Explore South Africa

Welcome to South Africa! You are collected from O.R. Tambo International Airport and transferred to the Sun City Hotel & Entertainment Complex, about 2.5 hours by road from Johannesburg. The following two nights are spent at leisure in Sun City.

Sun City is internationally renowned as South Africa’s premier holiday resort offering a multitude of attractions and activities to keep everyone occupied. With its combination of golf, game-viewing and gambling, as well as world class hotels, Sun City is the perfect choice for a holiday in South Africa.

A variety of sports & activities may be enjoyed at Sun City. Year-round good weather in this part of South Africa ensures that tennis, squash, swimming, golf, mountain biking, horse riding and parasailing are all on offer throughout the year.

After breakfast you are collected from your hotel and transferred to Johannesburg for a full day tour of Soweto and the Apartheid Museum.

Soweto: South West from Johannesburg, you’ll catch a glimpse of the lives of its estimated 3 million residents. This popular tour includes a visit to attractions such as the Winnie Mandela and Family House Museum, the Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial, and the Regina Mundi Church. The tour is concluded with a drive past a taxi rank, a squatter camp (informal settlement), Vista University and the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

Apartheid Museum: This newly built museum illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid. Visitors walk through the 22 individual exhibition areas, which contain film footage, photographs, text panels and artifacts illustrating the events and human stories behind apartheid. At the end you’ll have a far deeper understanding of the why and how of apartheid, and the new South Africa of today.

An early departure from Johannesburg as we travel east towards the Mpumalanga Province, passing through the open grasslands and agricultural areas of the ‘Highveld’. Our journey then continues via the scenic Schoemanskloof Pass into sub-tropical citrus farming and forestry areas. We then visit the many attractions along the ‘Panorama Route’, including God’s Window, the Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the viewpoint over the Blyde River Canyon at the Three Rondavels. The Panorama Route along the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga is arguably one of the most beautiful and popular travel destinations in South Africa. It leads through the rugged mountain range of the northern Drakensberg. Here, in the northeastern part of the Great Escarpment, the inland plateau declines abruptly and steeply and opens up fantastic views of the plains of the Lowveld up to 3,280 feet below. In the afternoon we descend the eastern escarpment and travel through the warm Lowveld to a beautiful country lodge, located just a short distance from the nearest entrance to Kruger National Park.

We depart before dawn and travel the short distance to the entrance to the Kruger National Park. Once inside the Park, excitement will mount as we start seeing some of the numerous animals that inhabit this magnificent wildlife sanctuary. Truly the flagship of the South African national parks, Kruger is home to an impressive number of species… 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals. The world-renowned Kruger National Park offers a wildlife experience that ranks with the best in Africa. Breakfast packs will be provided, which we will enjoy at a picnic spot inside Kruger Park. We spend virtually the entire day traveling inside the park, arriving at our ‘restcamp’ in the late afternoon. Accommodation tonight is in comfortable ensuite bungalows or cottages, and dinner is enjoyed in the camp restaurant.

What is a restcamp? The word ‘restcamp’ is a bit deceiving as it has nothing to do with ‘camping’. The accommodations used in Kruger National Park are brick or stone cottages or bungalows, usually with a thatched roof. These bungalows or cottages all have private ensuite facilities (WC, shower and wash basin) and air-conditioning.

After breakfast we depart from our restcamp, and spend most of the morning inside Kruger Park, game-viewing as we go. Around mid-day we exit the park, and travel to an exclusive lodge in a nearby private game reserve, where later that afternoon your first exhilarating game drive in a specially-adapted open 4X4 vehicle is undertaken. At dusk sundowners are enjoyed deep in the bush, after which the drive continues, making use of spotlights to search for nocturnal animals. A final highlight is a specially prepared dinner at the lodge.

We make use of several smaller and more intimate game lodges in one of the private game reserves that lie directly west of Kruger National Park. The specific game lodge used will depend on availability but should be one of the following – Jackalberry Game Lodge, Chapungu Luxury Tented Lodge, Thornybush Waterside Lodge or Kapama River Lodge.

After a final open vehicle game drive and a late breakfast, you are collected from the lodge and we travel back to Johannesburg, via the scenic Abel Erasmus Pass and through the interesting country towns of Lydenburg, Dullstroom and Belfast.

You are dropped off at O.R. Tambo International Airport in the late afternoon in time for a flight* to Cape Town. Upon your arrival at the Cape Town International Airport you are met and transferred to your hotel, ideally located at the entrance to the V & A Waterfront.

* Please note that the domestic flight between O.R. Tambo International Airport (Johannesburg) and Cape Town on Day 7 is not included in the tour price. We suggest that you book this flight as part of your international air ticket. When booking this flight, please make sure that the flight does not depart from Johannesburg before 18:30. Please contact us should you require assistance in booking this flight
The City Lodge Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is an excellent 3-star hotel, well located at the entrance to the V&A Waterfront. However, there are numerous other hotels in Cape Town, any of which could be used as an alternative to the City Lodge. Should you wish to be accommodated at any other hotel of your choice, please let us know and we will send you an amended quote.

This morning we undertake an orientation walk through the vibrant Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, led by your tour guide. We then depart on a Cape Town City, Table Mountain and Blouberg Beach Tour. This tour incorporates some of the most interesting and historical sights of Cape Town, unforgettable views from the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway and the summit of Table Mountain itself. The tour ends with a visit to Blouberg Beach which offers outstanding photographic opportunities of Cape Town City, the Cape Town Waterfront and Table Mountain across Table Bay.

Includes:

• Table Mountain – weather permitting (otherwise Signal Hill)
• Scenic City tour passing the Houses of Parliament, City Hall and the Castle of Good Hope
• ‘Bo-Kaap’ (traditional Malay Quarter)
• Green Market Square
• District Six
• Blouberg Beach

Please note: as the operation of the Table Mountain Aerial Cable Way weather-dependent, the Cable Car Fare is for your own account and is payable at the ticket office. You are requested to be ready for pick-up at 09:00, and will be back at the hotel at approx 17:30.

Today you undertake a full day Cape Point Tour. First on the program is a drive to Cape Point, where traditionally two oceans, the Atlantic and Indian meet. On our drive along the rugged and scenic Atlantic coast, you will begin to understand why Sir Francis Drake described this as “the most beautiful Cape in the whole circumference of the globe”, but also why at times the Portuguese name of the ‘Cape of Storms’, could be as appropriate. We also visit Boulder’s Beach, home of one of the very rare African Penguin colonies on the African coast. The tour ends with a visit to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, world-renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays, and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain.

Includes:

• Clifton and Camps Bay beach views
• Picturesque Chapman’s Peak Drive
• Cape Point and nature reserve
• Cape of Good Hope
• Penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach
• Fish Hoek & Simon’s Town
• Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Please note: for those who do not feel up to the steep walk to the view site at Cape Point, there is an electrically powered funicular railway, the only one of its kind in the world. The cost of the funicular is included. You are requested to be ready for pick-up at 08:30, and will be back at the hotel at approx 17:30.

The day is at leisure until you are collected from your hotel and transferred to the Cape Town Airport for the end of the tour.