Grand Tour of South Africa

Fly overnight direct from London Heathrow to Johannesburg.

On arrival, transfer to Pretoria, its broad streets lined with thousands of jacaranda trees. View the historic heart of the city, Church Square, with its 19th-century statue of Paul Kruger; the Union Buildings, now best known for Nelson Mandela’s inauguration; and the huge Voortrekker Monument, crowning a hill just south of the city. Two nights at the 4-star Court Classique Hotel. Welcome dinner with a wine pairing. 
(D)

A full day tour in and around Johannesburg takes you to Soweto, to visit the Miliary Museum, the Hector Pietersen Memorial of the 1976 uprising, named for its first casualty, a 12-year-old boy; and Nelson Mandela’s House, his humble home until 1962, with memorabilia of his life.
(B, L)

Travel to Kruger National Park (8hrs), via the splendidly scenic Panorama Route, with a visit to God's Window and Gorge's Lift; and visit old-world Pilgrim’s Rest village, founded on gold-panning and now a national monument. Continue to Kruger for three nights at the 3-star Nkambeni Tented Lodge.
(B, D)

A fabulous full-day, open-vehicle game drive, with a ‘safari lunch’, in Kruger National Park. One of the largest game reserves on the continent, its reputation goes before it, but nothing prepares you for a first Kruger experience, where habitats range from mountains and cliffs to bush and tropical forest.
(B, L, D)

Home to hundreds of species of mammals and birds, including all of Africa’s Big Five, Kruger’s optional activities this morning include a game drive (£70) or bush walk (£80); with an included game drive in the afternoon. 
(B, D)

Depart to travel (6hrs) to the Kingdom of Eswatini. Just 200km long by 120 wide, the diminutive kingdom punches far above its weight, with mountains and savannahs, rain forests and river canyons within its landlocked borders. Enjoy a performance of local singing and dance, and visit the National Museum. Overnight at the 4-star Foresters Arms Country Lodge.
(B, L)

Visit the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, Eswatini’s most popular eco-destination; roamed by zebra, impala, warthog and wildebeest, home to baboons and vervet monkeys, and visited by hippos. Continue to a traditional village to meet the Lady Chief and enjoy a nature walk. Cross back to South Africa’s Zululand district (5hrs) along the scenic Lebombo Mountains, for two nights in Mkuze at the 4-star Ghost Mountain Inn.
(B, L, D)

A small town amid haunting scenery, Mkuze nestles between the river of the same name, and the legendary Ghost Mountain, said to hold the historic tombs of local chiefs. Visit a Zulu homestead and community. Enter Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Reserve for an afternoon game drive, where a rich variety of wildlife includes the white rhino.  (B, L, D)

Enjoy a morning cruise on Lake Jozini (aka the Pongolapoort Dam), a man-made structure, encircled by a game reserve, and home to hippos, crocodiles, tiger fish, and abundant birdlife. Continue to Dundee, set in the peaceful Biggarsberg Valley, but best known as a hub of battlefields. Visit Talana Museum, on the site of the first battle of the Anglo-Boer war; and enjoy a ‘braai’ (barbecue) at the MOTH (Memorable Order of Tin Hats) Hall, with battlefields artefacts and info from local experts. Two nights at the 3-star Battlefields Country Lodge.
(B, D)

Meet a specialist guide at Isandlwana, site of the Anglo-Zulu War’s opening encounter, and continue to Rorke’s Drift, scene of the dramatic 11hr battle between the British Redcoats and the Zulus, where a small but intriguing museum records the event.
(B, L, D)

With a specialist guide, and a minibus drive up into the Drakensberg, visit Spioenkop (Spy Hill), the small, flat, Boer battlefield described as An Acre of Massacre after the loss of hundreds of Lancashire infantrymen, their trench now a memorial to the fallen, their bravery immortalised by Liverpool FC in naming the ground’s grandstand ‘The Kop’. Overnight at the 4-star Cathedral Peak Hotel.
(B, D)

The ‘Mountains of Dragons’, the Drakensberg range may have been named for its multi-pointed silhouettes or for local “here be dragons” legends. Enjoy a morning at leisure here before making your way back to Johannesburg for your flight to Cape Town for three nights at the 4-star Pepper Club Hotel.
(B)

A coastal tour takes you from the Atlantic Seaboard and harbour village of Hout Bay to the sheer cliffs of Cape Point, marking the southwestern tip of the continent, and the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, home to mountain zebras and hundreds of bird species; and continues to Boulders Beach, with its colony of penguins; and the South African Naval Museum in Simon’s Town. Enjoy a Pan-African experience of food and traditional drumming at the renowned Gold Restaurant.
(B, D)

A tour of cosmopolitan Cape Town begins with Table Mountain, weather permitting (excludes cableway ticket), and visits Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, the cobbled streets and colourful houses of hillside Bo-Kaap, and 17th-century Castle of Good Hope, South Africa’s oldest surviving building. Walk through Company Gardens to the South Africa Museum; and take afternoon tea at the famous Mount Nelson Hotel, an oasis of calm, with the elegance of a bygone era. Enjoy a Cape Town Harbour cruise.
(B)

Travel to Oudtshoorn (6hrs), where old churches mingle with the ‘feather palace’ houses of merchants who made their wealth from ostrich feathers. Visit the CP Nel Museum, focused on the Karoo culture and historic ostrich trade; and the spectacular Cango Caves, their limestone caverns millions of years old. Two nights at the 3-star Protea Riempie Hotel.
(B)

A dramatic ascent of the Swartberg Pass, by special vehicle, takes you to the Ou Tolhuis base of the H.O.P.E Foundation for conservation and social upliftment; returning to the foot of the mountain for a Karoo lunch in rural Prince Albert; and including a wine tasting, and a visit to the Meiringspoort Great Waterfall, streaming down sixty metres of a smoothed-rock ravine.
(B, L)

Cross the Outeniqua Pass to visit the Transport Museum in George, celebrating the railway and age of steam with locomotives, carriages, and a photo gallery. Continue to the Garden Route town of Knysna, with its toes in the water of a harbour lagoon and its back against mountain foothills, for two nights at the 3-star Moorings Hotel. Enjoy a sunset lagoon cruise.
(B)

Explore the indigenous forests of coastal Tsitsikamma National Park, and visit the vibrant resort of Plettenberg Bay, its white sands, blue waters and green mountain surrounds epitomising the Garden Route.
(B)

At Mossel Bay, visit the Dias Museum complex, with its legendary ‘Post OfficeTree’, and travel to Hermanus, where Southern Right Whales are often sighted from June to November. Continue to the Cape Winelands and the small town of Franschhoek, backed by scenic mountains and encircled by some of South Africa’s finest vineyards, for three nights at the 4-star Le Franschhoek Hotel.
(B)

Visit the Huguenot Memorial to the French refugee settlers; and Stellenbosch, the centre of the South African wine industry, with a Village Museum of period houses depicting its Dutch colonial origins. Enjoy a wine tasting at Stark Conde and continue to the Eikendal Wine estate for a light lunch, followed by a wine tasting.
(B, L)

A leisurely day to enjoy picturesque Franschhoek, its tree-shaded streets sprinkled with curio shops, galleries, and restaurants; punctuated by a wine tasting visit to the Delaire Graff estate. Enjoy a special Farewell dinner at the hotel this evening.
(B, D)

Transfer to Cape Town Airport for the overnight return flight to London.
(B)

Arrival at London Heathrow.