South Africa: Johannesburg, Kruger, the Garden Route and Cape Town

Arrive in Johannesburg: Soweto and the Apartheid Museum

O. R. Tambo International Airport to Soweto, then the Apartheid Museum and your hotel in Rosebank

• Lunch in Soweto and a welcome dinner
• Nuit : Johannesburg
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Soir

Plan to land by about 10 am; if your flight comes in later, we can add a night before the trip. Your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and we drive about 45 minutes to Soweto, where a local guide who lives there walks us down Vilakazi Street, past the small house where Nelson Mandela lived before his imprisonment, to the Hector Pieterson Memorial, which remembers the students shot during the 1976 uprising. Lunch is at a restaurant in Soweto. In the afternoon we visit the Apartheid Museum, about two hours through photographs, film and personal accounts from segregation to the 1994 election. It is not a light visit, so the evening is easy. If the museum is closed on our day, we go to Constitution Hill instead. We cross the Nelson Mandela Bridge as the city lights come on, check in in Rosebank, and meet for a short briefing and a welcome dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)
• Soweto walk with a local guide: Vilakazi Street and the Hector Pieterson Memorial
• Lunch in Soweto
• Guided visit to the Apartheid Museum (Constitution Hill when the museum is closed)
• Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

Over the escarpment to Graskop

Johannesburg to Dullstroom, over the Long Tom Pass to Sabie, then Graskop and God's Window

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Graskop
• Environ 5 h de route

Après-midi

Dullstroom, a trout-fishing town at around 2,000 m, is where we sit down to lunch. From there the road runs through Lydenburg and climbs the Long Tom Pass, named after the Boer field guns hauled up it in 1900, and we stop near the top for the view over the lowveld. Then down through the pine plantations around Sabie to Graskop, a small town on the edge of the Drakensberg escarpment. In the late-afternoon light we walk out to God's Window, where the cliffs drop away to the lowveld, and to Pinnacle Rock.

Soir

The evening is free in Graskop.

Compris

• Drive over the highveld with your guide, via Dullstroom and the Long Tom Pass
• Sit-down lunch in Dullstroom
• God's Window and Pinnacle Rock in the late afternoon, entry fees included

The Blyde River Canyon, then down to Hazyview

Graskop to the Three Rondavels, Bourke's Luck Potholes and Lisbon Falls, then down the escarpment to Hazyview

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hazyview
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We are out by 7 am so we reach the Three Rondavels viewpoint near opening, before the coaches and while the morning light still reaches into the Blyde River Canyon, cut about 750 m deep into the escarpment. Three round, grass-topped peaks give the viewpoint its name, with the Blydepoort Dam far below them. Back south along the canyon rim, Bourke's Luck Potholes are deep round pools scoured into yellow rock where the Treur River meets the Blyde; a short path and footbridges cross above them.

Après-midi

On the way back we stop at Lisbon Falls, then sit down to lunch in Graskop. In the early afternoon we drive down off the escarpment to Hazyview, a market town a few minutes from Kruger's Phabeni Gate, where we stay three nights and unpack once. The rest of the afternoon is free: rest before tomorrow's dawn start, or browse the roadside stalls where carvers sell wooden animals.

Compris

• The Three Rondavels viewpoint over the Blyde River Canyon near opening
• Bourke's Luck Potholes
• Lisbon Falls
• Sit-down lunch in Graskop
• Panorama Route entry fees

A full day in Kruger

Hazyview into Kruger National Park by Phabeni Gate, along the Sabie River to Lower Sabie and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Hazyview
• Environ 9 h de route

Matin

We leave Hazyview before dawn with coffee and rusks so we are at the gate when it opens, about 5:30 am in summer and 6 am in winter, because the first two hours give the best chance of lions and leopards still on the move. You ride in an open safari vehicle with a qualified field guide at the wheel and your See Sight Tours guide alongside, no more than eight guests to a vehicle. We follow the Sabie River east, looking for elephants, buffalo and hippos at the water.

Après-midi

Breakfast is a picnic at a designated stop, and lunch is a sit-down meal at Lower Sabie rest camp, on a deck above the river. In the midday heat we slow down at the dams and waterholes, then work back west as the light softens, leaving the park before the gate closes.

