11 days Cape Town - Johannesburg - Kruger Park
Cape Town 4 nights - Johannesburg 3 nights - Kruger Park 3 nights
PART ONE. CAPE TOWN
Day One. Welcome to Cape Town
You’ll be collected at the airport and transferred to your hotel. There’s just one commitment today, which is your welcome dinner and programme briefing, which will take place at your hotel or a nearby restaurant.
Dinner and drinks at dinner included.
Day Two. City Origins & Table Mountain
Today we dive into the city’s origins stories.
Your guide collects you after breakfast, at a leisurely hour, to begin exploring the city.
We like to begin at the top, with an aerial view over the city geographically, and historically, from Table Mountain. In the late morning we descend into the city, and explore on foot the history of the city, from its indigenous origins, through colonial rule, apartheid and democracy.
Key visits include the Slave Lodge and the District Six Museum. The day ends with an engagement with a Capetonian of indigenous descent who provides insights into the indigenous city, cultural practice and expression.
The story of Cape Town is a story of fresh water, and fresh produce. Today traces these origins all the way through to our present situation, linking food and identity and the state of our ecology to these origins and layers of indigenous, colonial, apartheid and democratic rule.
You’ll sample local snacks, and we’ll have lunch at one of our favourite eateries.
Table Mountain cableway tickets, all entrance fees, hosting fees and lunch are included.
Day Two. Evening Jazz Safari
At 1900 your guide will collect you for your Cape Town Jazz Safari.
Tonight you will visit two different Cape Town musicians in their homes, one for a home-cooked dinner and a concert, and the other for a nightcap concert.
Cape Town is an incredibly musical city. This is the city where music is at its most creative in South Africa, something which is due partly to the natural environment we have, which encourages creativity, but mainly it is because of the history of the city and the diversity of people and cultures and sounds that have ended up here.
On this special music journey we are going to travel deep inside the jazz music of the city, by visiting local jazz musicians in their homes.
Part one is a visit to the home of a jazz musician for dinner, with music and conversation, and part two is a visit either to the home of a second musician for a nightcap, or to a jazz venue for the late set.
The experience is intimate and deep, full of music and engagement and fun. It is a unique opportunity to meet local musicians away from club stages, and an excellent way to discover more about Cape Town and the lives of the people that live in it – through the music.
Our hosts include will Cape Town musicians young and old, all of them composers and performers. These are the musicians defining the sound of the city.
Includes dinner, hosting fees, local beers with dinner
Day Three. Khwa Ttu San Culture Estate and Lagoon Kayaking
Today we travel westward geographically, and simultaneously, backward in time.
The Cape West Coast is a region excellent for exploring indigenous narratives, natural eco-systems, environmental justice, excellent indigenous cuisine, and nature adventures.
The focus of the day is the Khwa Ttu San Culture Estate, a centre of excellence in history, architecture, cuisine and experience.
You will meet people of indigenous origins, and learn about the language and history of the KhoeKhoe and San. You’ll tour the estate, learning the ways of indigenous people in the wild. You’ll taste wild teas, and fine dining takes on indigenous cuisine and ingredients.
After lunch you’ll head to the West Coast National Park for a kayaking experience on the beautiful blue Langebaan Lagoon.
Includes all entrance fees, lunch with drinks, tea tasting and a tour of the estate, kayaking experience
Day Four. City Futures, plus e-Biking over Chapmans Peak
On this journey to the future of the city today, you’ll meet entrepreneurs and community activitists who are challenging and changing the business narrative, and challenging notions of economic and cultural power in the city.
You’ll learn about how environmental management, land justice and social transformation are being addressed through a mix of social enterprise development and community organising.
You’ll glimpse alternative community investment initiatives, and you’ll sample township cuisine in a local home restaurant.
After lunch you’ll rest at the hotel before your sunset e-bike ride over that most famous of mountain passes, Chapman’s Peak.
