Luxury holidays in South Africa
Track leopard in the Sabi Sand and finish the trip at a Cape Town table. We link the bush and the Cape with short flights, and book every lodge and transfer.
It comes off your final price, and is refunded in full if you don't go ahead.
South Africa is one of the easiest safaris to reach, with direct flights into Johannesburg from Europe, the Gulf and Australia. Within a day you can be in an open vehicle on a private reserve in the Sabi Sand, where rangers and trackers follow leopard off road and the Big Five are seen most days. In the red dunes of the Kalahari, meerkats and black-maned lions share the land.
Cape Town is where most trips finish, with Table Mountain above the city and the ocean on both sides of the peninsula. The winelands of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek are an hour inland, known for long lunches among the vines, and the Garden Route follows the coast past forests and lagoons. In spring, southern right whales calve close to shore at Hermanus and Walker Bay.
South Africa
12 days · 11 nights
Cape Town → Hermanus → Oudtshoorn → Knysna → Storms River → Cape St Francis → Port Elizabeth
Begin with four nights in Cape Town for the city, the Cape Peninsula and the Winelands. A guide then drives you east by way of Hermanus, Cape Agulhas, the Little Karoo, Knysna and the Tsitsikamma forest, with two quiet nights at Cape St Francis before you finish in Port Elizabeth.
South Africa
11 days · 10 nights
Cape Town → Victoria Falls → Johannesburg → Marakele National Park → Johannesburg
You begin in Cape Town with an early cable car up Table Mountain, dinner beside the shark tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium and the penguins of the Cape Peninsula. Victoria Falls brings a sunset Zambezi cruise, a private walk at the falls and an elephant encounter. You finish with four nights in Marakele National Park, joining vets on a rhino conservation experience.
South Africa
5 days · 4 nights
Cape Town
Stay in one Cape Town hotel for all four nights and head out each day with your own driver guide. One day is a food walk through historic Stellenbosch, the next a city day that ends cooking lunch with a Cape Malay family in the Bo-Kaap, and the third a coastal run of small producers ending with the penguins at Boulders Beach.
South Africa
9 days · 8 nights
Cape Town → Greater Kruger → Victoria Falls → Johannesburg
You begin with three days in Cape Town, riding up Table Mountain, walking the Bo-Kaap and driving Chapman's Peak to Cape Point. You then fly to a private reserve in Greater Kruger for three nights of game drives and bush walks. The trip ends at Victoria Falls, with a Zambezi cruise and a guided walk along the falls.
South Africa
12 days · 11 nights
Cape Town → Hermanus → Oudtshoorn → Knysna → Storms River → Port Elizabeth → Kariega Game Reserve → Port Elizabeth
Four nights in Cape Town cover the city, the Cape Peninsula and the Winelands. A guide then drives you along the Garden Route through Hermanus, Cape Agulhas, Oudtshoorn and Knysna to Port Elizabeth, and the journey ends with two nights at Kariega, a private Big Five reserve in the Eastern Cape.
South Africa
12 days · 11 nights
Kapama Private Game Reserve → Hazyview → Johannesburg → Knysna → Oudtshoorn → Montagu → Cape Town
Start with two nights at Kapama, a private reserve on the edge of Kruger, and the canyon views of the Panorama Route. A flight to George brings you to Knysna, then the road leads through the Little Karoo and the Winelands to three nights in Cape Town.
South Africa
12 days · 11 nights
Kapama Private Game Reserve → Hazyview → Johannesburg → Knysna → Oudtshoorn → Montagu → Cape Town
Start with two nights at Kapama, a private reserve on the edge of Kruger, and the canyon views of the Panorama Route. A flight to George brings you to Knysna, then the road leads through the Little Karoo and the Winelands to three nights in Cape Town. You drive yourselves throughout, with game drives and set activities booked for you.
South Africa
9 days · 8 nights
Kruger Mpumalanga Airport → Berg-en-Dal → Skukuza → Satara → Letaba → Hoedspruit
Collect a car at Kruger Mpumalanga airport and work your way north through the park, two nights at a time. You start in the granite hills of the south, move to Skukuza on the Sabie River and the open plains around Satara, and finish among the mopane woodland of Letaba before dropping the car at Hoedspruit.