Soir

Dinner is together in Hazyview.

Compris

• Full-day drive in Kruger National Park in an open safari vehicle with a qualified field guide
• Kruger conservation fees
• Picnic breakfast in the park
• Sit-down lunch at Lower Sabie rest camp
• Dinner in Hazyview

Dawn in Kruger, a free afternoon

Hazyview into Kruger by Paul Kruger Gate towards Skukuza, and back

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Hazyview
• Environ 6 h de route

Matin

A second morning in the park, by a different gate. We leave at first light for Paul Kruger Gate and spend about five hours on the roads around Skukuza and the Sabie and Sand rivers in an open vehicle with a field guide, the best hours before the heat sends the animals into the shade. Yesterday's sightings shape the plan: if the group is still hoping for leopard, rhino or wild dog, your guide and the field guide decide where to look, and rangers share sightings by radio.

Après-midi

Breakfast is a picnic in the park, and we are back in Hazyview before lunch.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are yours, the only properly free half-day in the north: rest by the pool, have lunch in town, or sign up for an optional sunset drive with a park guide. Tomorrow we fly to the coast, so this is also a good evening to repack into the soft bag the regional flight prefers.

Compris

• Dawn half-day drive in Kruger in an open safari vehicle with a qualified field guide
• Kruger conservation fee
• Picnic breakfast in the park

Activités en option

• Sunset drive in Kruger with a park guide, where available for guests staying outside the park, priced at booking

Fly from the lowveld to the coast

Hazyview to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP), fly to Gqeberha (PLZ), then Addo

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Addo
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

An unhurried breakfast, then about 50 km and 45 minutes to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP) near Mbombela. From here we fly to Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport (PLZ) in Gqeberha, the city on Algoa Bay that was called Port Elizabeth until 2021. There is no direct service between the two, so the flight connects, usually through Johannesburg or Cape Town; it replaces two long road days that other trips spend crossing the country. Your See Sight Tours guide flies with the group and handles the connection, and you see the exact flights in your final itinerary. A driver meets us at PLZ for the drive of about an hour north to Addo Elephant National Park, where we stay at a lodge near the main gate.

Soir

We arrive in the late afternoon, in time for a walk around the grounds as the light goes, and dinner is at the lodge. Tomorrow starts early in the park.

Compris

• Transfer to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP)
• Flight from MQP to Gqeberha (PLZ), with a connection and checked baggage
• Transfer from PLZ to Addo
• Dinner at the Addo lodge

Addo at dawn, Tsitsikamma by evening

A guided drive in Addo Elephant National Park, then Jeffreys Bay and Storms River Mouth

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Storms River
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

At first light a field guide takes us out in an open vehicle for about three hours, when family groups come down to the waterholes; buffalo, zebra, kudu and warthogs are common, and watch the road for the flightless dung beetle, which has right of way.

Après-midi

Back at the lodge for breakfast, then past Gqeberha and west on the N2, about an hour and three quarters to Jeffreys Bay, the surf town, for a sit-down lunch near the beach. Another hour and a half brings us to Storms River Mouth in the Tsitsikamma section of the Garden Route National Park.

Soir

We walk the boardwalk trail through milkwood forest to the suspension bridge across the river mouth in the late afternoon, after most day visitors have gone, and stay the night nearby. With the dawn drive this is a full day: about 270 km and three and a half hours of driving in all.

Compris

• Dawn guided game drive in Addo in an open vehicle with a field guide
• Addo Elephant National Park conservation fee
• Sit-down lunch in Jeffreys Bay
• Storms River Mouth suspension bridge trail with your guide, Tsitsikamma entry included

Bloukrans, Robberg and on to Knysna

Storms River over the Bloukrans bridge to Nature's Valley and Plettenberg Bay, then Knysna

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

Matin

Early risers can walk back to the river mouth before breakfast, when the coast is empty. Then west on the N2 to the Bloukrans bridge, where we stop at the viewpoint above the gorge; the bridge carries a commercial bungee jump for anyone who wants it. A short detour drops through forest to Nature's Valley, a quiet lagoon and beach inside the national park. By mid-morning we are at Robberg Nature Reserve outside Plettenberg Bay, a narrow peninsula of sandstone cliffs where Cape fur seals haul out on the rocks below and dolphins pass offshore. The Gap circuit takes about an hour.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Plett, then half an hour on to Knysna, where we stay two nights by the lagoon.