You’ll transfer from the hotel to Hout Bay where you pick up your e-bikes. You ride over Chapman’s Peak, with the most extraordinary views, to Noordhoek, where you stop for a drink at a local entertainment hub.
Then it’s back on the bikes and back over the pass for dramatic sunsets.
It’s an e-bike, so the ride is easy enough – lightly challenging, with moments of super-power.
Includes all hosting and any entrance fees, lunch, e-bike ride, drink during e-bike ride stop
Day Five. The Colour of Wine Safari. Fly to Johannesburg.
Your last day in Cape Town is a deep dive into wine. You’ll check out of the hotel and your bags will travel with us, the tour ends at the airport for your flight to Johannesburg.
Drawing inspiration from the book and the film, the Colour of Wine Safari is an intimate full day engagement with black wine makers and wine brands in the Western Cape, telling the remarkable story of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy through the personal journeys of black winemakers.
The experience gives a taste of the changing world of South African wine. The day begins with a private tasting, perhaps with Nondumiso Pikashe of Ses’fikile Wines, or Rosemary Mosia of Bridge of Hope, or with Luther Maridade at Novel Wine.
Then we visit the Wine Shaq in Langa, where wine entrepreneur Nomhle Zondani presents a tasting of 5 different black owned wine brands, and the stories of the people behind the brands. She also introduces guests to traditional African ferments, including drinks like umqhomboti and mageu, and their links to traditional practice and wine culture. A traditional isiXhosa lunch spread is served, over which guests enjoy glasses of their favourite wines from the tasting session.
The tour then moves finally to the Stellenbosch Winelands where we finish with the more traditional aspects of the wine industry, but focused on estates that are black owned, or where the wine is made by a black winemaker.
It’s an immersive full day wine experience that provides a sense of how a new generation of winemakers and wine entrepreneurs are reshaping the wine industry in their own image.
At the airport, enjoy some light dinner at your own expense, and once in Johannesburg, you will transfer to your hotel.
All tastings, lunch, and wine enjoyed with lunch included. Domestic flight to Johannesburg included. Dinner excluded.
PART TWO. JOHANNESBURG
Day Six. City and Soweto Tour
Johannesburg is such a great city to connect with, full of brilliant people, innovation, deep history and so much surprise.
Today is build around food, art, and political and social history.
We start with a tour of Ponte Tower, the city’s tallest building with a wild history that provides so much insight in Johannesburg’s story. From the 51st floor we can map the city historically and spatially before we get into it deeply.
From Ponte, we head to Newtown to unpack more of the city through street art, before crossing into neighbouring Fordsburg to start sampling the many different types of food that tell the story of the city.
Then we head to Soweto to sample traditional dishes at Cafe Bohemia, with your hosts Kagiso and Mphiri, and a visit to the Credo Mutwa Village. We finish the day with a visit to Mandela’s Soweto house, which is now a museum.
We head back to the hotel for around 18h00.
After some time to relax, we head to dinner. Tonight’s dinner is a very special experience, dining at the Insight’s restaurant at Sanctuary Mandela. Sanctuary Mandela is a boutique hotel in the house that Nelson Mandela lived in as president. The restaurant, Insights, is run by the chef that cooked for Mandela’s all the way to the end of his life. This dinner is made particularly special by featuring a special guest who will share stories of the city, coming out of Mandela’s legacies.
All entrance fees, hosting fees and meals included, also dinner (set menu), with drinks
Day Seven. Human Origins
Today’s exploration, linking in to the Khwa Ttu day in Cape Town, goes way back to the origins of humanity, facilitated by two key Joburg spaces: the WITS Origins Centre in Braamfontein, part of WITS university, and the Maropeng Cradle of Humankind, a paleoanthropological site and home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world.
A specialist will join us for the day, demystifying both human and geographical origins in the region.
We will have lunch at the excellent farm to fork restaurant The Culinary Table.
Dinner tonight at the hotel or at your leisure at a nearby restaurant.
