10-day Garden Route Tour

Welcome to Cape Town, South Africa. A qualified tour guide/driver will meet you in the arrivals terminal at Cape Town International Airport. He will be holding your name board for easy identification. Once contact has been made you will be assisted with your luggage and escorted to the awaiting vehicle. Soon you will be transferred to Table Bay Hotel your hotel in Cape Town or similar. Should you require any assistance with local sim cards, airtime, foreign exchange, etc., please speak to your tour guide/driver directly and he will be delighted to assist you. We wish you a pleasant stay in Cape Town.

You will be picked up at your accommodation at 8:00am by your tour guide/driver and travel to the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V & A Waterfront. (Please note that we only provide a transfer to the boat departures. Our tour guide/driver will not be accompanying you on the boat or at the island as there will be a site guide on the island who will give you a guided tour.) Here you will board the 9:00am ferry boat to Robben Island. The tour takes 3.5 hours including the ferry trip to and from the Island.

You will disembark at Murray’s Bay Harbour, situated on the east coast of the Island and take a short walk to buses that will transport you to all the historical sites around the Island. On the way to the buses, you will pass buildings and a high wall built by prisoners during the 1960s.The buildings were used for family and lawyer visits to prisoners. You will meet your tour guide when you have boarded the busses. The tour guides inside the prison are former political prisoners. They are fully conversant and knowledgeable about the Island’s multi-layered 500-year-old history. The tour route includes the graveyard of people who died from leprosy, the Lime Quarry, Robert Sobukwe’s house, the Bluestone quarry, the army and navy bunkers and the maximum-security prison where thousands of South Africa’s freedom fighters were incarcerated for years. The tour culminates with a viewing of Nelson Mandela’s cell.

After the tour, you will be met by your tour guide/driver and we will proceed on our city tour. We will begin with an optional stop at Afrogem to witness the production of fine African jewelry with a focus on rich gold, platinum, diamonds and tanzanite. Guests will be able to walk the working factory floor and purchase the jewelry directly.

From there your tour guide will transfer you to Table Mountain for a Table Mountain Cableway experience. Upon our return from the mountain, we embark on a tour of this historical city. We begin in the heart of the city in Adderley street where we will view historical monuments like Bartholomew Dias, Jan van Riebeeck and Zackarias Waganaer Reservoir. Thereafter we will see some heritage museums like the Slave Lodge and Cape Castle. We will see the City Hall and the Company Gardens and proceed past the House of Parliament. We stop at the Bokaap where we see the famous Colourful houses in the Cape Quarter and stop to take some photos. We proceed to the top of Signal Hill to admire the view of the City Bowl area including the Cape Town Stadium. You will be dropped off at your accommodation after the tour at approximately 18:00pm.

Your guide will pick you up at your accommodation at 9:00am (flexible time). We will travel along the Atlantic Seaboard, with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other and pass through Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay. Photo stop at Maiden’s Cove. From there we proceed past the 12 Apostles mountain range and Llandudno, and have our next stop in Hout Bay.

Here, guests can take a boat to Seal Island to view the seals, before heading to Chapman’s Peak drive, with an option of stopping at Cape Point Vineyard, known as the masters in producing the best white wines in South Africa especially Sauvignon Blanc. Ask for their flagship Sauvignon Blanc during your wine tasting and you will not be disappointed. You can also have a light lunch there.

From there, we proceed through Noordhoek with the option of stopping for the finest roasted coffee at The Village Roast on this route. We proceed to Boulder’s Beach to see the endangered African Penguins colony in their natural habitat. We then continue to the monument of Just Nuisance, the Great Dane dog who made his own history in the South African Navy in Simon’s Town.

Our next stop will be at the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and Cape Point Lighthouse. Please wear comfortable shoes and always bring a jacket. Ask your expert Cape Point tour guide to guide you along the safe hiking trails, should you be a keen hiker.

Lunch can be enjoyed at a restaurant of your choice. Once in the Cape of Good Hope Nature reserve, we explore the Dias cross and some fauna and flora and see the meeting point of the 2 currents: the cold Benguela Current and the warm Agulhas Current. You may also encounter some baboons and other wildlife. We advise our guests not to get too close to the baboons and avoid feeding them as these are wild animals and can therefore be dangerous.

Our return route we will stop at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Drop off at your hotel will be 18:00pm.

You will be picked up at your hotel by a qualified tour guide/driver at 09:00 and drive for approximately 20-minutes to one of the city’s oldest townships known to the locals as Langa (meaning ‘Sun’ in Xhosa).

Upon our arrival in this township, your driver will introduce you to the local site tour guide. The site guide will accompany you on a short walking tour (0.5 miles or less than a kilometer), affording opportunities to interact with locals. The walking portion will start at Gugasthebe, where various non-profit organizations teach skills to the local youth. You will visit what used to be a detention center during apartheid, before proceeding to the local shebeen or tavern. Here you will learn how the local beer, Umqombothi, is brewed, and enjoy a beer tasting with locals. This will be followed by a visit to the municipal beer hall.

