Port Elizabeth Airport Mini Guide
About Port Elizabeth Airport
The airport is found two miles out of the city and is said to be within ten minutes of every part of the Port Elizabeth. It is a busy domestic airport serving flights to and from all the major South African cities and some of the minor ones. The airport is unusual in having combined two separate terminal buildings, the one for arrivals and the one for departures by building a connecting unit, now housing the retail units. Aircraft come to a standstill on the apron and a short walk follows to the terminal building.
Transport from the airport to the city centre or a beachfront hotel is quick and easy and can be by car, bus or taxi. Many visitors hire a car to drive part or all of the beautiful ‘Garden Route’ down to Cape Town. Facilities for departing passengers are excellent with a number of shops and places to eat.
About Port Elizabeth
It might be South Africa’s biggest commercial port and the centre of the country’s motor industry but Port Elizabeth is also a holiday hotspot for visitors to Cape Colony. It has fabulous beaches, a year round mild climate and is a nationally recognised centre for water sports. Just about every sport you can think of can be tried in and around the city from sand yachting to mountaineering, big game tracking to hiking.
There are some interesting things to do if you want to give the beach and water sports a break. The Red Location Museum is an exciting concept aiming to show the history of the past and predict the technological history of the future. Bayworld is an aquarium, oceanarium and a dolphin sanctuary with rather bizarrely, a snake centre too. One of the best parts of a visit there is the informative displays that accompany the exhibits which give a real feel for the work being done by the centre to promote awareness of the creatures under its care. Try too the South End Museum, a little like Johannesburg’s Apartheid Museum, this chronicles the plight of residents from South End in Port Elizabeth who were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to live in the early townships.
Finally, no visit to Port Elizabeth would be complete without driving at least part of the way down the world famous Garden Route. The road follows the coast all the way down to Cape Town taking you through breath-taking landscapes and brightly coloured wild flowers.