Travel Tips

Be Prepared for Conversations - Take a dictionary and notes phrase book. It can be useful.

Camera Equipment - When travelling overseas, declare all camera equipment with customs officials at the airport before departing so you don't have to prove ownership upon return. Consider bringing copies of receipts for cameras and other photo equipment. We suggest try taking your digital camera with you on the plane to help ensure it won't be damaged. Airlines have rules about carry-on baggage; this rule varies from airline to airline, so always check your airline's rules regarding checked baggage before you fly with your digital camera. The equipment you will require in addition to your camera are batteries, a charger, and enough memory cards to get the images you want without worrying about memory card space. If you have a portable storage device or a notebook, you can offload your cards later or even as you shoot. If you have insufficient memory space on your cards get your card images transferred to a CD while travelling. This should not be a problem in big cities. Most hour-photo spots offer this service, and it's relatively inexpensive. A note of warning, make sure they will transfer your images at the same resolution as they are on the card. Check to be sure they don't use a smaller resolution to fit all the images on a CD, and check the CD before deleting your card images. You could also go to an internet café and connect via your camera’s USB cable and e-mail your images to yourself, or even burn them on CD, or upload them onto an online photo storage site.

Connect to the Internet While Travelling - Connecting to the Internet whilst travelling has become a lot easier recently. Many international hotels and most international airports offer fast broadband wireless networking. There are also other services available such as Bluetooth or cell phone internet access. It would be advisable to discuss which method is most suited to your needs with your ISP (Internet Service Provider.)

Liquids Aerosols and Gels

The New Regulation regarding Liquid Aerosols & Gels (LAG’s) for International Flights from South Africa.

As of 1 June 2007, international travellers using South Africa's airports will be prohibited from carrying hand luggage containing liquids, aerosols and gels exceeding 100 millilitres.

The Airports Company of South Africa's (Acsa) announced last week that the new security measures were in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisations standards.

Passengers are recommended to place all liquids, aerosols and gels (LAG) in their check-in luggage.

With these new regulations, passengers will not be allowed to carry on board items in their hand luggage which exceed 100ml, such as perfume, shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, toothpaste and hair gel.

Hand luggage with LAGs exceeding 100ml will be confiscated, and passengers would only be allowed to carry one parcel onboard.

International travellers would be required to place essential liquids to be carried on board in a re-sealable clear, plastic bag with a capacity of not more than one litre and a total diameter of 80 centimetres.

Each item containing liquid cannot exceed 100ml in quantity and must fit comfortably inside of the sealed bag.

Acsa has ordered 200 000 plastic bags, which will be handed out to passengers at the country's three main airports free of charge until the end of June. They will also be made available at retail stores countrywide.

With prior arrangement, permission will be granted to people with medical problems if they produce a doctor's prescription to that effect.

Items carried on board that need to be placed in bags include formula, milk and food for babies in small containers, prescription medicine in liquid and gel form, essential non-prescription medication not exceeding 100ml per container, eye care products, liquids and gels, including juice needed by diabetic passengers.

Lipsticks in tubes, solid deodorant, lip balm and similar solids will be allowed on board as well.Any duty free liquid, gel or aerosol products purchased after security checkpoints should be placed in special security bags by the store and customers connecting to further destinations are advised to keep these sealed throughout their journey.