British asked for a review of this tour since we are just over two weeks from having done it. Here are some highlights. The first hotel is the well discussed Cape Grace. It’s a wonderful hotel, and the Table Mountain View side is worth the extra money. Even if the mountain is clouded in, as often happens, the room will still be overlooking the harbor. One of our fellow travelers didn’t pay for the upgrade and was bothered by noise coming in from the working shipyard on the other side of the hotel. If one has an extra day or two here, the Robben Island experience is both interesting and a great way to get introduced to SA’s dark period of apartheid which comes into discussion at several points along the tour. The high tea here is “cheap” as is dining all over SA. For about $100 US four of us had a wonderful experience in the Cape Grace library enjoying it. The one option you’ll have in Cape Town is doing the Zeitz Museum, a short walk from the hotel. The building itself is fascinating as it once was a grain silo, but the museum was unanimously voted by our entire group as “a waste of time”. The V&A waterfront has numerous good restaurants and lots of good shops for local items as well as anything else you might need. The Tauck excursions in and around Cape Town are all good. We loved the penguins!
The first stop from there is at Lion Sands. Our group was small, so we all stayed at the Tinga Lodge. The staff is welcoming and the rooms are incredible. We were in #8 which affords a great view of the Sabi River and bush area. As we first entered it, we saw giraffe and elephants right off of our deck. The deck is very private with its own soaking tub, and the room has glass all the way along the river side. We saw game almost every time we were in the room. I watched a herd of elephants as I showered. The room is stocked with wines, liquors, and other drinks which are all inclusive. The game drives were wonderful and seeing the Big Five should come easy as we did so on multiple outings here and at Sabi Sabi. By the way, the intra-tour flight here, and all others to follow, was seamless. Tauck did it’s usual great job of handling the luggage, making check in and everything else easy.
After our last morning game drive at Lion Sands, the group was driven to Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge. This too is a great place, but as it’s significantly larger than Lion Sands, it has a slightly less personal touch feel. The rooms are less private, but nevertheless very nice. Again, the mini bar is well stocked and included. You’re less likely to see animals from your room here, but the watering hole off the central lodge area will give you lots of game viewing opportunities. The game drives here were great too with another Big Five sighting. Do the walking in the bush option. It’s fun, educational, and seeing game might happen. We got pretty close to some zebra.
Another easy flight gets you to Jo-burg. Tauck has a person meet the groups here. She manages the baggage porters and will lead the group and porters to an awaiting bus. The Fairlawns hotel is quite beautiful and is in the corporate part of the area in Sandton City. The Apartheid Museum tour was incredible and added to our learning experience on apartheid. Meeting Antoinette Petersen there was a moving experience for me and others. You’ll have a free afternoon here. The hotel has a driver who can take you somewhere and pick you up. I used to travel regularly to Sandton City and am familiar with the Sandton City Mall and Mandela Square, so we all went there. These are intermingled and offer a multitude of good restaurants and upscale shops. It’s a safe area and is worth a visit if to do no more than to eat while overlooking the square while people watching. Some have complained about food service at the hotel. We had no problems here in that regard and found the Fairlawn experience to be a good one.
Another seamless airport experience, thanks to Tauck and the staff they hire, took us to Vic Falls. Your TD will give you cash and directions to get the visa you’ll pay for at passport control. The town of Vic Falls is not much more than a one intersection village with a few buildings and an old railway station. The hotel is quite grand, the grounds are beautiful, our meals here were good, but we found the room to be very dated and less inviting than all those which preceded it. We were cautioned here to avoid the tap water. Even in the bush we felt safe using tap water to brush our teeth. They ozonate the water in the bush, an effective purifying process. We did avoid the Vic Falls water. I’ll add that no one in our trip experienced gastric problems at least while we were together. We agreed as a group to rise early enough to experience sunrise at the falls. If given this option, do it!! The sunset cruise was fun and we got to see more hippos and several crocs along the way. The elephant sanctuary visit was wonderful!! You’ll get to pet and feed them. And our lunch there was quite nice.
