Media

Chris Isaacs first moved to Johannesburg as a boy in 1990. His father, a South African, had spent the apartheid years in exile; when apartheid ended, the family came home. Chris returned to Washington, DC for high school, but his mother and brothers stayed, and in the decades since he has never fully left either place — living and moving between DC and Johannesburg, with a life that spans both. Over those years he has brought dozens of American friends to South Africa to show them the country and his life in it. His roots there — friendships, business, family — run deeper than any itinerary. It was in Johannesburg, around 1999, that he met Sydney Hall. A friendship became a partnership across entertainment, wellness, real estate, and now travel. For Chris, CS Travel Africa isn't built from research. It's built from home.

Sydney Hall first came to South Africa in 1994, performing in Soweto with Step Afrika! and his brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. from Howard University. He stayed for fifteen years. In that time he worked across the country as an actor and model, owned and ran a nightclub in Johannesburg, and appeared in South African television commercials. Thirty-two years after that first trip, the relationships he built here are what this journey runs on. That history is the difference. Sydney books this trip out of people he actually knows — from community connections in Soweto to the hospitality networks he worked inside for over a decade. As an American who made South Africa home, he knows exactly what a US traveler needs to feel comfortable and safe here.