As we are comfortably enjoying our first house sit in South Africa I realized there existed some questions as to what it costs to travel and live here. Part of the reason we travel and explore, as well as house sit, is to search the globe for potential places to settle down in a more permanent manner. A big part of that is the ability to be able to afford to live in any given place.
South Africa, from our perspective, is a long way from everywhere. Once you get here however, it is wonderfully inexpensive to live. Sadly this is an indicator of the condition of their economy and there are other repercussions due to this. As we are Canadian, for the rest of my discussion here I shall be converting the costs into Canadian dollars.
The first thing I want to touch on is transportation. Whether government bulletins, online articles, or in talking with locals, the one thing you consistently hear is to use great caution or preferably do not use at all the public buses and trains in Cape Town. I like a bit of adventure, perhaps a bit more than the average person, but this is a piece of advice we chose to follow. The serendipity of this was we ended up using Uber in and around Cape Town. It is fantastic! The longest we have had to wait for a car has been about 5 minutes and they are very inexpensive. All of our drivers have been safe and professional, ranging from quiet to expansively verbal, sharing their thoughts and beliefs on the situation in South Africa. Truly a 100% positive experience. I think the longest trip we took, across the width of Cape Town at rush hour cost us around $12.00 and that included a generous tip.
We are checking into renting a car for an upcoming road trip and it, as well, is very inexpensive. As in under $40 a day with unlimited mileage. Fuel is running $1.60 a litre here.
The above meal including tip was $60
Another advantage of house sitting is doing your own shopping and cooking. A quick rundown of the costs of some common items. I included the water, however you can drink from the tap here.
On Friday we called a local dentist office to see about getting a check up and cleaning while we are in town. We have appointments for Monday morning for a consult, cleaning, and x-rays for $135.00 each.
Overall, it is very inexpensive to hang out here. The tourist activities are similar in price to other hot spots around the world but the day to day costs are great.