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.
