My wife got her Hep A & Typhoid shots today for our October arrival to Cape Town/Stellenbosch/Franshoek/Garden Route/Victoria Falls/Krueger.
As part of her visit, she was admonished to not drink anything but bottled water & no ice while in SA. I've not seen any post on this forum regarding these precautions and would like input from fellow travelers.
IMO, if this was from her medical team, I would go by their advice.
Yes. I was in South Africa a year ago and our hotel provided unlimited bottled water for us.
I’d follow her physician’s advice rather than the advice of random travelers on this board like me. This board’s guidelines do not allow participants to provide medical advice.
For what it is worth, when I went to South Africa and Botswana (in 2003), I was also advised to get typhoid and Hepatitis A vaccines. I drank bottled water on the trip as advised.
What is your concern? Bottled water is readily available along with bottled soft drinks, beer, and excellent South African wines. It really isn’t difficult to avoid tap water.
Thank you all for your input. We have no problem drinking bottled water and avoiding ice....something we are used to doing when traveling to Mexico. We just had not encountered anything on this forum or Trip Advisor along those lines.
FWIW, the CDC Yellow Book on South Africa has a discussion about water quality under the "Enteric infections and diseases" section. This is a guide published specifically for health care providers. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/africa-middle-east/south-africa.html
I’ve not been to South Africa but I travel to different places around the continent regularly. Personally I wouldn’t drink the tap water anywhere on the continent and I would be wary of ice. It’s one thing if you live there or are staying a long time but for a brief visit I definitely wouldn’t risk it. I personally don’t even use the tap water to brush my teeth as I had a previous bad experience.
Take this all for what it’s worth, but I traveled to Egypt and South Africa for almost two weeks this past December. Other than brushing my teeth with the tap water, I only drank bottled water, especially cognizant of it in Egypt. About 3 full days after landing back in the USA, it began. For a solid 10 days, I had straight liquids when going to the bathroom. Eating food was almost an automatic trip to the bathroom within 10 minutes of consuming. By far the worst my bowels have ever acted up. Anti diarrhea meds did nothing. Thankfully, physically I didn’t feel ill and it was just my bowels. I had no issues going to the bathroom when in Africa. It’s also curious how the issues didn’t start until about 72 hours since I returned to America and started eating our lovely processed food that this country has an abundance of. I didn’t get a doctor to check anything out so I truly don’t know what country, food, or virus in particular caused my issues, but just wanted to share since I was recently in SA. Enjoy! Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen!
I don't drink tapwater in less developed countries and that would include SA.
Personal experience, I had no issues whatsoever with tap water nor ice in Cape Town, along the garden route, Johannesburg, or Kruger.
Don't even use tap water to brush your teeth. When we were on missions trips to Guatemala, the dentist leading our trip told us that if we forgot and used tap water on our toothbrush, we should throw it away and he would give us a new one.
