42 German tourists rolled into Hoedspruit in a luxury coach-hotel on Tuesday January 9. The coach belongs to a company called Rotel Tours, abbreviated from Das Rollende Hotel, as the buses are called.
Four buses are active in Southern Africa, taking German tourists on a four-week trip between Cape Town, Kruger National Park, Namibia and Victoria Falls. The buses consist of a luxury coach pulling a trailer with individual cabins where a maximum of 42 guests can sleep. Each cabin has its own window.
The concept was started by George Höltel from Passau in the south of Germany in 1954. He apparently realised that the sense of adventure and love of camping is Roll up and take a safari in the mobile hotel being lost in the younger generation of Germany and wanted to offer a "camping tour throughout the world's natural areas", as Satour tour guide Helmut Kruger called it.
Helmut said that especially the older generation, mostly pensioners, miss their camping roots and enjoy the camping atmosphere of the sleeper coach. The tourists all admitted that it is a lot of fun and definitely a vacation with a difference.
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