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Grand Tour of South Africa
Experience the magnificence of South Africa, and experience it in style, on this exclusive guided tour covering some of Southern Africa’s most well sought out sights and experiences.
The itinerary encompasses everything from the big cities to the Big 5, giving you a chance to experience the country’s best-known highlights along the way. Visit the mountain Kingdom of Swaziland, go on a game safari in Kruger and travel the beautiful Garden Route en route to Cape Town – this tour has it all! For a shorter variation or to customize your tour, please contact us!
SCHEDULED TOUR
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1 January 2016 – 31 December 2016 |  |
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ZAR 25,447 pps | |
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15 Days |
Daily Program
Included
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Meet & Greet and assist with the complimentary shuttle from OR Tambo International Airport to Holiday Inn Johannesburg Airport.
Holiday Inn Johannesburg Airport
In a world moving at an ever faster pace, isn’t it comforting to know there is a place where you can simply switch off. The Airport Grand Hotel & Conference Centre is conveniently located ten minutes drive from O.R. Tambo International Airport and provides convenient access to the major business centres of Pretoria and Johannesburg. To ensure you feel completely at home, all of the 151 luxury rooms offer en-suite bathrooms, TVs, digital safes and direct-dialling telephones. For those who have business to conclude, there is a conference centre for up to 200 delegates.
Rest of the day is at leisure
Lodging: Holiday Inn Johannesburg Airport – Standard Room (BB)
After breakfast and check out clients will depart for Hazyview in the province of Mpumalanga. Along the way your clients will experience the incredibly beautiful Panorama Route, with its dramatic, mountainous landscapes and winding roads. With highlights like God’s Window (time dependant), Bourke’s Luck Potholes and of course the mighty Blyde River Canyon, this really is South Africa’s nature at its best! We will arrive at the hotel in the late afternoon and clients will have time to freshen up before dinner.
Activities: Panorama Route
Included meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Lodging: Perry’s Bridge Hollow (standard room) or similar (4-star)
Clients will have an early start to the day and embark on an open-vehicle safari through Kruger National Park, an iconic reserve boasting a wildlife experience ranking with the best in Africa. Elephant, giraffe and various antelopes are often seen grazing close to the vehicles, and it is not unusual that a pack of lion prevents free passage! Kruger National Park is the land of baobabs, fever trees, knob thorns, marula and mopane trees underneath which you can find not only the Big Five, but the Little Five (buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and rhino beetle) and the birding Big Six (ground hornbill, kori bustard, lappet-faced vulture, martial eagle, pel’s fishing owl and saddle-bill stork). Clients return to the hotel in the afternoon and clients will have the rest of the day at leisure. There is the option of another game drive in the evening (for clients account); this is a good time to observe the animals as they come down to the waterholes for their evening drink. Perhaps your clients will even be lucky enough to witness a lion kill. Dinner will be served at the hotel.
Activities: Morning game drive in the Kruger National Park
Included meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Lodging: Overnight Perry’s Bridge Hollow (standard room) or similar (4-star)
Today clients will travel to the Royal Kingdom of Swaziland. This small Kingdom is nestled between South Africa and Mozambique, the beautiful scenery is mountainous with lush forests. En route clients will have the opportunity to learn more about the Swazi culture at the Matsamo Cultural Village, where they will also have lunch. Clients will also visit the famous Ngwenya Glass Works. Our next stop is the capital city Mbabane, where vibrant markets packed with woven baskets, beadwork and carvings can be found. Clients will spend the night at a hotel in the beautiful Ezulwini Valley.
Activities: Showcase at Matsamo Cultural Village & Visit Ngwenya Glass Works
Included meals: Breakfast at hotel & Lunch at Matsamo Cultural Village
Lodging: Royal Swazi Sun (standard room) or similar
After breakfast at the hotel, clients will enjoy a visit to the Swazi Candle Factory. Each candle seen here is individually handmade and unique, displaying a wide range of colours, shapes and patterns. Clients will then leave Swaziland behind and travel into KwaZulu Natal. Our hotel for the next two nights is situated close to the town of Mkuze, at the foot of the legendary Ghost Mountain. In the afternoon clients will embark on a scenic drive up into the Ubombo Mountains; the views over Lake Jozini are spectacular. From the summit they will watch the sunset transform the sky into a tapestry of colours, while sipping on a sundowner. Also included in this excursion is a visit to a traditional Zulu homestead for a glimpse into the lifestyle of this fascinating culture. On return to the hotel, dinner is served on the terrace (weather permitting) or in the classically styled restaurant.
Activities: Sunset Mountain drive, visit to a Zulu Homestead
Included meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Lodging: Ghost Mountain Inn (standard room) or similar (4-star)
Today clients will travel to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve for an afternoon game drive. Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve is an incredibly scenic park with rolling hills covered in low acacia bush. The north of the park is mountainous with amazing forests and grasslands, the south and west is open savannah. The park contains a diversity of fauna and flora and is known for its conservation of black and white rhino. It was here that the endangered white rhino was saved from extinction and the park boasts the largest population of white rhino in the world. Clients will return to the hotel in the late afternoon for dinner.