Soir

We arrive mid-afternoon and the rest of the day is yours: the waterfront, the shops on the main street, or an early dinner of the town's oysters.

Compris

• Bloukrans bridge viewpoint
• Nature's Valley
• Walk in Robberg Nature Reserve with your guide, entry included
• Sit-down lunch in Plettenberg Bay

Activités en option

• Bloukrans bridge bungee jump, priced at booking

Knysna: the Heads and the lagoon

Knysna to the Eastern Head, then a cruise on the Knysna Lagoon

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

Soir

A slower day, and the second night in the same bed. After breakfast we drive up to the Eastern Head, one of the two sandstone cliffs that guard the narrow mouth of the Knysna Lagoon, to watch the Indian Ocean surge through the channel, and walk down to the rocks at its foot. Late morning we take a cruise on the lagoon, a sheltered estuary protected as part of the Garden Route National Park, out towards the Heads to see the channel from the water and back past the oyster beds and the wetland birds. Lunch is a sit-down meal at the waterfront, with Knysna oysters for anyone who wants them. The afternoon and evening are free. Walk the boardwalks at Thesen Island, browse the town, or join your guide for a walk in the old Knysna forest, where giant yellowwoods grow and a few elephants still roam, though they are rarely seen.

Compris

• Knysna Heads from the Eastern Head
• Cruise on the Knysna Lagoon
• Sit-down lunch at the Knysna waterfront

Over the Outeniqua Pass to the Cango Caves

Knysna to Buffalo Bay and Wilderness, over the Outeniqua Pass to Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Oudtshoorn
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Further west we stop at the lookout above Wilderness, where the rivers and lakes meet the sea, then take lunch at your own pace in the village. From George the road climbs the Outeniqua Pass, where the green forest of the coast gives way to the dry slopes of the Little Karoo, and drops into Oudtshoorn. In the afternoon we drive about 30 km up the Cango Valley to the Cango Caves, a limestone cave system in the foothills of the Swartberg, where a local guide leads the Heritage Tour, about an hour through great chambers of stalagmites and flowstone on lit paths with steps.

Soir

The evening is free in Oudtshoorn, among the sandstone mansions the ostrich-feather barons built before the First World War.

Compris

• Buffels Bay beach walk
• Wilderness lookout
• The Outeniqua Pass
• Cango Caves Heritage Tour with a local guide

Activités en option

• Ostrich farm visit (we do not include ostrich riding), priced at booking

Meerkats at sunrise, then the whale coast

Oudtshoorn to a meerkat burrow at sunrise, over the Robinson Pass to Mossel Bay, then Swellendam and Hermanus

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hermanus
• Environ 6 h de route

Matin

At sunrise we sit on folding chairs a few metres from the burrows of a family of wild meerkats, used to quiet visitors but never fed or handled, and watch them climb out, stand sentry and turn their bellies to the sun. The visit runs only in dry weather.

Soir

Back for breakfast, and then the longer of our two long road days, about 420 km and up to six hours of driving, split into three stretches of two hours or less; stopping in between would add another one-night hotel. Over the Robinson Pass to Mossel Bay for coffee by the sea, then west on the N2 to Swellendam, founded in 1745 and one of the oldest towns in the country, for a sit-down lunch. The last leg runs through the wheat country around Caledon and down the Hemel-en-Aarde valley to Hermanus. We arrive late afternoon, in time to walk the cliff path at dusk; from June to November southern right whales come into Walker Bay, often close to the rocks.