The trip back to Jo-burg was again seamless. Once again, you’ll be met by someone to coordinate your bags and line up a porter to get you to your check in area for your flight home. I think we were at the airport by around 3 pm allowing plenty of time for check in, security checks, and lounge time prior to the late departures from there. The airport has a lot of nice shops for last minute gift buying or whatever else one might fancy.
I can’t not mention our fabulous TD Barbara Hartmann. She was top shelf in every regard as we generally experience with Tauck. For those with this trip upcoming, feel free to ask questions. I’ll monitor this site to see if any come that I can handle.
British, though the first posting in this string was about An Elegant Adventure, I think you might have been talking about a different one. I just noticed the heading of this grouping. My review might not have been what you expected. My apologies.
Hello Mike. Your review was wonderful , but yes, I was expecting a review about the new Botswana tour. But your review brought back happy memories of when we took Elegant South Africa, the tour you were talking about. We took it about 2007. The itinerary has changed a lot since then.
Thanks for the review, Mike. After having such an incredible experience on our recent K/T tour, we definitely want to return to see a different part of Africa. Therefore, we are planning on taking Elegant Adventure in September 2024.
Mike, as I was reading this I thought...this sounds like An Elegant Adventure...and lo and behold, it was! We went on this trip in 2013...loved it and fun to read about it again!
thank you mike for your wonderful detailed commentary
I am looking forward to my trip on october 12. - this will be my 20th tauck tour-
i will be at cape grace for 2 extra nights so i will ask for the good location
I was hoping that you might be able to tell me about how the women dress in capetown- and the other places when not on safari - thank you so much. looking forward to loving this trip
I was on the K-T Africa trip in 2014 and that was by far the most exciting of my many wonderful tauck tours
You can wear anything you’re comfortable in that’s weather appropriate. No one was particularly dressy in Cape Town outside of meals at the hotel. Once in Jo- burg at the Fairlawns, the meal there was a little dressier as was the farewell dinner in the Livingstone Dining Room at the Vic Falls Hotel. Otherwise very casual was the rule.
Comments
Yes they do but it may be spotty.
ilene, I loved this trip and had no problems with WiFi while in Kruger.
Hi ilene - i am doing that trip starting October 12. Another friend is coming too.we arrive oct 10
Just back from this trip. We had adequate Wi-Fi in both bush lodges.
Mike, would you consider reviewing the tour or giving tips here on the forum as it is a fairly new tour and I don’t think there have been any reviews.
British asked for a review of this tour since we are just over two weeks from having done it. Here are some highlights. The first hotel is the well discussed Cape Grace. It’s a wonderful hotel, and the Table Mountain View side is worth the extra money. Even if the mountain is clouded in, as often happens, the room will still be overlooking the harbor. One of our fellow travelers didn’t pay for the upgrade and was bothered by noise coming in from the working shipyard on the other side of the hotel. If one has an extra day or two here, the Robben Island experience is both interesting and a great way to get introduced to SA’s dark period of apartheid which comes into discussion at several points along the tour. The high tea here is “cheap” as is dining all over SA. For about $100 US four of us had a wonderful experience in the Cape Grace library enjoying it. The one option you’ll have in Cape Town is doing the Zeitz Museum, a short walk from the hotel. The building itself is fascinating as it once was a grain silo, but the museum was unanimously voted by our entire group as “a waste of time”. The V&A waterfront has numerous good restaurants and lots of good shops for local items as well as anything else you might need. The Tauck excursions in and around Cape Town are all good. We loved the penguins!
The first stop from there is at Lion Sands. Our group was small, so we all stayed at the Tinga Lodge. The staff is welcoming and the rooms are incredible. We were in #8 which affords a great view of the Sabi River and bush area. As we first entered it, we saw giraffe and elephants right off of our deck. The deck is very private with its own soaking tub, and the room has glass all the way along the river side. We saw game almost every time we were in the room. I watched a herd of elephants as I showered. The room is stocked with wines, liquors, and other drinks which are all inclusive. The game drives were wonderful and seeing the Big Five should come easy as we did so on multiple outings here and at Sabi Sabi. By the way, the intra-tour flight here, and all others to follow, was seamless. Tauck did it’s usual great job of handling the luggage, making check in and everything else easy.
