Welcome to South Africa! You’ll be met at the airport and transferred to the beautiful CT Hotel Pretoria, which sits across from the Union Building. Explore Pretoria’s tree-lined streets and fine old buildings, or just relax after your flight, ready for the start of your Rovos Rail adventure tomorrow.

CT Hotel Pretoria

From your hotel, Rovos Rail’s private station at Capital Park is just a fifteen minute transfer. Before you board, take some time to explore the railway museum, an ever-growing collection of nostalgic paraphernalia, and have a peek in locomotive sheds, where you may see Rovos’ team of engineers keep the rolling stock in perfect order.

Sit back and relax, as your three night journey aboard Rovos Rail from Pretoria to Cape Town, takes you through stunning South African scenery, whilst you enjoy fine dining and a wide range of beverages on board. The open-air balcony at the rear of the observation carriage is the perfect place for a sundowner (or cup of tea!) with the sights and sounds of the African bush all around.

En route to the Mother City, you’ll pass through the grasslands of the Highveld, stopping in Kimberly to visit the Diamond Museum and aptly named Big Hole, a former mine, before crossing the mesmerising desert landscapes of the Great Karoo. After visiting the historic village of Majiesfontein, you’ll roll through the picturesque winelands of the Western Cape.

Your choice of cabin

All meals and selected drinks onboard

You train arrives into Cape Town mid-morning, and you’ll be met at the station for the short drive to your hotel. You have the best part of three days to discover the city, its unique culture and fascinating, though sometimes dark, history, as well as the stunning coastal landscapes nearby.

You can explore independently or pre-book guided excursions, including to Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope and Robben Island. Just let your Travel Consultant know what you would like to do.

Southern Sun Waterfront

This morning you will be met at your hotel by your representative and depart for the ‘Little Karoo’, travelling via Montagu, a picturesque spa town. Enjoy tea and scones at the only original Art Deco Hotel in South Africa.

En route, stop off in the town of Barrydale to visit a local farm school and meet the children and teachers and learn more about the local community. Continue to Calitzdorp to sample top quality port style wines before continuing to Oudtshoorn, the ‘ostrich feather capital’ and centre of the world’s Ostrich farming industry. Enjoy dinner at an Ostrich Farm, dining on local specialities.

La Plume Guest House or similar

Dinner

After breakfast take a tour of the spectacular limestone caverns of the Cango Caves, one of the world’s great natural wonders, sculpted by nature through the ages. Return to Oudtshoorn for a tractor tour and light lunch at an Ostrich Farm, including local specialities such as Ostrich steak.

Our journey continues over the scenic Outeniqua Pass to the town of George and then onto Knysna, known as the oyster box of South Africa, nestled on the banks of a beautiful lagoon in the heart of the Garden Route. Along the way, visit the ‘Map of Africa’, an extraordinary viewpoint in Wilderness.

Rex Hotel or similar

Breakfast, Lunch

After a leisurely breakfast, drive through the Tsitsikamma Forests. Explore this breathtaking stretch of the Garden Route, where mountains, indigenous forests, deep gorges, and lush vegetation hug the rugged coastline of cliffs and sandy beaches. Visit the spectacular Tsitsikamma National Park and Storms River Mouth (weather permitting). In the afternoon you’ll return to Knysna, with a stop in Plettenberg Bay, originally christened “Bahia Formosa” (beautiful bay) by early Portuguese explorers.

There is an option (at own cost) to either visit Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary, where you will be able to see a variety of primates roaming free in the forest, or the Birds of Eden Sanctuary, the biggest single free flight aviary in the world.

Lunch will be enjoyed en route.

Rex Hotel or similar

Breakfast, Lunch

After a leisurely breakfast, travel via George and Mossel Bay to Albertinia, a town set against the backdrop of the majestic Langeberg Mountain Range. En route, enjoy a leisurely walk or swim at Victoria Bay, one of the smallest and most beautiful bays along the Garden Route.

Join an afternoon open vehicle game drive at a private game reserve, home to an abundance of animal and birdlife, including the Big Five. Enjoy a relaxed dinner of safari cuisine, reviewing the day’s game viewing.

Garden Route Game Lodge or similar

Breakfast, Dinner

Our safari adventure continues with an early morning open vehicle game drive. Your expert guide will endeavour to spoil you with sightings of the ‘Big 5’, other game and the prolific bird life.

Leaving the bush behind, the journey takes you through the picturesque Cape Dutch town of Swellendam which was founded in 1745 and is famous for its young berries and surrounding National Parks. Continue onto the seaside resort of Hermanus, known as the heart of the whale route and offering what is reputed to be the best land-based whale watching (August to November) in the world.

Dinner is at the Heritage Restaurant, one of the oldest fisherman’s cottages in Hermanus.

Misty Waves Hotel or similar

Breakfast, Dinner

After a leisurely breakfast depart Hermanus and travel to historic Stellenbosch with its Cape Dutch architecture, absorb the quaintness of this lovely university town before continuing to Cape Town, the oldest city in South Africa, spectacularly set at the foot of Table Mountain where the tour ends on arrival.

Breakfast