Activities: Game drive in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve
Included meals: Breakfast & Dinner at hotel
Lodging: Ghost Mountain Inn (standard room) or similar (4-star)
Continue the journey along the Elephant Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal to St Lucia, located at the southern extremity of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park – a World Heritage Site. Here you embark on an estuarine boat trip which provides an opportunity to view crocodiles, hippo and numerous bird species, including the elusive African Kingfisher Eagle, in their natural habitat. Continue to Durban, where east meets west; a city beneath which beats the pulse of Africa. Arrive during the afternoon at your hotel which is located on the Golden Mile – Durban’s distinctive beach front.
Included Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: The Benjamin Boutique Hotel or similar – Standard Room (BB)
This morning you will embark on a brief Durban City Tour where you will spend the morning discovering the cultural and historical contrasts of the city. Check in at Durban International Airport for your domestic flight to Port Elizabeth (flight cost not included).
We recommend booking no earlier than 15H00 out of Durban
On arrival at Port Elizabeth Airport, transfer to your hotel.
Activities: Durban City Tour
Depart Port Elizabeth and travel via the coastline to the beautiful Tsitsikamma National Park. Described as the ‘garden of the Garden Route’, the Tsitsikamma actually deserves a more vivid description to encapsulate the beauty of the place. Enjoy a walk along the suspension bridge across the Storms River mouth gorge which offers visitors incredible views and photo opportunities. Continue to Plettenberg Bay for dinner and overnight.
Activities: Walk on the Storms River suspension bridge – if open
After breakfast, get up-close-and-personal with nature at the Elephant Sanctuary. With the help of the resident African elephants and the well-informed guides, you will learn about the sad and mystical story of the Knysna Elephants. The visit presents you with the opportunity to touch, feed and photograph these gentle giants. After lunch (to own account), travel to Plettenberg Bay for a visit to Birds of Eden – the largest free-flight bird aviary in the world. Birds of Eden stems from the need to create a safe environment in which to release a large collection of free-flight African birds and the sanctuary also enables bird owners to apply to release their pet birds into the sanctuary, after undergoing rehabilitation. Time permitting you have the option of embarking on a Whale & Dolphin boat experience (weather permitting and to own account) before returning to the lodge.
Activities: Knysna Elephant encounter , Birds of Eden
After breakfast and check-out this morning we will proceed to Knysna, famous for its lagoon, oysters and over 800 year old iron and stinkwood trees. You will have the chance to spend some time at leisure and explore Knysna Waterfront, where there are a variety of interesting shops and enticing restaurants.
Weather permitting we will embark on a cruise to the Knysna Heads. We will then travel north to Oudtshoorn via the spectacular Outeniqua Pass. Oudtshoorn is home to more than 90% of the globe’s population of ostrich, the town is known as the World’s “ostrich-capital”.
We will visit an Ostrich Farm to learn more about these giant birds and the history of their farming in this area. If you are brave enough you may even ride an ostrich! Check into your accommodation in the late afternoon before enjoying dinner.
Activities: Boat cruise Knysna Lagoon, Visit Ostrich Farm
After breakfast we drive to the picturesque Cango Valley, where you can explore the world famous Cango Caves. These caves are a network of vast caverns with spectacular natural limestone rock formations. Afterwards we travel towards Cape Town along Route 62, known as the World’s Longest Wine Route.
The scenery along this route is superb, taking us over majestic mountain passes and winding rivers, past vineyards and orchards and through fascinating little towns. We arrive in Cape Town in the early evening.
Check into your hotel situated close to the famous V&A Waterfront, which offers a wide variety of shops, restaurants and entertainment.
Activities: Cango Caves excursion
After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we head out on a full day excursion to the magnificent scenery and wildlife of the Cape Peninsula. The tour includes a visit to Hout Bay Harbour, where you are welcome to take an optional (for clients account) boat trip to Duiker Island where thousands of Cape Fur Seals live. We travel over the scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Have your photos taken at the most south western tip of the African continent and enjoy an invigorating walk, or leisurely funicular trip, up to the Cape Point lighthouses to admire the dramatic cliffs and amazing views.
Other interesting stops will include the Naval village of Simon’s Town and Boulders Beach, where you will get up close and personal with the penguins at one of South Africa’s two land-based African Penguin colonies. The day ends at the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens where you can amble through the various showcase gardens highlighting the different habitats found in South Africa or sit on one of the manicured lawns and take in the vista that is Cape Town
Activities: Full Day Cape Peninsula Tour : Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak, Cape Point, Boulders Beach, Kirstenbosch gardens.
Today you will experience a full day Wine Tour in the Cape Winelands including a visit to the charming town of oaks, Stellenbosch. After some wine tastings, a chocolate tasting and an introduction to the South African winemaking tradition, we continue to the Gourmet Capital of South Africa, Franschhoek.
After another round of wine tasting, there will be time to take a stroll in this beautiful and cosy little town. The whole day is dedicated to showing your clients our favourite secret spots and wine cellars – a day to tantalize your taste buds in some of South Africa’s most beautiful landscapes!
Activities: Full Day Winelands Tour, Stellenbosch and Franschoek
On the final day in Cape Town you will be taken on a half day City Tour. Cape Town is rich in historical and cultural heritage and natural beauty. Some of the highlight stops on this tour will be the Company Gardens, the Castle of Good Hope and the lively Greenmarket Square where you can purchase arts and crafts from all over Africa. We will also take a trip through the colourful Bo Kaap area, known as the home of the “Cape Malays”.
The tour ends with a drop-off at Cape Town International Airport for onward travel.
Activities: Half Day City Tour, drop off at Cape Town International Airport for onward travel
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