Author: Desiree Haakonsen

The annual Simon’s Town Penguin Festival is taking place this Saturday, 13 October 2012, in celebration of the delightful tuxedoed birds that have become such an icon of Simon’s Town. The Penguin Festival coincides with African Penguin Awareness Day and is hosted by SANCCOB, one of South Africa’s leading marine NPOs, and South African National […]

We all know South Africa’s “Big 5”: the elephant, lion, buffo, leopard, and rhino. Entire vacations are planned for the sole purpose of spotting them. But I would like to introduce you to the lesser known “Small 5”, whose names relate to their bigger counterparts.   The Elephant Shrew Getting its name from the elongated […]

At some point in our lives (ok, a lot of points in our lives) we ladies have that clichéd Cinderella fantasy. A damsel in distress is rescued by a handsome prince who risks his life for her. He instantly falls in love with her captivating beauty (inside and out) and makes her his princess. And, […]

Ahoy mateys! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so strike me colours if I don’t talk in a pirate way. Yo ho! Pirate fever be takin’ its toll aboard our olde port o’ work. Good olde pirate rock songs be fillin’ the decks with timber stomping tunes as we be settin’ sail under […]

When my husband asked if he could play a round of golf on our honeymoon, I said “yes”. I’m not too sure if this was the right answer or not. Judging from the reaction of the other men at the club, I think my decision was a rare one. Nevertheless, I was happy to take […]

The Heritage Day long weekend is soon upon us, and many of us already have visions of indulging in pure lethargy. There is no better way to escape the routine frenzy of daily life than by spending a long weekend idly lazing by a pool, in a hammock, or on a stoep with your feet […]

“Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbour Day proposes for the future.” – Mr. J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbour Day.   We’re well into Arbour Week, which is celebrated annually in South Africa, during the first week of September. Arbour Day was first celebrated in South Africa in 1983 (which happened to be my […]

Working at a travel company, my colleagues and I spend our days booking other people’s dream holidays, and writing about exciting tourism destinations that we may never actually visit ourselves. So we know first-hand how it feels to wish you were lounging on an exotic island instead of being slumped at your desk. In order […]