What are the best stopovers between South Africa and the UK?

Simon Calder answers your questions on long journeys, France, and holidaying in Montana

Making waves: tourists motor across the bay in Cape Town (South Africa Tourism)

Q We’re planning on a three-week trip to South Africa. Given it’s such a long flight, we were thinking of a suitable stopover for a couple of days on the way there or back from London. Where do you recommend?

Nick W

A Breaking your journey to and/or from South Africa is an excellent idea: partly because the non-stop journey between London Heathrow and Cape Town covers 6,000 miles and typically takes 12 hours, but also due to the fact that you will be flying past some compelling locations. I am not counting the big Gulf hubs of Doha and Dubai, because travelling via either involves a long dogleg adding over 2,000 miles to the journey. Even Istanbul – a wonderful stopover city, and the best range of African flights of any airport – is off my list as a journey-easing choice: I calculate that after a four-hour flight you are only 700 miles (roughly 80 minutes) closer to Cape Town than when you left London. So the choice will be solely in Africa.