A Small Group Safari - Wildlife, Culture and the Garden Route

A Small Group Safari - Wildlife, Culture and the Garden Route - From £1,850pp excluding international flights

Day 1

On your arrival into Johannesburg you will be met and transferred to your hotel in one of the green suburbs of Johannesburg. This is the start of your South African Safari.

Overnight: The Oasis Guesthouse – has 11 luxury rooms all with ensuite bathrooms. Enjoy the cascading pool area before your African Safari starts (D)

Day 2

After a hearty breakfast you head to Soweto, heart of the apartheid struggle. Here you will visit the houses where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived as well as the monument to the 1976 Soweto uprising. Enjoy the hospitality of the warm and friendly people whom you will meet during your lunch stop at one of the local “shebeens” (pubs). After this historical look into the history of South Africa you continue east towards the escarpment.

Overnight: Misty Mountain Lodge – consists of 27 chalets with ensuite facilities and a private veranda (B/L)

Day 3

Enroute to the famous Kruger National Park, you stop at the small gold mining town of Pilgrim’s Rest, Burke’s Luck potholes, Lisbon Falls and the impressive Blyde River Canyon.

Overnight: Needles Lodge – is situated on the border of the Kruger national Park and consists of 6 luxury bedrooms each with ensuite facilities (B/D)

Day 4

After an early breakfast you join your safari guide in an open vehicle as you go on your first South African Safari inside the world famous Kruger National Park, home to the “Big Five”. You have a full day in the park before returning to the lodge for dinner.

Overnight: Needles Lodge (B/D)

Day 5

This morning you have another early breakfast you head to the independent kingdom of Swaziland. With its green rolling hills and indigenous forests it is known as the Switzerland of Africa. It is also one of the best places in Africa to buy local handcrafts. After your time shopping you continue south to South Africa and Northern Zululand.

Overnight: Ghost Mountain Inn – has 50 ensuite bedrooms with their own garden patio where you can enjoy the African sunset (B/D)

Day 6

This morning enjoy the splendours of your South African safari by going on a boat cruise along the lake to look for hippos, crocodiles and fish eagles. In the afternoon you have the option to go on a safari to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve renowned for its white rhino populations.

Overnight: Ghost Mountain Inn (B/D)

Day 7

Follow the sugar cane fields of the north coast as you head to the coast city of Durban. Here you visit the new Ushaka Marine world which is one of the most impressive marine worlds in the southern hemisphere. Later that afternoon you get the flight to Cape Town for the second leg of your African Safari. On your arrival into Cape Town you will be met and transferred to your hotel.

Overnight: The Adderley Hotel – is situated in the heart of Cape Town with 27 luxury suites all with ensuite bathrooms (B)

Day 8

After breakfast you head to the second oldest settlement in South Africa – Stellenbosch with its oak lined streets and famed Cape-Dutch architecture. From here you head to Franschhoek where you enjoy lunch and wine tasting at one of the renowned wine estates. Tonight you spend the night on the edge of the semi desert known as the little Karoo.

Overnight: Mimosa Lodge – all rooms have ensuite bathrooms and some open to the garden where-as others open onto the veranda (B/L)

Day 9

This morning you drive through spectacular scenery to the village of Calitzdorp where you have port tasting before heading to Oudtshoorn for a tour of an ostrich farm and the Cango Caves.

Overnight: The Thorn Tree – has spacious ensuite rooms and a swimming pool with magnificent views (B/L)

Day 10

Today takes you over the Outeniqua Mountains leaving begind the dryness of the Little Karoo and entering the lushness of the Garden Route. On reaching Knysna you will be taken by ferry across the lagoon to the Nature Reserve where you have lunch on top of the cliffs overlooking the natural bay of Knysna.

Overnight: Waterfront Lodge – is set on the edge of the lagoon with lovely gardens. Each of the rooms has ensuite bathrooms (B/L)

Day 11

After breakfast you have a day trip north along the coast to the forested reserve of Tsitsikamma where you go on a walk to see where the Storm’s River meets the Indian Ocean. The tour continues with a visit to a monkey sanctuary before heading to the holiday town of Plettenberg Bay for the afternoon. In the evening you return to Knysna for the evening.

Overnight: Waterfront Lodge (B/D)

Day 12

We head south along the coast to the town of Hermanus which is famous for its land based whale watching. The Southern right whale can be seen from the cliff tops between May and November, but even out of these months it is still a beautiful view of the surrounding bay. Continue to Cape Town via Sir Lowry’s Pass.

Overnight: Adderley Hotel (B/L)

Day 13

Cape Town is one of the most scenic cities in the world and no African Safari is complete without a visit to the “mother city”. Today you have a city tour and, weather permitting, we will ascend Table Mountain (own cost). After the city tour you have the afternoon at leisure to explore the vibrant V&A waterfront with its seafood restaurants, craft shops and markets and the Two Oceans Aquarium.

Overnight: Adderley Hotel (B)

Day 14

What a way to end your South African Safari by standing at the Cape of Good Hope or the Tip of Africa. The drive takes you through villages like Simon’s Town with its beach loving penguins, Hout Bay where you have a cruise to seal island and the exclusive beach town of Clifton and Camp’s Bay. Before returning to Cape Town you stop at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Enjoy a farewell dinner as your African safari comes to an end.

Overnight: Adderley Hotel (B/D)

Day 15

After your final farewells you will be transferred to the airport for your international flight home (B)