South Africa Travel Essentials for First Visitors

Most of what catches first time visitors out in South Africa is small stuff: no coins for the car guard, the wrong plug adapter, or not knowing that someone else fills your tank. None of it is hard once you know. Here is what I would tell a friend flying in for the first time. For visas and passport rules, read my separate guide to South Africa entry requirements.

Money, cards and tipping

The currency is the South African rand (ZAR, written R). Visa and Mastercard are accepted almost everywhere, including supermarkets, restaurants, national park shops and toll plazas, and tap to pay is normal. American Express is less widely taken. ATMs are easy to find in towns. Use ones inside shopping centres or banks, cover your PIN and don’t accept help from anyone standing nearby.

Carry some cash anyway, mainly small notes and coins, because tipping here is part of how many people earn a living. These are the usual amounts as of October 2026:

Who	Typical tip
Restaurant waiter	10 to 15% of the bill, more for great service
Petrol attendant	A few rand, more if they wash the windows and check tyres
Car guard (the person in a bib watching parked cars)	R5 to R10
Safari ranger or guide	R100 to R200 per guest per day
Tracker	R50 to R100 per guest per day

Check restaurant bills first, because some add a service charge for bigger tables. Lodges often have a shared tip box for back of house staff, and it is fair to tip the guide and tracker separately in an envelope at the end of your stay.

Plugs and power

Mains power is 230 V at 50 Hz. The plug you will see most is Type M, the big three round pin plug. Newer buildings also have Type N sockets (three smaller round pins), and the two pin Type C Europlug fits many of them. Lodges and hotels often have a universal socket or two. My advice is to bring one Type M adapter and buy a cheap multi-plug locally, which any supermarket sells.

Load shedding, the rolling power cuts that plagued the country for years, has stopped. On 2 October 2026 Eskom reported 504 days in a row without it, the last one on 16 May 2025. Some areas still have targeted “load reduction” in the evening peak (mostly townships with a lot of illegal connections), and Eskom aims to end that by March 2027. As a visitor you are unlikely to notice, but many lodges and guesthouses kept their backup power anyway.

Driving

South Africa drives on the left, and most rental cars are manual unless you ask. You can drive on your own licence for up to a year if it is in English and has your photo on it. If it is in another language you need an International Driving Permit to go with it. I would get an IDP regardless, as it is cheap at home and some rental desks and insurers ask for one.

Speed limits are 120 km/h on freeways, 100 km/h on rural roads and 60 km/h in towns unless signed otherwise. Inside national parks they are much lower, see Kruger gate times and speed limits.

The main national roads have toll plazas, including several on the N4 from Pretoria towards Mbombela and Kruger. You pay at the booth by card or cash, or with an e-tag fitted to many rental cars. The Gauteng e-toll gantries around Johannesburg and Pretoria were switched off in April 2024, so you no longer pay for those.

Every petrol station is attended. Pull up, tell the attendant how much fuel you want (“fill it up” is fine) and pay by card or cash, usually at the pump. Out in rural areas some smaller stations prefer cash, so keep the tank above half and some notes in the car.

Phones, SIM cards and time

Buying a local SIM or eSIM is cheap and worth it for maps and messages. Every SIM must be registered under the RICA law, so bring your passport. The Vodacom, MTN and Cell C shops at the international airports deal with tourists all day and are the easiest place to do it. Elsewhere you may also be asked for proof of where you are staying, such as a booking confirmation.

Signal is good in towns and along main roads, patchy in the parks and gone in some valleys. South Africa is on SAST (UTC+2) all year, with no daylight saving.

Water and health

Tap water is safe to drink in the main cities and most towns. In smaller towns, follow local advice, as some municipalities issue boil water notices after heavy rain or pipe failures, and don’t drink from rivers or streams. Kruger and the far northeast are malaria areas, which my guide to the best time to visit Kruger explains by season.

Emergency numbers

Service	Number
Any emergency from a mobile phone	112
Police (SAPS)	10111
Ambulance and fire	10177

Save them in your phone before you land. Private ambulance services also operate in most cities, and your travel insurer will have its own emergency line, which is worth having to hand.

Staying safe, sensibly

Crime is a real issue in South Africa and it would be silly to pretend otherwise, but the great majority of visitors have a trouble free trip by doing the same things locals do. Don’t leave anything visible in a parked car, keep bags off the passenger seat when you drive (smash and grab theft at traffic lights happens), and keep windows up in city traffic. Avoid driving in unfamiliar areas at night, and when you leave the airport in Johannesburg, go straight to where you are staying on main roads. Don’t walk around flashing a big camera or phone in city centres after dark. On popular hiking routes like Table Mountain, walk in a group and stay on busy trails.

For current advice, check your own government’s travel advisory page before you go. And once you are out in the parks and small towns, most of this falls away and you can relax.

Related pages

See our South Africa page for places to visit, the park fee table for current conservation fees, and the SANParks Wild Card guide if you plan to visit several national parks.