After our last morning game drive at Lion Sands, the group was driven to Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge. This too is a great place, but as it’s significantly larger than Lion Sands, it has a slightly less personal touch feel. The rooms are less private, but nevertheless very nice. Again, the mini bar is well stocked and included. You’re less likely to see animals from your room here, but the watering hole off the central lodge area will give you lots of game viewing opportunities. The game drives here were great too with another Big Five sighting. Do the walking in the bush option. It’s fun, educational, and seeing game might happen. We got pretty close to some zebra.
Another easy flight gets you to Jo-burg. Tauck has a person meet the groups here. She manages the baggage porters and will lead the group and porters to an awaiting bus. The Fairlawns hotel is quite beautiful and is in the corporate part of the area in Sandton City. The Apartheid Museum tour was incredible and added to our learning experience on apartheid. Meeting Antoinette Petersen there was a moving experience for me and others. You’ll have a free afternoon here. The hotel has a driver who can take you somewhere and pick you up. I used to travel regularly to Sandton City and am familiar with the Sandton City Mall and Mandela Square, so we all went there. These are intermingled and offer a multitude of good restaurants and upscale shops. It’s a safe area and is worth a visit if to do no more than to eat while overlooking the square while people watching. Some have complained about food service at the hotel. We had no problems here in that regard and found the Fairlawn experience to be a good one.
Another seamless airport experience, thanks to Tauck and the staff they hire, took us to Vic Falls. Your TD will give you cash and directions to get the visa you’ll pay for at passport control. The town of Vic Falls is not much more than a one intersection village with a few buildings and an old railway station. The hotel is quite grand, the grounds are beautiful, our meals here were good, but we found the room to be very dated and less inviting than all those which preceded it. We were cautioned here to avoid the tap water. Even in the bush we felt safe using tap water to brush our teeth. They ozonate the water in the bush, an effective purifying process. We did avoid the Vic Falls water. I’ll add that no one in our trip experienced gastric problems at least while we were together. We agreed as a group to rise early enough to experience sunrise at the falls. If given this option, do it!! The sunset cruise was fun and we got to see more hippos and several crocs along the way. The elephant sanctuary visit was wonderful!! You’ll get to pet and feed them. And our lunch there was quite nice.
The trip back to Jo-burg was again seamless. Once again, you’ll be met by someone to coordinate your bags and line up a porter to get you to your check in area for your flight home. I think we were at the airport by around 3 pm allowing plenty of time for check in, security checks, and lounge time prior to the late departures from there. The airport has a lot of nice shops for last minute gift buying or whatever else one might fancy.
I can’t not mention our fabulous TD Barbara Hartmann. She was top shelf in every regard as we generally experience with Tauck. For those with this trip upcoming, feel free to ask questions. I’ll monitor this site to see if any come that I can handle.
British, though the first posting in this string was about An Elegant Adventure, I think you might have been talking about a different one. I just noticed the heading of this grouping. My review might not have been what you expected. My apologies.
Hello Mike. Your review was wonderful , but yes, I was expecting a review about the new Botswana tour. But your review brought back happy memories of when we took Elegant South Africa, the tour you were talking about. We took it about 2007. The itinerary has changed a lot since then.
Thanks for the review, Mike. After having such an incredible experience on our recent K/T tour, we definitely want to return to see a different part of Africa. Therefore, we are planning on taking Elegant Adventure in September 2024.
Mike, as I was reading this I thought...this sounds like An Elegant Adventure...and lo and behold, it was! We went on this trip in 2013...loved it and fun to read about it again!
thank you mike for your wonderful detailed commentary
I am looking forward to my trip on october 12. - this will be my 20th tauck tour-
i will be at cape grace for 2 extra nights so i will ask for the good location
I was hoping that you might be able to tell me about how the women dress in capetown- and the other places when not on safari - thank you so much. looking forward to loving this trip
I was on the K-T Africa trip in 2014 and that was by far the most exciting of my many wonderful tauck tours
You can wear anything you’re comfortable in that’s weather appropriate. No one was particularly dressy in Cape Town outside of meals at the hotel. Once in Jo- burg at the Fairlawns, the meal there was a little dressier as was the farewell dinner in the Livingstone Dining Room at the Vic Falls Hotel. Otherwise very casual was the rule.