Compris

• Wild meerkat visit at sunrise with a local guide (dry weather only)
• Coffee stop in Mossel Bay
• Sit-down lunch in Swellendam
• Hermanus cliff path walk at dusk with your guide

Clarence Drive and Kirstenbosch into Cape Town

Hermanus along Clarence Drive (R44) to Gordon's Bay, then Kirstenbosch and Cape Town

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we head west along the coast through Kleinmond and Betty's Bay, then take Clarence Drive, the R44, which clings to the mountains above False Bay, with stops at the lookouts.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by the sea at Gordon's Bay. In the afternoon we cross the Cape Flats to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, which grows plants from across southern Africa, including proteas and the fynbos of the Cape. Walk the canopy walkway, known as the Boomslang, through the treetops, or sit on the lawns under the mountain. We reach our central Cape Town hotel by about 5 pm and stay four nights, so you unpack once.

Soir

The evening is free in the city.

Compris

• Early cliff path walk in Hermanus
• Clarence Drive (R44) along False Bay
• Sit-down lunch in Gordon's Bay
• Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, entry included

Activités en option

• Boat-based whale watching from Hermanus harbour, June to November, about 2 hours, priced at booking (instead of the early walk)

Table Mountain early, the Bo-Kaap at lunch

Central Cape Town to the Table Mountain cableway, then the Bo-Kaap

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

Matin

We are at the lower cable station for one of the first cars of the morning, around 8 am (a little later in winter), ahead of the queues and before the wind usually picks up. The rotating car climbs to the flat summit, more than 1,000 m above the sea, in about five minutes, and easy paths lead to views over the city, Robben Island and the Twelve Apostles running south down the Atlantic coast. If the cableway is closed for wind or cloud, we swap this morning with one of the next two days. Back down, a local guide walks us through the Bo-Kaap, the steep streets of brightly painted houses on the slopes of Signal Hill. This is the home of the Cape Malay community, whose ancestors were brought to the Cape from South and South East Asia from the 17th century, many of them enslaved.

Après-midi

Lunch is Cape Malay cooking in the neighbourhood.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are yours.

Compris

• Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, return ticket, at one of the first cars
• Bo-Kaap walk with a local guide
• Cape Malay lunch in the Bo-Kaap

Activités en option

• Robben Island tour from the V&A Waterfront (about 3.5 hours; book ahead; sailings are often cancelled by wind)

The Cape Peninsula: penguins and Cape Point

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

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

Après-midi

Lunch is fresh fish in Simon's Town. In the afternoon we drive back up the Atlantic side on Chapman's Peak Drive, with the sun on the cliffs, and are in Cape Town by late afternoon.

Compris

• Boulders Beach penguin colony, entry included
• Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain National Park entry
• Cape Point funicular
• Lunch in Simon's Town
• Chapman's Peak Drive (toll included)

The Winelands: Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

Cape Town to Franschhoek, over the Helshoogte Pass to Stellenbosch, and back to Cape Town

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

We leave 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.

Après-midi

We taste at one wine estate in the morning, then sit down to a long lunch in the valley; nobody in the group has to drive, so take your time. Non-drinkers get a grape juice or food pairing where the estate offers one. Mid-afternoon we cross the Helshoogte Pass to Stellenbosch, founded in 1679, and your guide walks you down oak-lined Dorp Street to the Braak, the old village green, past the Cape Dutch houses of the Village Museum. A second tasting at an estate outside town closes the afternoon.

Soir

Back in Cape Town by about 6 pm, we sit down together for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Huguenot Monument, Franschhoek
• Wine tasting at an estate in the Franschhoek valley
• Long sit-down lunch in Franschhoek
• Guided walk through old Stellenbosch: Dorp Street and the Braak
• Second wine tasting near Stellenbosch
• Farewell dinner in Cape Town

Depart from Cape Town

Central Cape Town to Cape Town International Airport (CPT)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

The last morning is free. Walk to the V&A Waterfront for a last look at Table Mountain over the harbour, wander the Company's Garden, or take a slow breakfast after a full sixteen days. Check-out is usually late morning, and the hotel can hold your bags.

Soir

A driver takes you the 20 km to Cape Town International Airport (CPT), about half an hour, at a time that suits your flight; your guide checks every departure the evening before. Most flights home connect through Johannesburg or a European or Middle Eastern hub, and a few fly direct to North America; book a flight leaving after about 1 pm so the morning is not a rush. If you want more time in the Cape, we can add nights in Cape Town or the winelands, or a few days on the Garden Route, and quote them when you request to book.

Compris

• Drop-off at Cape Town International Airport (CPT)