Australians overall keep a fairly keen eye on their currency. With ten million of us (well, usually), travelling overseas each year, monitoring our fluctuating dollar is somewhat of a national sport. After spending three years working in the USA (and being paid in USD that I’d send home), it became a morning activity to monitor the exchange rates. While the Aussie dollar has moved from incredible highs to eyewatering lows against the American and European currencies, the one constant has been our performance against the South African Rand.

Ten years ago, when I first started travelling to South Africa, my Kangaroo dollars would purchase about 6 Rand. This still made for an affordable trip, dining in high end restaurants and enjoying well priced wines. Fast forward to 2020, and the Aussie dollar will buy you over 12 Rand. Effectively, we are now getting more than twice we did merely a decade ago. But what does that mean in real terms? I like to use the “beer-metre”. Visit a nice bar (or restaurant) in Cape Town and, aside from first class facilities and service, you’ll enjoy a local beer for roughly 20 Rand, so about$1.60AU. A bottle of wine in a nice restaurant will set you back about 200 Rand, so around $15AU. As a comparison, when I flew out of Brisbane airport last week I treated myself to a $14 Corona. That equates to nearly ten times the price in South Africa.

While we have struggled against the USD over the last few years (and made that Hawaii getaway fairly pricey), an escape to South Africa has only gotten more and more affordable. I’ve often “escaped” to Cape Town for 6 days purely for a cheap week away. Leaving aside the long flight, it ends up costing far less than a week in the Sunshine State (and as a bonus, you don’t have to hear the term “youse”). Given the incredibly high standard of service in SA, Bali doesn’t seem like such good value anymore.