🇿🇦 Travelling to South Africa

What to check before you go to South Africa: the official entry rules for your passport, and the essentials for when you land.

Entry rules for your passport

Entry rules (visas, passport validity, travel permits and arrival forms) depend on your passport and can change at short notice. Always read your own government's latest advice:

• British passport: GOV.UK entry requirements
• Australian passport: Smartraveller (Australian Government)
• New Zealand passport: SafeTravel (New Zealand Government)
• Irish passport: Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland)
• U.S. passport: U.S. Department of State: country information
• Canadian passport: Government of Canada: travel advice

Other passports: your own government's travel advice, or South Africa's embassy.

South Africa essentials

Capital

Pretoria

Currency

South African rand (ZAR)

Languages

Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele

Emergency number

10111 · Ambulance 10177 · Mobile 112

They drive on the

left

Plugs

C, M, N · 230V

Calling code

+27

Get border-ready for South Africa

Trabreez reads the official rules for your passport live and checks them against your own trip:

• Is your passport valid for long enough for South Africa, and the date to renew by if not
• Whether you need a visa or travel permit, with the official site
• If there's an arrival form, and the day it opens
• Where you change planes, and whether that's a problem for your passport
• An arrival-day plan that works with no signal: passport control, getting online, money and the way to your hotel