Although we have such a wide choice of destinations nowadays, Mauritius - only four hours' flying time away from Johannesburg and six from Cape Town - seems to have become even more popular.
There are now three airlines offering flights from South Africa.
In addition to SAA and Air Mauritius, British Airways/Comair flies there from Johannesburg. Air Mauritius is the only one so far flying there from Cape Town, but it carries SAA passengers under codeshare arrangements, which means that you can earn Voyager points if you book to fly with them on an SAA ticket.
In spite of all this, the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) found that it couldn't get enough seats for about 160 delegates to fly there at a convenient time for its annual conference in October and has had to find another venue.
"There used to be only two peak periods for Mauritius, Easter and Christmas, but now it seems their holiday season lasts for nine months," John Morrison, AASA's executive director told me ruefully.
"Of course it's not only holidaymakers who go there now. It's a great place for conferences - the resorts offer so many amenities there is really no need to go anywhere outside them. The government of Mauritius has attracted quite a lot of investment by offering tax concessions and the island has become a business destination too."
Confirming the island's popularity, Thulani Nzima, chief executive of SA Travel Centre, the chain of franchised travel agents wholly owned by SAA, said demand for flights from SAA was so great that that whenever extra airline capacity was offered on the route it was quickly snapped up. He said it was not only South Africans who went there, but Europeans, particularly the French.
Linda Pampernellis, managing director of Thompson's Tours, told me that South African demand for package holidays there had grown by more than 30% in the past two years, although it was not particularly cheap. It had become a popular place for South Africans and European visitors to get married. Some hotels had two weddings a day.
Kenya, too, is attracting more South African visitors and Lonrho's new low-cost airline, Fly540, based in Nairobi, is making it easier to get to the famous Masai Mara game reserve to see the annual migration of grazing animals who move in their thousands in search of water.
The airline has announced plans to offer scheduled flights to the reserve from Nairobi from July 15. It also intends to introduce flights there from Mombasa and Malindi later. Lonrho intends to grow Fly540 into a pan-African airline starting with destinations in East Africa.
South Africans can fly to Nairobi from Johannesburg with SAA or Kenya Airways.
Some airlines put a lot of emphasis on their in-flight meals, particularly in business and first class and these have improved beyond recognition in recent years.
Not surprisingly, Air France, in particular, prides itself on the quality of its food and wines and also on the way they are served. There is much variation in airline food considering it is all prepared by the same three in-flight catering companies but it depends on how much the airline pays and on how demanding it is in its relationship with its caterer.
SAA pays great attention to its South African wines, which are chosen every year by a panel of well-known wine writers, and some airlines, including German airline Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific, regularly offer menus devised for them by famous chefs.
But a businessman who travels widely told me some time ago that he considered the best food and wines were on Air France, where he felt that he was dining in a good restaurant.
This may be due to the fact that the airline trains its cabin crews to be well informed about the wines they are serving, able to recommend the right one to go with the food and to serve it "with the right gestures and attitude". The airline has just announced that its premium-class passengers will "get a taste of the finer brands of clarets" throughout the rest of this year.
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