Garden Route holiday, tailormade
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | Garden Route, Western Cape, Eastern Cape |
| departures: | This trip can be arranged at any time to suit you and adapted to your requirements as necessary |
| price: | From £1630 (12 days) excluding flights. In order for us to put together a detailed response it would be very helpful if you could provide full details in your enquiry as listed below |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
read 2 travellers reviews
the amazing things you'll be doing
A winning combination, based on self-drive, but using guides wherever they will add to your experience if you wish. We'’ve also based this on some gorgeous and interesting places to stay. If you wish to make the trip even more fair trade based, ask about using Hazel's Homestays in Oudtshoorn!
Working your way from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth (or the other way), you will see the sights of one of Africa's most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities, the winelands with their stunning scenery and fantastic food and wines and the pretty coastal villages and parks of the Garden Route, before a few days of safari at the end.
This is purely a suggested itinerary based on the most popular places to see, the list of accommodation choices is huge and these are just some of the options. Ask us for recommendations and a tailor made quotation.
Highlights: Cape Town and its amazing beaches, table mountain, penguins, botanical gardens and more! Winelands with fantastic food and drink and great walking country. The Garden Route and pretty coastal locations. Malaria free safari experience in the reserves of the Eastern Cape.
Working your way from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth (or the other way), you will see the sights of one of Africa's most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities, the winelands with their stunning scenery and fantastic food and wines and the pretty coastal villages and parks of the Garden Route, before a few days of safari at the end.
This is purely a suggested itinerary based on the most popular places to see, the list of accommodation choices is huge and these are just some of the options. Ask us for recommendations and a tailor made quotation.
Highlights: Cape Town and its amazing beaches, table mountain, penguins, botanical gardens and more! Winelands with fantastic food and drink and great walking country. The Garden Route and pretty coastal locations. Malaria free safari experience in the reserves of the Eastern Cape.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive Cape Town. Arrive Cape Town and transfer to your guest house. Free afternoon. |
| Day 2: | Cape Peninsular. Full day guided tour of Cape Peninsular. (B) |
| Day 3: | Jonkershoek Valley. Your hire car is delivered today. Leave the city and head out into the winelands. Pass through Stellenbosch centre and continue to the Jonkershoek Valley. (B) |
| Day 4: | Winelands. A day to explore the Winelands. (B) |
| Day 5: | Hermanus. Travel the scenic road to Hermanus. Your afternoon is free. There is quite a lot to do and see here including several art galleries and craft shops. It's also an excellent place for whale watching (seasonal) (B) |
| Day 6: | Oudtshoorn. Take the scenic Route 62 to Oudtshoorn, where we recommend a stay at Hazel’s Homestay. (B) |
| Day 7: | Oudtshoorn - Tstitsikamma. Maybe visit some of Oudtshoorn'’s attractions, such as the Cango Caves, before heading out down the spectacular Outeniqua Pass to George and onto Knysna and Tstitsikamma. (B) |
| Day 8: | Tsitsikamma/Plettenberg Bay. A day to explore the Tsitsikamma/Plettenberg Bay area. Take a Storms River adventure or hike or just relax. (B) |
| Day 9: | Port Elizabeth. Travel to Port Elizabeth (about 1½hr). Afternoon Real City Tour, culminating with dinner in a local shebeen. (B, D) |
| Day 10: | Amakhala Game Reserve. This morning a representative from the car hire company will collect your rental vehicle from the hotel, while you will be collected and transferred to Amakhala Game Reserve. (FB) |
| Day 11: | Amakhala Game Reserve. A full day to explore game drives in Amakhala Game Reserve. (FB) |
| Day 12: | Depart. After your morning activity you will be collected and transferred back to Port Elizabeth in time for your onward flight. (B) |
travellers' tales
The Drakensberg mountains and Didima camp at Cathedral Peak provided a magical start to the holiday, with stunning scenery, fantastic hiking and lovely accommodation; we could easily have stayed much longer there. (more)
tailor made holidays
This trip can be tailor made to create a unique holiday for your individual requirements by travel experts with intimate knowledge of the destination. It is a more luxurious trip that will suit those who enjoy immersing themselves in new cultures and environments before relaxing in comfort. As this trip can be tailor made it would be helpful if you could you provide the following information: rough budget per person (stating with or without flights), your address and postcode, contact phone number, preferred date of travel, length of trip, number of passengers, preferred countries and areas within those countries, specific interests & type of accommodation.award winner
This tourism business was a winner of our First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards in 2005, and was Highly Commended in our 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards. The Responsible Tourism Awards are the largest of their kind in the world, and organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society.Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
|
Homestay: Hazel (a retired teacher) and 11 other multi-ethnic, well-educated ladies joined together to form this homestay opportunity. These are homes not hotels, so you get an insight into what it is like to stay with a local, non-white family, something which is not commonly possible in South Africa. These families were all discriminated against under apartheid, and it is only by Hazel's strong will that this homestay project has got off the ground at all, as the families still find that they can not compete in general with the white-owned guest houses.
Treetop canopy tour: If you decide to take a Treetop Canopy Tour you will be directly helping a great community poverty relief project. Environmental education excursions are conducted regularly and include 1000 children annually from local communities. The company recently adopted the local Primary School and makes a significant contribution to the school feeding scheme by providing meals for 140 children. A proposed community-owned Craft Centre is major project which is also receiving support. It is hoped that 200 local people will become self-employed through this initiative. Port Elizabeth city tour: The Calabash Trust is a poverty alleviation and upliftment fund aimed at providing assistance to projects in disadvantaged areas through tourism. Funds from the city tour go directly to this trust, which in turn helps people in the townships. The help is given through training, sponsoring children's education, and bringing in equipment needed by the communities eg for schools, clinics etc. Addo: In Addo we use the community field guides who were taken from the local township and trained up by the government. We are one of the few operators promoting this community scheme, which could have a significant impact if it was patronised more widely. The guides are well-trained and very enthusiastic. Flights are automatically carbon offset through The Travel Forest, which plants 10 indigenous trees on your behalf (currently in northern Tanzania). Whilst the primary motivation for planting the trees is to offset carbon emissions, the project also works as a poverty alleviation and environmental improvement scheme. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |