Myusernamewastaken

One option for me is to fly to Cape town and drive to George and stay there for a few weeks, another option is not going to South Africa. Some say that the Garden route and George are safe crimewise others say that it has been worse during the last couple of years. What is the general perception? Are "good areas" in George not much better than "good areas" in Cape Town?

Thanks.

ededed

Hi

George is generally fine. The garden route is awesome - a nice drive down the coast and lots of places to stop. I'm not sure how much you know about SA, so...:

As with all of SA, follow the basic rules.

1. Keep out of townships (especially if you are on honeymoon)
2. Stay on the main roads, keep to well-lit areas at night and don't use public transport.
3. Keep your driving licence with you and stick to the speed limits. Get an IDP from the post office before you travel. The cops love to create trouble and make threats when they pull you over (which they will). Keep a few R50 notes inside your licence unless you want to see the back of a cop car on trumped up charges. And no, I'm not kidding.
4. Doors locked at all times. Wear seatbelts, don't use your cellphone while driving.
5. We did the garden route a couple of years back - stopped loads of times and never saw any problems - I'm sure it will be fine. Use a GPS and if you get lost, just head back to the main road.

I stayed at a place call hog hollow - I can't recommend it enough. If you can, make it a stop on your trip for a night. Awesome.

http://www.hog-hollow.com/



Enjoy.

Ed

Orbit24

Good Morning Myusernamewastaken,

Having spent some time in George intermittently let me provide my 2c.

When I visited George in April for the first time in a few years and it was interesting to note that many houses had burglar bars on external windows and some front doors. I had expected less security measures given the town's locale.
If I may expand on this observation, the safety of an area in SA may broadly be judged by the safety measures employed upon a domestic residence owned by those equipped with the resources to do so.
Where crime is at an all time low and there is little threat, walls are low if not non-existent, the front door directly accessible from the road or pavement and the family dog is a pet, not an intruder eating machine. Windows are not adourned with lengths of Alcatraz style burglar bars.

By stark contrast the home of the well-heeled in a very risky area will feature walls upwards of 3 meters high topped with umpteen strands of heart stopping electric fence, a smorgasbord of security company placards at the entrance and a pack of rabid wolves that are a potential threat to the owner, let alone intruders.

To answer your question I don’t think it’s anymore unsafe than ‘safe’ areas in Cape Town. Have a look at these. Don’t let what Ed refers to as ‘township statistics’ shake you. The figures are difficult to comprehend but you won’t be living in a shanty town.

If I may offer a further suggestion, have a look at Lake Brenton/Brenton-on-Sea. It’s very safe with many of the areas fitting the ’safe area’ description above. Houses are priced from ZAR1500K upwards and the area is considered by many including myself to be breathtakingly beautiful.
We have a family home in the area and the only crime in 35 years has been the theft of a mobile phone by a gardener. I would feel safe walking the roads in the area any time of day or night.

Spend some time on Google Earth. Have a look at property pricing here.

Good Luck.

MartynK

Pretty much as above. I wrote a threat and risk assessment for an international news agency sending a very large team to SA during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The Garden Route, George and the surrounding area were considered fairly low risk by SA standards. I doubt if this has changed very much, and it doesn't mean that they're 'safe' compared with, say, Europe but you'll be fine if you use common sense and follow basic safety and security principles.

I agree about GPS. Signage on SA roads leaves a bit to be desired, so hire a car with GPS, or bring one with you, but make sure you have the SA mapset. Google maps on a cellphone works well too.

If you're not committed to staying in George, and you want unusual accommodation, have a look here: http://www.bushcamp.info/. Wilderness is about 18 kms from George, and this place is wonderful. It's perched on a hill high above the town, with fantastic sea views. It's self catering, you can braai (barbeque), or you can drive down into town in a few minutes.

Please ask if there's anything specific you want to know.

Myusernamewastaken

Ok, thanks. I have been to Cape town but that was quite a few years ago. I had a look at the statistics for George and it seems like residential robberies have increased during the last couple of years though.

I really enjoyed Cape town and hopefully would do the same with George should I decide to go there. I wouldn't mind another braai or two.

Just wondering, do cities like George and Knysna have "bad neighbourhoods" which increase the statistics or would I statistically be about 10 times more likely to be murdered when staying in George and as much as about 60 times for Knysna compared to where I live where we have like 1 murder per year and 100.000?

ededed

Not really - they will have townships on the outskirts which should be avoided, but both towns are pretty small and you should be ok.

MartynK

The official crime statistics are unreliable, and have been for years, with ongoing allegations of politically motivated interference and manipulation.

The data collection is done at station level through the Crime Administration System (CAS). This is flawed and, amongst other things, many complaints are not recorded as crimes because it impacts against the station's performance, or because the officer is simply too lazy or incompetent to action it. Many police precincts cover high and relatively low risk areas too, so the crime rate in the former distorts the figures in the latter.

No, you're not statistically more likely to be murdered by a factor of x 10 or x 60 in George and Kynsna.

kiwibok

George/Knysna/Plett probably some of the safest places in SA.
The whole of the garden route is "relatively" safe when compared to the rest of SA. But don't use other places in South Africa as your yard stick.

If I compare George/Knysna/Plett to similar sized towns around NZ they look like warzones.

Nice to see you a moderator now Ed.

Myusernamewastaken

Which I guess makes the "true" statistics even worse..

Thanks again for the information. I wonder how much more tourism South Africa would have if violent crime wasn't such a problem there. I still consider to go there though.

I guess that the expression "a walk in the park" doesn't apply to South Africa after reading some reviews on the safety of a park in South Africa (although in PE but I might end up there as well if I go to South Africa). It's a shame that the situation on violent crime isn't any better.