Women-only South Africa: Cape Town, the Winelands and Kruger

Arrive in Cape Town, an easy first evening

Cape Town International Airport to your hotel in central Cape Town

• Light welcome supper
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Nothing is planned for the afternoon: check in, sleep off the flight, or walk along the harbour with Table Mountain filling the sky above it.

Soir

At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide, who is a woman, meets the group for a short briefing on the trip: how rooms are shared, how the Cape Town days move with the wind, where to walk in the evening and when to take a car, and what to pack for early safari drives. We then walk a few minutes to a light welcome supper and finish early, so the first full day starts rested. Later arrivals are met and briefed in the morning.

Compris

• Pick-up at Cape Town International Airport (CPT)
• Welcome and safety briefing with your guide
• Light welcome supper near the hotel

Table Mountain, the Bo-Kaap and a Cape Malay kitchen

Up Table Mountain by cableway, then the Bo-Kaap, and a cooking evening in a home

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

We start early, leaving the hotel at about 7:30 to ride the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway in the first cars of the morning (the first car runs at about 8 or 8:30 depending on the season; we confirm the time with your dates), before the queues build and while the summit is most often clear. On top, easy paths loop around the plateau, more than 1,000 m above the city, with views across Table Bay to Robben Island and along the Twelve Apostles. If wind closes the cableway, which happens often, we swap today with day 3 or day 4. Back down, a guide who is a woman from the Bo-Kaap walks us through her neighbourhood of brightly painted houses, cobbled lanes and mosques, shaped by the Cape Malay community, descendants of people brought to the Cape, many enslaved, from the 17th century.

Après-midi

The early afternoon is free for lunch where you like and a rest.

Soir

In the evening a Cape Malay cook welcomes us into her home: we fold samoosas, grind spices for a curry and then sit down together to eat it. We confirm the host with your dates.

Compris

• Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, return ticket
• Walk on the summit plateau with your guide
• Bo-Kaap walk with a woman guide from the neighbourhood
• Cape Malay cooking evening and dinner in a woman's home (host confirmed with your dates)

Penguins, Cape Point and Chapman's Peak

Cape Town down the False Bay side to Boulders Beach and Cape Point, back by Chapman's Peak Drive and Hout Bay

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by the sea. In the afternoon we drive back up the Atlantic side on Chapman's Peak Drive, with the sun on the cliffs, through Hout Bay and Camps Bay.

Compris

• Boulders Beach penguin colony, with the park fee
• Cape Point, with the Flying Dutchman funicular
• The Cape of Good Hope, with the Table Mountain National Park fee
• Sit-down lunch on the peninsula
• Chapman's Peak Drive, with the toll

Langa with a resident guide, and Robben Island

Langa in the morning, then the ferry from the V&A Waterfront to Robben Island

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at a kitchen in Langa run by women, and the guide and the kitchen are paid directly; we confirm both with your dates. In the afternoon we take the ferry from the V&A Waterfront to Robben Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. Museum guides lead the tour; with the crossing it takes about three and a half hours. If the sea cancels the ferry, we try another Cape Town day.

Compris

• Langa walking visit with a woman resident guide (confirmed with your dates)
• Lunch at a women-run kitchen in Langa (confirmed with your dates)
• Robben Island ferry and museum tour

Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

Cape Town to Franschhoek, then over the Helshoogte Pass to Stellenbosch

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Stellenbosch
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We leave Cape Town after breakfast for the Cape Winelands, about an hour and a quarter east to Franschhoek, a valley of vineyards closed in by mountains on three sides. French Huguenot refugees settled here from 1688, and the Huguenot Monument at the end of the main street remembers them. Our morning tasting is hosted by a woman winemaker, or at a wine brand owned by women, part of a newer generation in an industry long run by a few old families; we confirm the estate with your dates.

Après-midi

Then we sit down to a long lunch in the valley. Non-drinkers get a grape juice or food pairing where the estate offers one. Mid-afternoon we cross the Helshoogte Pass to Stellenbosch, about 30 km, a town founded in 1679 with oak-lined streets and whitewashed Cape Dutch gables. Your guide walks you down Dorp Street to the Braak, the old town square, and past the period houses of the Village Museum, and a second tasting just outside town closes the afternoon.

Soir

Dinner is free.

Compris

• Huguenot Monument, Franschhoek
• Wine tasting hosted by a woman winemaker or at a women-owned wine brand (confirmed with your dates)
• Long sit-down lunch in Franschhoek
• Guided walk through old Stellenbosch: Dorp Street, the Braak and the Village Museum houses
• Second wine tasting near Stellenbosch

Fly to the bushveld

Stellenbosch to Cape Town International Airport, fly to Hoedspruit, then a safari lodge in the Greater Kruger

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Greater Kruger
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

An unhurried breakfast, and for early risers a walk among the vineyards at the edge of town, then about 45 minutes to Cape Town International Airport. We fly north-east to Hoedspruit's Eastgate Airport, direct where a flight runs on your date, otherwise with a change in Johannesburg, which replaces the long road day other trips spend reaching Kruger. From the small airport it is a short transfer to our safari lodge in a private reserve of the Greater Kruger, where the fences with the national park are down and animals move freely; we name the lodge when we confirm your dates.