Thereafter, you will visit the township’s entrepreneurial business women who prepare barbecue (braai) meat on the streets of Langa, old and new hostels to see the transformations done by the government in order to better residents’ living conditions, an area crèche, and a newer housing development. In Langa market, you will spend a few minutes with a traditional doctor, or Sangoma (optional). The walking township tour will end at the public library.

From here, we will drive through another scenic route via the Old Cape Road towards Stellenbosch along the coastal road of R 310. Our next winery will be Spier one of the founding members of the famous American Express wine route. Spier has been producing wines since 1691. You cannot go wrong with their quality wines. Here you can taste up to 7 wines, before heading towards Stellenbosch town where an overview history will be explained to you by your expert tour guide. Next on our list will be Asara, where you can have light lunch with more wine tasting up to 8 wines. Alternatively, we can visit the Delaire Graff Wine Estate, also known as the Jewel of the Cape winelands.

If you would like to have a proper lunch, we highly recommend one of the restaurants here, either Indochine (Indian, Chinese fusion) or the Delaire Graff Restaurant (Mediterranean). End the day with a cheese and wine tasting at Fairview winery and sample up to 7 wines with cheese – time permitting. Return to Cape Town via N2 and drop off at your Hotel no later than 18:00.

Prepare for an early morning pick up, usually around 06:00 am. As we head towards the town of Gansbaai, world-renowned for its shark diving facilities, enjoy a light breakfast upon arrival at the diving base and get an introductory briefing with the diving crew. Then we board the chartered boat for a thrilling cage diving adventure. Experience the unique sensation of coming up close to sharks in the complete safety of a cage.

There will be fresh towels and diving equipment will be provided on board the boat during the 3 to 4-hour experience, along with a dive certificate and DVD of the day upon your return to base. Upon our return to the base, we freshen up with a hot shower and clean towels. Then we set off to return to Cape Town.

Along the way, we stop in the town of Hermanus, known for its high plant diversity and whale watching activities. Guests will have the option to either taste regional wines at 2 wineries of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, or look for whales from the shore during whale watching season. Another option would be to enjoy a 3-course food and wine pairing lunch at Creation wine estate. Thereafter we continue through the small coastal village of Betty’s Bay, where you can see one of the largest penguin colonies of Cape Town at Stony Point. You will be dropped off at your accommodation at the end of the tour.

Guests will be collected at their accommodation at 7:00am by a qualified tour guide/driver in a luxury air-conditioned vehicle. We will travel along the scenic, mountainous N2 via Sir Lowry’s pass, through the apple growing region of Elgin and the wheat growing region of South Africa. Along this route we will pass through small towns like Caledon, Riviersonderend and Riversdale. There will be frequent comfort stops along the way.

We will stop in Albertinia at the Aloe Vera factory (20 minutes) for a complimentary cup of coffee and some shopping. From there we will proceed to Zorgfontein and walk with the lions (1 hour) for an experience of a lifetime. This will be followed by an optional lunch stop at Botlierskop Game Reserve.

From there we stop in Mossel Bay, where we will smell the Indian ocean for the first time. After this thrilling experience, you will check-in at your accommodation and freshen up. You will be taken for dinner in the evening. Thereafter, guests will be dropped off at their hotel/guest house for a good night’s rest

Guests will be collected at their accommodation after check-out and breakfast. Today we proceed to Oudtshoorn to embark on a guided tour of the Cango Caves and a stop at the Safari Ostrich Farm to have an encounter with the Ostriches.

Oudtshoorn is the Ostrich Capital of South Africa an not to be missed. From there we will depart for Knysna, passing through the scenic towns of George, Wilderness and Sedgefield. We will proceed on a scenic drive through Knysna to Plettenberg Bay, where we will visit the largest bird sanctuary in the southern hemisphere, Birds of Eden and also visit Monkey land sanctuary. From there we proceed to our accommodation in Knysna to freshen up and relax before dinner time. Guests will receive a dinner transfer by their tour guide

Guests will be collected at their accommodation after check-out and breakfast. Today we visit the Elephant Sanctuary (1hour). Here guests will be able to interact with the Elephants and Walk with them trunk in hand. From there we will continue the Tsitsikamma National Park. We proceed to the Storms River mouth and have lunch at the Cattle Baron there. After lunch we will embark on a guided walking tour of about 900 meters to the Hanging bridge. Returning from the bridge, we will travel for 4 hours to our accommodation in Addo Elephant National Park. We check in and guests will have dinner at Kuzuko.

Today guests will be picked up at Kuzuko and taken on a guided tour in the Addo National Park. This is an amazing opportunity to see so many Elephants and many other animals. At the end of the tour guests will return to Kuzuko.

Today guests will be picked up at Kuzuko and we will travel to Port Elizabeth Airport where we will drop off for guests departure.