime, hurricane, flood, earthquake, volcanic eruption and others) is compulsory for all Lumle Holidays Ltd travellers and it is a condition of Lumle Holidays Ltd accepting your booking that you have obtained adequate and valid travel insurance for your booking at the time of booking. It is your (customer’s) liability to make sure the adequate insurance above is in place as a lot of the holidays can be non-refundable once booked. Your travel insurance must also cover accidents, and loss of luggage, and personal effects, injury, illness and death medical expenses, including any related to pre-existing medical conditions, emergency repatriation (including helicopter rescue and air ambulance where applicable) and personal liability. Lumle Holidays Ltd. will not refund or will not compensate if your booking/holiday is affected by this. Liabilities of Lumle in these cases are outlined in our Terms & Conditions). Appropriate insurance information in this section of good to know before you go South Africa is very important so please read it carefully.

Do not forget sort out your travel money:

Not organizing your travel money until the last minute is another mistake which could cost you a lot when you end up buying currency at an expensive conversion rate. If you are planning on taking currency, the cheapest rates will be found online, which you can either arrange for a delivery or pick up. You may check with your bank also.

If you are planning to use your credit card while on holiday, ensure to double with credit card Company about overseas usage charges. Some banks do not charge for their debit/credit used abroad. For best use of your money please read the information in this section of good to know before you go South Africa.

Tell your bank before you go abroad on holiday:

It’s important that you notify your bank that you are going abroad and that you may want to use your debit or credit card while you are away.

This is because any sudden overseas transaction activity can cause banks to become suspicious and without warning your card could just be declined or stopped leaving you out of pocket whilst on holiday. Also be sure to take an emergency telephone phone number to contact them, just in case.

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