Welcome to South Africa and Cape Town. Once you have passed through immigration and collected your bags, you will be met by one of our representatives and transported to the Cape Town waterfront in a private vehicle.

After checking-in to your hotel, you will have some time to wander around the scenic V&A Waterfront, exploring the bustling shops and cafés.

Radisson Collection  Waterfront, or similar

Breakfast

Enjoy the next couple of days exploring the city, visiting its colourful neighbourhoods, beautiful beaches and and the striking mountain ranges that engulf the city.

Why not visit the resident penguins at Boulders Beach, wander around the colourful Bo-Kaap neighbourhood, or head back to the V&A Waterfront to enjoy a spot of shopping.

Perhaps take a guided city tour, discovering historical landmarks, attending a diamond cutting workshop and admiring the views from the top of Table Mountain. Or, discover Robben Island, on a moving visit to the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, led by a former political prisoner.

We can include experiences and day tours as part of your itinerary, just let your Travel Consultant know what you’d like to do during your stay in Cape Town.

Radisson Collection Waterfront, or similar

Breakfast

After breakfast this morning you can collect your car and begin your South Africa nature and wildlife experience. If you haven’t already, you may wish to begin your day by heading south out of Cape Town, along the coast to Camps Bay and Hout Bay, before crossing the Cape Peninsula, to head eastwards around the shores of False Bay.

Continue your journey to coastal town of Hermanus, where bewtween June and December it is possible to view southern right and other whales from the cliff tops overlooking Walker Bay. Hermanus is also a good lunch stop as there are a choice of excellent restaurants and cafés in the town.

From Hermanus it is only a short drive to Gansbaai and the Grootbos Nature Reserve. On arrival you will be checked in and shown to your rooms where you can relax and enjoy the views across the hills blanketed in ancient fynbos vegetation. Depending on your arrival time you may be able to complete a trip to the Walker Bay beach, where you can join a guided tour into the beautiful sea caves.

Back at the lodge you can enjoy a fantastic six-course dinner with views across to the ocean.

Cape Town > Grootbos Nature Reserve | 200 kms

Grootbos Nature Reserve

Breakfast, Dinner

Over the next coople of days you will be able to relax within the reserve, explore the unique natural envirnments found in the reserve, and even experience a little adventure out on the ocean.

Perhaps the highlight of your stay will be an expert guided boat tour, with opportunities to spot South Africa’s ‘Marine 5’, including whales, sharks, penguins, dolphins, and seals. This area is unique in offering opportunities to see all five species in one place.

You can also combine these marine activites with land-based options such as guided horseback riding through the reserve, or a 4×4 tour through the fynbos and woodlands on the reserve. Birders can choose to join a local guide to spot local residents and those just passing through, whilst it is also possible to relax and enhoy the superior spa facilities available back at the lodge at  Grootbos Nature reserve.

Each day will end with another gourmet evening meal with a choice of paired wines, overlooking the nature reserve.

Grootbos Nature Reserve

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

On your last morning at Grootbos, you may like to sleep in or join one of the guides on an early morning stroll through the Milkwood Forest before breakfast.

After checking out of your room, you will return to your car and begin a scenic drive from the coastal Overberg to the semi-desert envirnment of the Klein Karoo. A short journey, but one that feels like switching between two very different worlds. Driving north-eastwards away from the coast you will make your way through canola fields and shifting agriculture until the road begins to climb through a series of passes through the Cape Fold Mountains.

A highlight on the route can be a stop at Swellendam, one of the oldest towns in South Africa, and home to some beuatifully preserved Cape Dutch architectural heritage with the towering Langeberg Mountains as a backdrop. The nearby Bontebok National Park is home to the rare and once near-extinct bontebok antelope now that roams freely beside the Breede River.

From Swellendam the road climbs through the dramatic Tradouw Pass, before emerging on to the vast open plains of the Klein Karoo. It is here that you will discover the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve which will be your home for the next few days. Depending on your arrival time, there may be an opportunity for a first 4×4 safari before dinner.

Grootbos Nature Reserve > Sanbona Wildlife Reserve | 210 kms

Sanbona Widlife Reserve

Breakfast & Dinner

Your stay at Sanbona Wildlife offers an immersive and unhurried introduction to the ancient Karoo wilderness, structured around twice-daily game drives in open vehicles led by expert rangers and trackers who know this vast 58,000-hectare landscape intimately. Sanbona Wildlife Reserve is one of South Africa’s premier safari destinations where all of Africa’s ‘Big 5’ animals roam freely, and game drives offer the chance to encounter lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and the rare white rhino amongst the reserve’s spectacular backdrop of rust-red mountains and wide open plains.

Beyond the game drives, you can also enjoy guided bush walks that bring the smaller wonders of the Karoo region to life, including its extraordinary plants, insects, reptiles and birdlife. You can also visit some of the ancient San Bushman rock art sites scattered across the reserve, some are estimated to be thousands of years old, and offer a profound and moving connection to the earliest inhabitants of this beautiful land.

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve

Breakfast, lunch, & dinner

After waking up for one last spectacular sunrise over the Klein Karoo, followed by breakfast overlooking the plains, it is time to check-out of your room and return to your car for the scenic drive back to Cape Town.

Along the route, you may like to stop at the town of Montagu, a beautifully preserved Victorian-era town set within a dramatic kloof of red and orange sandstone cliffs. Montagu is celebrated for its natural hot springs, its award-winning wines and fruit brandies, and a charming main street lined with historic Cape Dutch and Victorian architecture that makes it one of the most appealing small towns in the Western Cape.

The road continues towards Cape Town across the Du Toitskloof Mountains. We recommend following the pass rather than the tunnel, as the pass is a dramatic winding mountain road that offers extraordinary views across the layers of folded mountain ranges. The road descends into the Huguenot Valley, and passes through the historic town of Paarl in the Cape WInelands region. Nearny Franschoek and Stellenbosch are particularyl famous for theor award winning wines.

Eventually the highway bring you back to Cape Town and directly to the international airport, where you can return your car and check-on in time for your return flight.

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve > Cape Town | 230 km
Breakfast