Today's your last chance to take advantage of the Emirates special, and we put our money where our mouth is, and booked a flight to Rome for the obscenely low price of R3968 each :)

Kulula "here's to 2012" sale

Kulula's kicking off the year with a "here's to 2012 sale", with 150,000 seats available. This online Kulula sale start at 6am on Tuesday the 10th January 2012. Fly on selected flights between these destinations from 10 January until 30 June 2012 one way all inclusive.

• Johannesburg (Lanseria/O.R Tambo) - Durban from R399+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - Port Elizabeth from R599+ (1-way)

• Johannesburg (Lanseria/O.R. Tambo) - Cape Town from R499+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - George from R499+ (1-way)

• Cape Town - Durban from R499+ (1-way)

• Cape Town - PE from R499+ (1-way)

• Durban - PE from R499+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - Harare from R999+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - Windhoek from R999+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - Livingstone from R999+ (1-way)

• O.R. Tambo - Nelspruit from R599+ (1-way)

Book at Kulula, but compare prices first (including with Velvet Sky). Hurry, to avoid disappointment.

Legal stuff

• These prices are only available online and NOT through Kulula's Contact Centre

• Sale starts 10 January 2012 at 6am until seats sell out

• Seats are limited and subject to availability at the time of booking

• Tickets are available for travel one way from 10 January until 30 June 2012 and all taxes are included

• Offer excludes group bookings, special events, long weekends, school holidays and peak periods

• Don't forget about your right to cancel any booking made as a result of receiving this email. You can
  cancel your purchase in writing within 5 working days of paying for the booking. Once notice to cancel
  has been received, we will refund you the price of the ticket less any credit card charges

• Availability on flights: 150 000 seats are available across the advertised Domestic and International routes

Last day for Emirates special

So, we decided to take advantage of the Emirates special to carry out a travel review at minimum cost. The lowest price (appealing) destinations we considered to be Dublin, Geneva, Istanbul, Rome, Madrid, Venice & Mumbai. Of these, Rome looked the most appealing, so the next step was to check what dates the really cheap flights were available.

Cheap flights from Cape Town to Rome

We wanted to go for more or less a week (cant be away from the office too long), and these were the options (availability may have changed by the time you read this):

JNB-Amsterdam R4093*

JNB-Athens R4229*

JNB-Bangkok R4960*

JNB-Barcelona R6222*

JNB-Cape Town R1396*

JNB-Delhi R4951*

JNB-Doha R3903*

JNB-Dubai R4664*

JNB-Dublin R3974*

JNB-Durban R896*

JNB-Frankfurt R4611*

JNB-Geneva R3967*

JNB-Glasgow R4885*

JNB-Harare R3015*

JNB-Hong Kong R4777*

JNB-Houston R6041*

JNB-Istanbul R3900*

JNB-Jakarta R4607*

JNB-London R4925*

JNB-Los Angeles R6053*

JNB-Madrid R3919*

JNB-Manchester R4871*

JNB-Milan R4735*

JNB-Mumbai R3974*

JNB-Munich R4496*

JNB-New York R7133*

JNB-Port Elizabeth R1436*

JNB-Rome R3968*

JNB-San Francisco R6053*

JNB-Seychelles R5489*

JNB-Shanghai R4724*

JNB-St. Petersburg R4012*

JNB-Tel Aviv R6932*

JNB-Tokyo R4933*

JNB-Venice R3954*

JNB-Windhoek R2618*

JNB-Zurich R4145*

* lowest return flight prices, very limited availability, prices may have changed

CPT-Athens R4229*

CPT-Doha R3903*

CPT-Dubai R4664*

CPT-Johannesburg R1296*

CPT-London R5555*

CPT-Manchester R5851*

CPT-New York  R7283*

CPT-Port Elizabeth R1196*

DUR-Johannesburg R1008*

DUR-Cape Town R1406*

We're visiting Mossel Bay next month to review The Point Hotel, so were delighted to hear that the Garden Route Casino Trust has recently released a map of the St Blaize hiking trail, which stretches along the coastal cliffs to Dana Bay.

In every bungee jumper's nightmare, the bungee cord broke (click through to see video) during an Aussie tourist's jump at Vic Falls - she fell in the water from 20m, and swam to safety.

After 3 years, Lindiwe Kwele has resigned as the Johannesburg Tourism's Company's Chief Executive Officer.

A hot air balloon caught fire & crashed in New Zealand on Saturday, killing all 5 copules & the pilot on board (2 of whom jumped from the balloon). A witness reported that it appeared to clip power lines.

As far as I know, there have been no fatalities in commercial hot air balloon flights in South Africa.