South Africa arts & crafts tours

Our belief is that each step we take matters, and that door opening journeys are about travelling with a curious mind, an open heart, and light steps. Our aim is to share South Africa’s cultural richness, diversity and natural beauty in such a way as to beneficiate all involved.

You have multiple opportunities to engage with artists and crafters and discover what inspires them - and with each studio or gallery visit we voluntarily contribute the equivalent of an ‘entrance fee’ towards the artist’s time afforded the group. You’ll take part in an interactive workshop at an inspiring, job-creating initiative that promotes sustainable livelihood and ingeniously recycles material.

At the Montebello Design Centre you’ll meet a variety of artists at work and appreciate this collective’s successes. You’ll visit the only heritage initiative owned and operated by the San Bushmen people where their culture is being preserved, protected and celebrated in a joint venture with a philanthropic foundation. In their craft shop you’ll take in traditional and contemporary designs which are all original and produced using ancient methods and tools.

At Mogalakwena you’ll have the opportunity to: witness age-old, indigenous skills being shared in an initiative that creates employment for the local women who participate in beading, basket weaving, pottery and embroidery activities; and view a craft art development foundation that researches intrinsic skills and a gallery that promotes the products of this local Pedi community.

The hotels we use regularly have rigorous environmental and social responsibility programmes, with established water, energy saving & recycling practices in place. They also support community projects, social programmes and charities (which are posted on their sites). One has featured on the Conde Nast Traveler's Green List since 2006, is the MTN winner of Eco-tourism experience of the year, Imvelo Award winner for responsible tourism, commended by British Airways: Tourism for Tomorrow, and has a Green Futures Foundation focussing on conservation, education and research. Another is part of a World Heritage site, and 2007 Relais & Chateaux Environment trophy winner.

We uphold the philosophy of giving back, making a voluntary donation to Food and Trees for Africa, calculated on the carbon footprint accumulated by each visitor's journey to, from and within South Africa. We are also linked to Friends of Conservation for alternative ways to participate in projects that either extract CO2 from the atmosphere, reduce harmful emissions, or protect wildlife and bring benefit to communities.

We endorse the South Africa Sustainability Seafood Initiative (SASSI), abiding by their approved seafood guidelines when making selections on clients’ behalf. We also support The Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, which applies diversity guidelines to the wine industry by choosing its members when selecting wine estates to showcase.

We believe in leaving only our footprints and provide all visitors with Golden rules (we reproduce the guidelines from Friends of Conservation, with some local environmental additions) which in the natural environment include not picking flowers or removing any items, feeding the animals, littering, or deviating from paths – and in the built environment not wasting water, being ostentatious with possessions, 'handing out' randomly or behaving respectfully among other cultures.

We undertake to lighten our impact wherever possible, such as using the internet as our primary communication medium, limiting the size of groups to a maximum of 16, consciously selecting low impact options, biodegradable materials, recycling paper, and implementing 'turn it off' policies with equipment.

We are a member of the Open Africa network of Afrikatourism, a collaborative movement linking the splendours of Africa in a network of tourism routes from Cape to Cairo, with the aim of creating jobs in synergy with conservation, under the patronage of Nelson Mandela. We also support Fair Trade in Tourism in South Africa (FTTSA) which is based on fair share, democracy, respect, reliability, transparency and sustainability, and its members wherever possible.

We seek out initiatives such as !Khwa ttu San Cultural and Educational Centre that highlights issues facing minority cultures, Solms Delta museum for its oral history focus, Grootbos private nature reserve for its dedication to the Cape Floral Kingdom and eco tourism benchmarking, and Bushmans Kloof wilderness retreat for highlighting San culture. When visiting people in their work places we always reimburse them for their time shared with our group, irrespective.

We support only local initiatives; family run hotels chosen for their warmth of welcome and charm, and owner managed restaurants that offer seasonal produce and regional wines. We select preferred service providers that are local and owner managed, such as for our transport and in our links we seek similarly-minded associates who share our vision such as Mogalakwena Artist’s Retreat.

Believing in the principles of abundance and co-operation, we offer our web based hub for the beneficiation of all involved with us, while supporting others who subscribe to our principles.

We provide our clients with comprehensive pre trip information including suggested reading, safety hints, etc. as well as customised information on arrival (in a folder made of recycled paper produced locally, a locally published 3D map and a locally crafted gift) with the opportunity on several of the tours to meet the makers in person.

As a principle, we contextualise the historical, geographic and social background regardless of the specific focus of a tour, and we select useful additional nuggets to inform free time choices (which form part of the customised information pack). To mitigate the impact of the long haul travel, we offer several add-on options to our fixed tours.

Operationally, we subscribe to an ethical code of conduct with our portfolio of lecturers, most of whom are local, and guides - all of whom are local and officially accredited by South African standards (all are SA residents). We practise fair trade policies particularly in respect of salaries, paying above the industry norm. We uphold high delivery standards and train wherever required, since our undertaking to our clients is 'seamless service and attention to detail'. We passionately advocate raising the tourism industry bar and take responsibility for the upliftment and awareness this challenge requires.

Economically the tourism industry is the biggest generator of jobs in the Western Cape, and unemployment is the biggest threat to social stability in the land. Taking the opportunity to showcase what is unique to the Cape, telling our stories informatively - and having them 'witnessed' - substantiates our sense of self, our pride of place and our purpose of being.