South Africa
4 days · 3 nights
Johannesburg → Hazyview → Johannesburg
A short safari from Johannesburg airport, based for three nights at a lodge in Hazyview on the edge of Kruger. You go into the park three times with a ranger guide in an open vehicle, at sunset, for a full day and again at dawn, and spend one day on the viewpoints of the Blyde River Canyon.
South Africa
5 days · 4 nights
Cape Town
Four nights in one Cape Town hotel, with three days out in the company of a private driver-guide. You walk the city centre and the Bo-Kaap, travel through Langa and the Southern Suburbs to Groot Constantia, and spend a day among the Cape Dutch homesteads of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.
South Africa
10 days · 9 nights
Johannesburg → Livingstone → Victoria Falls → Chobe National Park → Okavango Delta → Maun
You meet in Johannesburg, then fly to Livingstone for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi and a morning of your choosing. A private guide shows you Victoria Falls before you move to Chobe for a river safari. You finish with four nights in the Okavango Delta, flying between two camps by helicopter.
South Africa
6 days · 5 nights
Durban → Hluhluwe-Imfolozi → Maputaland coast → Durban
From Durban you head north to the rhino country around Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, the oldest game reserve in South Africa, for two days of morning and evening game drives. The second half is spent at a beach lodge on the Maputaland coast, with snorkelling, forest walks and kayaking on Lake Sibaya at your own pace.
City, coast and bush days your travel expert can build around your safari.
Follow Chapman's Peak along the Atlantic cliffs to Cape Point, with stops for the penguins at Boulders Beach and lunch by the sea.
Take the ferry to the island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. Former prisoners often lead the tour of the cells.
See Nelson Mandela's office and archive at the foundation he set up after leaving the presidency, on a private visit.
Search for lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo with a ranger and tracker in the private reserve beside Kruger, known for close leopard sightings.
Lift off over the fynbos and land on a ridge above Misty Cliffs for a gin and tonic with views of two oceans.
Play a round on the course that borders Kruger, where hippos, antelope and buffalo often watch from the far bank.
Go underground at the Sterkfontein Caves, where some of the oldest human ancestor fossils were found, then see the displays at Maropeng.
Ride in the sidecar of a vintage motorcycle along the coast road towards Cape Point, stopping at the best lookouts.
Most trips split the nights between a private reserve and Cape Town, with the winelands or coast added if time allows.
Table Mountain, Cape Point and the winelands of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, a city with an ocean on two sides.
Big Five game drives in open vehicles, in Kruger National Park and the private reserves near Hazyview along its western edge.
A coastal drive past Knysna's lagoon, forests and beaches, with ostrich country and caves inland at Oudtshoorn.
The main gateway, with Soweto, the Apartheid Museum and a good first or last night between flights.
Port Elizabeth, now called Gqeberha, marks the end of the Garden Route, with Addo's elephants a short drive inland.
Many of our trips cross the border to the falls and to Botswana's Chobe and Okavango Delta.
In South Africa you can drive the Garden Route yourself, travel privately with your own guide or join a small group, and one private jet journey stops here too.
Your own guide between the winelands and the peninsula, with a driver for the tastings.
A few travellers and one guide on a route that joins Kruger country with Cape Town.
Drive the Garden Route yourself, on the left, with every lodge booked along the coast.
Open vehicles in the Sabi Sand, with a ranger and tracker who follow leopard off road.
May to September is the dry season for game viewing in the north, while the Cape is at its best from November to March.
Summer in Cape Town, hot and green in Kruger with afternoon storms.
Warm, dry Cape days and harvest time in the winelands.
Settled weather in the Cape and the end of the rains in Kruger.
Mild autumn in Cape Town, bush thinning out for game viewing.
Cool, clear days in Kruger as the dry season starts.
Winter rain in Cape Town, prime game viewing in Kruger.
Dry, cool bush and easy game spotting at Kruger waterholes.
Wildflowers begin on the West Coast, the Cape stays cool and damp.
Spring in the Cape, whales off the coast and dry bush in Kruger.
Warm days nationwide, newborn animals start to appear in the reserves.
Long Cape evenings and the first summer rains green up Kruger.
Summer holidays in Cape Town, book early for festive dates.
Johannesburg has direct flights from Europe, the Gulf and Australia, with connections onward across Africa.
Victoria Falls is under two hours by air from Johannesburg, and Namibia's dunes are a short flight north of Cape Town.
Tell us when you want to go, for how long and who is travelling. Your travel expert replies in writing with a trip shaped around you.
