Laid back and luxurious, this week-long trip will pamper your senses and your soul. Relax at an elegant wine farm over-looking the gorgeous Franschhoek valley and visit the world famous winelands. Watch the whales and enjoy a private beach within a nature reserve. Then share the hospitality, fine food, friendliness, interesting sights and diversity of Cape Town, South Africa's Mother City.
'This Cape is
the most stately thing and the fairest Cape we saw in the
whole circumference of the earth.'
-Sir Francis Drake, The Golden Hind,
1580
DURATION
7 days, 6 nights.
BEST TIME
Year round. The Cape has a
mediterranean climate which has patches of warm, sunny and
cold, rainy weather in winter (May - August), and hot, dry
summers (November - March). The whale season is from August
to December.
DAY 1 & 2 FRANSCHHOEK
After being met at the friendly
Cape Town International Airport, we take a scenic drive
over Sir Lowry's pass to Franschhoek ('French corner').
On the way you will see pristine mountain fynbos, the unique
vegetation of the Cape floral kingdom. Your first night
in Africa is spent at a charming wine farm in this picturesque
valley. Franschhoek was settled by the French Huguenots
in the 1688 and is known as the gourmet capital of the Cape.
Spend time at your leisure in the village and wine tasting
at a couple of Franschhoek's twenty-one wine farms. You
may wish to walk or mountain bike in the beautiful mountains.
DAY 3 & 4 DE
HOOP WHALE WATCHING
After breakfast we head to the
coast for some whale watching. Lekkerwater is a large comfortable
thatched house within the De Hoop Nature Reserve that has
nine kilometers of private beach on each side and a superb
whale watching deck. More than a hundred Southern Right
whales return to the waters of De Hoop every year to calve
and mate. Other whales that visit these waters are the Humpback
whale and Bryde's whale. Seals and dolphins may also be
seen. This is also a good place to see African black oyster
catchers (coastal birds) and Cape vultures. The house is
the only one on this stretch of coast and being rented to
one group at a time, you can enjoy a couple days of complete
tranquility. Home-cooked three-course dinners including
a 'braai' (South African barbecue) will be prepared for
you.
DAY 5, 6 &
7 CAPE TOWN
After breakfast we leave the
wilderness for Cape Town.
Stay at your choice of one of Cape Town's attractive and luxurious guesthouses or hotels.
DAY 8 DEPARTURE
This safari can be linked with
the Gold Trail for a fuller South African safari experience and the possibility
of viewing the 'Big Six' - lion, leopard, rhino,
elephant, buffalo and whale
ITINERARY SUGGESTIONS:
ART SAFARIS
• Cape
to Karoo Art Safari
• Mpumalanga
Art Trail
PHOTOGRAPHIC WILDLIFE SAFARIS WITH SOME SPORTY OPTIONS
• Cape
Peninsula Tour
• Western
Cape Tour
• Wine and Whale Tour
• Cape
to Kalahari Safari
• Kruger
to KwaZulu-Natal
• South
African Safari
• Activities
in the Cape Town Area
• Activities
in the Gauteng Area
Click here to email Vanessa to learn more about the following:
HARD CORE HIKING TRIPS
• Cederberg
Mountains
• Drakensberg
Mountains
• The
Whale Trail
• The
Otter Trail
MOUNTAIN BIKING TRIPS BY REQUEST