would you recommend this trip
Thoughts about this trip and recommendations would greatly be appreciated. We are thinking of going early Sept. Thanks
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Thoughts about this trip and recommendations would greatly be appreciated. We are thinking of going early Sept. Thanks
Comments
Go for it! This is a fabulous tour with memorable experiences! We went with friends in early October a couple years ago and all of us loved it. We saw the Big Five numerous times (including mating leopards!) as well as other amazing animals. We absolutely loved the game drives and sundowners, and enjoyed viewing the animals at the watering hole from the lodges. This tour is a great mix of culture, history and wildlife/nature. I definitely recommend going early and visiting the Winelands (Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franschhoek). I’m happy to answer any specific questions you may have about it. This remains among our very favorite trips.
Yes, definitely go. We think this is an excellent mix of city (Capetown and J'burg), and the wild (4 days on safari). The accommodations are all first class and the guides are well versed in the environment. We saw lots of animals,too
KarenG, you will love this trip. buonviaggio describes it well. I went a day early and enjoyed touring Robben Island on my own after having read Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom”. Tauck no longer includes Robben Island in this tour, but I think it should not be missed. The Cape Grace has a lovely car service that took me downtown to shop at Tribal Trends, a really great place for good gifts. The Watershed has individual vendors and is right on the Victoria and Alfred waterfront. I found that place to be hit or miss, and please make sure you don’t get lost by exiting the wrong way. Tauck uses the One and Only Hotel nearby as one of its stops on the Botswana, Zambia, South Africa trip. The One and Only has a gorgeous bar with spectacular views of Table Mountain and Lion’s Head. Safari njema! 🦁🐘🦒🐆♥️
Which safari trip you take may depend on how much safari, and how much touring you want. The elegant adventure has the least safari, the Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa is half safari, and half touring. The Kenya and Tanzania: The Classic Safari is 100% safari … well … there is a little touring at Namanga when you stop at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club. I live near the California wine country, so I don’t need to fly twenty hours to drink wines that I would never buy at home. You might also consider ‘security’. I will not say any more than that.
I loved this trip, I made use of the Cape Grace car service which took me to the District 6 Museum(a must go place) and St. George's Cathedral, at the time I took this tour a visit to Robben Island was included. Also I arrived 2 days early and took a winery tour one day with Viator which included 3 vineyards and also a visit to Paarl
Hi, my wife and I did this trip in September. It was our first Africa tour and we loved every minute of it. I think September is a good time to go and you should have a great tour. The two lodges you stay at are close to each other and they use the safari vehicles to transfer you from the first to the second. It gets chilly on the early morning safaris and at the end of the evening tours. Both lodges give you blankets and one of them gives you a hot water bottle to use. If you can get to Capetown early, do so! Great to walk around, experience excellent dining options and nice wineries. i only shot 7,000 pictures and I am still picking out the best as they are all good. Have fun.
I agree with the others who recommend a visit to Robben Island. We did that, too, prior to the start of the tour, and it was so interesting and totally worth doing! We also took a private food tour of Cape Town which was a lot of fun (and delicious!) and provided insight into the culture and history of Cape Town and South Africa. We used the same company (Cape Fusion) to go to the Winelands, and it was customized to our tastes and interests. Lots of fun and gorgeous scenery. Enjoy!!
It must be about 16 years since we took this tour. It was our second time to Africa back then. Tauck only had this and the K and T tour to chose from at the time, we had taken the K and T. The tour is a good balance of culture and safari. The tour has changed a lot since then, ours included a tour of Robben Island, which was a highlight.
Kirstenbosch gardens was not included, we went there before the tour started and used the Cape Grace limo. You can spend hours there and it also had a nice gift shop.
One of our favorites we did before the tour was to visit the hospital where the first heart transplant was performed. The ticket included being picked up from the hotel.Then the driver stopped by the spot where the young girl was hit by a car, explaining about her family. Her heart was used. We went into the two actual adjoining operating rooms where the heart was taken from her and put into the man. They still smelt as if they were in use, I worked in O R’s on occasion. There are mock ups of the patient sitting in the bed and of the girl’s bedroom. If you are medically inclined, you can see the charts where his temperature was rising and they thought it was rejection when it was actually an infection. The surgeon, Christian Barnard became quite the celebrity. It is an interesting but fun museum..
Tauck took us to see a young dance group that performed Miner’s dances including in their big rubber boots, they performed all over the world, I guess they don’t go there any more.
Like SeaLord, I enjoy wine, but a vineyard is a vineyard and I would rather do something more unique about a country than visit one. Also, if you go in the South Africa winter, the vines will be bare. Tauck did take us to a winery for a wine paring dinner, the service was so slow that half of us had only just gotten dessert when we had to leave for the bus. Those of us affected were not happy
Cape Town is indeed a world favorite.