Western Cape self drive holiday, South Africa

Eco-tourism is the reason why many international travellers visit South Africa. As the country has so much environmental and cultural diversity, scenic beauty and incredible wildlife, it is almost impossible to tour the country without having some sort of nature experience and giving something back to the environment.

Our "conservation through tourism" policy shares the benefits of tourism with local communities and ensures the protection of these areas for future generations. As part of their itinerary our guests will be introduced to various community projects, local guides and environmental conservation.

Lutzville Women’s Club: The project activities include providing capacity building and skills training courses for e.g. Creative art, food preparations, etc. in order to generate an income. Visitors can buy beautiful handmade quilts and crafts.

Donkey Cart Adventures: Collaboration between the Wupperthal and Northern Cedarberg conservancies, Cape Nature, the Greater Cedarberg Biodiversity Corridor (GCBC) and the Heuningvlei Community. By visiting this area aims to improve the livelihood of all inhabitants of Heuningvlei. Local sourcing of guiding, food and drink is also encouraged.

The Stables Craft and Culture Centre is a community driven project that enables the visitor to experience Cape Flats culture and cuisine. It involves the community in the preservation of its culture through its restaurant and local crafts. CAFDA provides counselling, care and educational programmes to encourage personal and family development.

Rondevlei: A wetlands reserve, has extensive bird populations, a small family of hippo’s and the local tour operator, Imvubu Nature Tours will be happy to take you on a walking tour or boat trip.

Township Tour: We call this tour the Rainbow Curtain Tour because it is a cross-cultural voyage of discovery into the many facets of South African society. This tour is led by a local tour guide and completely interactive and encompasses the history of the lives and development of the disadvantaged communities in Cape Town.

The Sandveldhuisie: Country Shoppe and deli with gifts, art, local home baked goods and fresh produce.

Camps Bay Retreat is located on four acres of private land in the Glen. The land borders the historical Round House Precinct and Glen Forest, which comprises an area of approximately 35,3 ha and falls within the Cape Peninsula National Park. Conservation projects include a nursery for endemic plants and trees, which are unique to the area, to gradual evolution away from exotic to natural endemic and indigenous planting and to revitalise and restore this botanical area.

Kagga Kamma is situated quite far away from the nearest town (100km to Ceres) so their community is really the people permanently living and working on the reserve. Over the past few years they have upgraded the workers accommodation to great extent, installed electricity and warm water geysers even though they still use generators for electricity. They provide free transport for the children to go to boarding school every two weeks. They also organized a short “life skills” course as well as first aid to some of the staff and recently took in a second candidate for chef training in their kitchen by in-house chefs. Training is also provided to waiters with no previous experience.

Europcar South Africa is proud to support the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. The Fund seeks to nurture, motivate and care for the children and youth of South Africa. Issues of poverty, youth unemployment, homelessness and a lack of formal education plague the lives of many of the nation's children, and the Fund strives to address these challenges and make positive changes. Europcar is committed to supporting the Fund. As an official sponsor to the Fund, they continue to help keep its dream alive by donating a percentage of their revenue earned from each rental towards the Fund.