All entrance fees included, lunch and dinner excluded.
PART THREE. KRUGER PARK
Day Eight - Day Eleven.
You’ll check out and transfer to the airport to fly into Kruger Park.
There are two options for this part of the journey:
Kruger Shalati – the Train on the Bridge is one of a handful of black owned safari lodges in South Africa, located in the south of Kruger Park. The property speaks directly to social justice and transformation, while offering a five star wildlife safari experience. Shalati is a train on a bridge converted into exquisite rooms each one with floor to ceiling views across the Sabie River. You fly into Skukuza Airport and then a ten minute drive to the lodge.
Umlani is a small, family owned Fair Trade Certified lodge in the north of Kruger Park. Where Shalati is superbly designed contemporary African chic by young designers, integrated into the bush, Umlani is a rustic eco-lodge that is very close the ground, while maintaining luxurious refinement. You fly to Hoedspruit airport, and then drive about an hour to the lodge.
You spend three nights, enjoying game drives in the early morning and late afternoon.
You will also visit a local village close to the lodges and immerse in the life of a small rural South African village.
All meals and drinks are included, as are the game drives. Flights and transfers by road also included
Day Eleven. Fly home
After a morning game drive and breakfast, you transfer to the airport and fly to OR Tambo International in Johannesburg for your flight home.
Flights back to OR Tambo as well as road transfers included
ACCOMMODATION
Cape Town
Vineyard Hotel
The city’s leading hotel in sustainable practice, located in Claremont within walking distance of Cavendish Square and a wide range of restaurants and bars.
Cape Heritage Hotel
A beautiful boutique heritage hotel in the heart of the historic centre of the city, that is involved in local projects to support childhood development.
Point B Guesthouse
A very small Fair Trade certified property in Green Point, black owned, and walking distance to restaurants and bars and even the V&A Waterfront. This property works well when the group takes its 7 rooms over completely.
Victoria & Alfred Hotel
Experience history and modern luxury at the Victoria & Alfred Hotel. Enjoy Cape Town’s allure with harbor and Table Mountain views from its prime V&A Waterfront location.
Johannesburg
The Peech Hotel
One of the city’s finest boutique hotels, and with excellent sustainable practices, located in Melrose.
Sanctuary Mandela
The house that Nelson Mandela lived in as president has been converted into a nine room boutique hotel. The experience of staying here is very special without being pastiche, homely without overbearing.
Radisson Red
Our favourite Radisson Red in the country, located Rosebank in a thriving urban precinct with some of the finest restaurants in the country on the doorstep. This is a design led hotel, that feels very African contemporary and global at the same time.
The Catalyst Hotel
One of Sandton’s premium apartment hotels, The Catalyst Hotel, in the heart of Johannesburg’s most sought-after business-and-leisure district. The hotel strikes the perfect balance between offering sophisticated business facilities and leisure amenities with a polished aesthetic.
Kruger Park
Kruger Shalati. The Train on the Bridge
One of only a handful of black owned safari lodges in South Africa, located in the south of Kruger Park. The property speaks directly to social justice and transformation, while offering a five star wildlife safari experience. Shalati is a train on a bridge converted into exquisite rooms each one with floor to ceiling views across the Sabie River. You fly into Skukuza Airport and then a ten minute drive to the lodge.
Umlani Lodge
Umlani is a small, family owned Fair Trade Certified lodge in the north of Kruger Park. Where Shalati is superbly designed contemporary African chic by young designers, integrated into the bush, Umlani is a rustic eco-lodge that is very close the ground, while maintaining luxurious refinement. You fly to Hoedspruit airport, and then drive about an hour to the lodge.
Motswari Private Game Reserve
Immerse yourself in an African dream at Motswari Private Game Reserve. Expect warm hospitality, extraordinary scenery and unforgettable viewing opportunities, including the chance to spot the Big Five. Motswari means “to conserve and protect” in Tswana, which is exactly what the team is committed to doing.