South Africa Travel Forum

Hi there, I plan a trip to Lesotho and Swaziland ex Johannesburg in October.

Do you think it is possible to move between these countries by public transport?

Planing to do the loop in a period of 10 - 12 days for the main sights, perhaps with backtracking to JNB if necessary.

thanks
Nikos

Not sure about the particulars but just a little tip: South Africa is very strict about ensuring that visitors have enough passport pages before they let you into the country. So if your passport is down to about 3-5 pages, do yourself a favor & get a new one. You'll save yourself the aggravation of trying to reason with the South African customs people.

And the same answer here as I answer in the small kingdoms forums, even if its possible by public transport it will be tight schedule, I have been driving to those places with rental car and the drives are long so I can imagine doing it by public transport will be basically very difficult or unpractical, it will wasted lots of time waiting for connections and so your time will fly away. I am not sure if you realize, but South Africa land area is much larger for example from Germany, it is actually about 3 and a half times the size of Germany. This region is not like Europe and obviously you are not into it for city sightseeing, so the way of travelling is total different.
Maybe Kruger and Swaziland sound to be more reasonable plan for a short trip or else you will be most of the time running from one place to another but see very little.

Thanks for your answers, I guess it will be hard to complete the loop including the full sightseeing, but that's all the time I've got.
Swaziland seems easier to reach from JNB (and Durban) but Lesotho is more complicated.
if anybody has any idea how to get there without returning to Jnb, it would be great!
thanks
N.

Lesotho is in completely the opposite direction to Swaziland from Jhb and the only access to the country is from the west (you can't drive in one side and out the other due to the mountains). This will make that impractical. You should be able to do it in the time allowed, but remember you will spend LOTS of time just watching the countryside go by.

Hi.

I'd recommend dropping one of Swazi or Lesotho if you don't have your own car. Most public transport in SA is in the form of mini-buses, which are slow, cramped and tend to go shorter 'commuter' distances. I'd consider looking at the 'Baz Bus' - they are a backpacker operation that offer hop-on and hop-off curcuits, but I don't know what circuits they are operating at the moment.

Of the two, I prefer Swaziland. It's more accessible, but absolutely stunning and Swazi's are really friendly. It feels pretty safe. It's got everything from big mountains to flat plains, culture, safari etc. Lesotho is beautiful but very difficult to get to and travel around. You can fly between from / to Joburg from all the major cities (e.g. to Manzini (Swazi), Richards Bay, Durban etc.).

Hope this helps.