Desk with laptop computer and WiFi access at Rattray’s

Usually when we travel to Africa it’s for at least two weeks, sometimes longer. While we’re away, we need to stay in touch with work, family and friends. For phone access we  rely on multiple mobile phones for a combination of texting and calls. Although our provider, T-Mobile, said they had GPRS service (General Packet Radio Service) in South Africa, we were never able to use it. Even after more than six hours on the phone with their technical department over the course of two weeks, they could never figure out why it wouldn’t work. We hope the next time they will have it up and running.

The good news is that in South Africa more and more luxury properties offer complimentary (or fee based) high speed connectivity in guest rooms, making it easier to stay in touch than it used to be even a year ago. During our most recently visits to South Africa we used dial up and high speed Internet connections and were almost always able to connect.

In the hotels and lodges that didn’t offer in room Internet access, we were able to connect via dial up from our rooms using a local account. The charge for the local account was minimal. The only other cost was the hotel’s charge for one local call which was also minimal.

In Johannesburg, The Peech, a 10-room boutique hotel with a restaurant in the heart of one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods, offered guests complimentary in room WiFi connectivity. In Cape Town, our 12-room boutique hotel, the Cape Cadogan, had WiFi in the main building and wired high speed access in the Owner’s Villa.

In the Sabi Sand Reserve, our favorite property for connectivity among other things was Rattray’s at Mala Mala where we found a laptop computer with WiFi connectivity for our use in our suite. Sister property Mala Mala Main Camp had a library with one computer with a dial up connection for guest use during the day. Singita Boulders had one computer with Internet access for guest use in the restaurant. Ivory Lodge had one computer with Internet access for guest use in the conference room.