Cape Town named third cheapest city to buy beer in the world!

Cape Town in South Africa has been named third cheapest city to buy, and of course to drink, beer in the world in the 2016 GoEuro Beer Price Index. According to GoEuro, the average price for a 33cl beer in a supermarket in Cape Town is 0.46GBP (0.59€/0.67$) and 2,12GBP (2.73€/3.07$) in a bar. The cheapest city in the world to buy beer is Bratislava in Slovakia (0.35GBP | 1.93GBP), followed by Kiev in the Ukraine (0.47GBP | 1.82GBP).

Research for the 2016 Beer Price Index combines data from 70 cities from around the world and compares the average price of local beers between bars and shops, as well as comparing yearly average purchasing (South Africa: 379.72GBP) and consumption (South Africa: 98l). All prices were converted to Pound Sterling (GBP) using the Bloomberg exchange on 08 April 2016.

Craft Brewery Half Day Tour from Cape Town >>

Beer prices in Malawi

update (16 April 2013): Prices for beer (Carlsberg) and soft drinks in Malawi have increased by 20%. [more]

Travellers usually like to know what they can expect to pay for food, drinks and all these other everyday costs before they are heading to Southern Africa. Well, we are trying to provide as many info about it as possible and are therefore updating the "Supermarket prices in South Africa" blog post every couple of month, but we never posted anything about prices in Malawi. So this post is going to be a first one.
Having an ice-cold beer in the evening is probably part of most travellers "social interaction" with other travellers and with the locals. Due to varirous reasons, the Malawian's favourite beer is Carlsberg [read more]. Not a cheap beer overseas, so we want to look at the current price in Malawi. The beer price in the country recently went up by 17%, so that the new official retail price for the popular Carlsberg Green (340ml) is now MK180 (€0.5, £0.4, US$0,65, ZAR5,40), while Carlsberg Special and Stout are both going at MK200 (€0.6, £0.45, US$0,75, ZAR6.00). Kuche Kuche costs you MK170 (€0.48, £0.39, US$0.62, ZAR5.00) and Carlsberg Green Light is MK230 (€0.65, £0.52, US$0.84, ZAR6.90). The prices for drinks in restaurants, pubs and bars are likely to be a bit higher.
The unit of currency in Malawi is the kwacha (MK), which is made up of 100 tambala. The best foreign currencies to carry with you are US$, British £ and South African rands. Enjoy Malawi!

Cape Town Festival of Beer (25 - 27 November 2011)

South Africa and Cape Town's beer heritage goes far back into the country's culture and history. This heritage is deepening, with interest in all things beer on the increase. Several micro-brewers and new players have entered the field with new brews that have sprung up in recent years. This has resulted in a rising culture of understanding, tasting and appreciation of beer.
The Cape Town Festival of Beer, the largest of its kind in South Africa, is the first festival to bring people together to celebrate beer and the art of brewing. Approaching 100 brands of beer on exhibition, this is an event you should not miss out... in case you are in Cape Town between 25 - 27 November 2011!



Public tickets are on sale for each of the three days at R60, with gates opening from 12H00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 25 - 27 November. You can also buy entrance for more than one day and buy a 2 day (R100) or 3 day (R120) ticket to make sure you can return for more fun in the sun! For more info about the festival, accommodation in the area and more, pls click here!

Kenya: new Alcoholic Drinks Control Act might have negative impact on tourism

Kenya has implemented an Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, which might have some rather negative impact on the country's tourism industry. The new law, made primarily to contain the excesses of alcohol abuse in the country and reduce the health implications of drinking, came into force on 22 Nov 2010.

update (17 Feb 2011): The Kenyan High Court ordered the full implementation of the alcohol control law on 24 Jan 2011. In the meantime Nakumatt, a Kenyan supermarket chain, is on course to conclude a major restructuring to establish special alcohol and related substances sales points in all its local branches. The Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF) is still regarding the alcohol law and its implementation as major concern for the sector especially at the coast, although hotels, members clubs, airlines, rail service and cruise ship operators are actually allowed to sell alcoholic drinks any time of the day (not confirmed!). 

The Control Act contains of regulations such as:

• Bars to open at 5pm on weekdays and close at 11pm
• Bar owners will be fined heavily for serving drunks with more alcohol
• Consumers will not be allowed to buy alcohol in the supermarket
• That there will be no alcohol selling outlets in schools and within a radius of 300 metres from any learning institution
• more [...]

Kenya's tourism sector umbrella body, the Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF), is holding consultative meetings to look into how the new law will affect hotels and restaurants and the domino effect on the economy. All affected parties, such as breweries, the hotel sector etc., were given a window of nine months to comply with the Act’s requirements - hopefully an opportunity to put forth their concerns and also enough time for dialogues to reach working solutions. The

Mosquitoes Prefer blood of Beer Drinkers

According to a recent study made in Burkina Faso, mosquitoes are prefering the blood of beer drinkers over the blood of water drinkers. In the study researchers exposed mosquitoes to body odors from both water drinkers and beer drinkers and found out that beer drinker's whole body odour (breath and skin emanations) is a strong stimulus to gauge human attractiveness to mosquitoes.

Body odours of volunteers who consumed beer increased mosquito activation (proportion of mosquitoes engaging in take-off and up-wind flight) and orientation (proportion of mosquitoes flying towards volunteers' odours). The level of exhaled carbon dioxide and body temperature had no effect on human attractiveness to mosquitoes. Despite individual volunteer variation, beer consumption consistently increased attractiveness to mosquitoes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that beer consumption is a risk factor for malaria and needs to be integrated into public health policies for the design of control measures. [src.]

Malaria Advice: Travel Precautions to Take! >>