Après-midi

Lunch is at the lodge, or on the way if we connect, then a briefing: stay seated in the vehicle, keep voices low, and after dark a ranger walks you to your room. At about 4 pm we head out in open vehicles with a ranger and tracker for the first drive, stopping for a sundowner as the light goes, and return in the dark with a spotlight picking out eyes in the bush.

Soir

Dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Transfer to Cape Town International Airport
• Flight from Cape Town to Hoedspruit (Eastgate), direct or via Johannesburg
• Transfer to the lodge
• Afternoon game drive in an open vehicle with a ranger and tracker, with a sundowner
• Reserve conservation levies

Dawn drive, the Black Mambas and dusk

The private reserve, with a visit in the Balule Nature Reserve where arranged

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Greater Kruger
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A wake-up knock comes at about 5 am in summer and a little later in winter, with coffee and rusks before the dawn drive, the best hours for lions, leopards and wild dogs. Where the reserve's rules allow, the ranger can leave the track for a sighting, and only a few vehicles may gather at one, so it stays quiet. Back at the lodge for a late breakfast. Late morning, where a visit can be arranged with your dates, we meet members of the Black Mambas, the all-women anti-poaching unit that patrols the Balule Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger: young women from the surrounding communities who walk the fences, find snares and watch for poachers. They talk about the work and why they joined, and part of the price goes to the unit. If no visit is possible, a guided bush walk with an armed field guide takes its place. The middle of the day is free at the lodge.

Soir

After afternoon tea the second drive runs past sunset, with a sundowner stop, and dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in an open vehicle with a ranger and tracker
• Meeting with members of the Black Mambas anti-poaching unit, where a visit is arranged, or a guided bush walk
• Afternoon and evening game drive with a sundowner
• All meals at the lodge

A full day in Kruger National Park

The lodge to Orpen Gate, then across the central plains toward Satara and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Greater Kruger
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We leave before breakfast to be at Orpen Gate as it opens (gate times change by month), about an hour's drive, then spend the day on the park's roads in an open safari vehicle with a registered guide, heading east across the central plains toward Satara, known for lions, elephants, buffalo and big herds of zebra and wildebeest.

Après-midi

Breakfast is a picnic at a stop inside the park, and lunch is a sit-down meal at a rest camp, with clean washrooms and time to stretch. Park roads are public and vehicles must stay on them, so this is a different safari from the reserve: wider landscapes, more ground covered and more vehicles at the big sightings.

Soir

We leave the park before the gate closes and reach the lodge in time for dinner. It is a long day, about ten hours and mostly seated, so there is an easy option.

Compris

• Full-day safari in Kruger National Park in an open vehicle with a registered guide
• Kruger National Park conservation fee
• Picnic breakfast and sit-down lunch at a rest camp

Last full day in the bush

The private reserve, with an optional half-day to the Blyde River Canyon

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Greater Kruger

Matin

The dawn drive is the time to look for anything still missing from your list: rangers share sightings over the radio, and your guide can ask to focus on leopard, rhino or birds. Rhino sightings are never shared with a location, and the lodge asks guests not to geotag their photos, because poaching is still a threat, which is also why anti-poaching units such as the Black Mambas patrol these reserves. After breakfast, a guided bush walk with an armed field guide, about two hours at an easy pace, reading tracks, dung, termite mounds and birds, for anyone who did not walk on day 7. The middle of the day is free. For a change of scene, an optional half-day goes to the Blyde River Canyon, about an hour and a quarter away, for the view of the Three Rondavels, back in time for the last drive.

Soir

The late-afternoon drive ends with a sundowner, and then a farewell dinner in the boma, the open-air enclosure around a fire, with the sounds of the bush around you.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in an open vehicle with a ranger and tracker
• Guided bush walk with an armed field guide
• Afternoon and evening game drive with a sundowner
• Farewell dinner in the boma
• All meals at the lodge

Activités en option

• Half-day to the Blyde River Canyon and the Three Rondavels viewpoint, priced at booking

Fly to Johannesburg

The lodge to Hoedspruit (Eastgate), then fly to Johannesburg O. R. Tambo International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A last short drive at first light, or a slow coffee on the deck if you would rather, then breakfast at the lodge and the transfer to Hoedspruit's Eastgate Airport. The flight to Johannesburg's O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) takes about an hour and a quarter, and your guide flies with you and sees you to your onward check-in, so nobody is left alone in a big airport with bags.

Soir

Most long-haul flights from Johannesburg to Europe and North America leave in the evening, which suits the day: book an onward flight leaving after about 6 pm. If your flight leaves late, after about 9 pm, ask us to add a guided visit to the Apartheid Museum, about 30 km from the airport, which tells the story of segregation and the transition to democracy through photographs, film and personal accounts; it is priced at booking and includes a driver. If you want to stay on in Johannesburg, we can book extra nights at a hotel with airport transfers for you.

Compris

• Short dawn drive, if you want it
• Transfer to Hoedspruit (Eastgate)
• Flight from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg (JNB), with your guide to onward check-in

Activités en option

• Guided visit to the Apartheid Museum with a driver, for flights after about 9 pm, priced at booking