Experience nature like never before. For those who seek to encounter the beauty of nature up close and personal.

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Day 1         Welcome to Johannesburg

Welcome to Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon arrival at O.R. Tambo International Airport, you are met and assisted by an iKapa International Travel Management representative, as you are transferred to your hotel. After check in procedures you are more than welcome to spend the remainder of the day at leisure.

Later the evening, join your guide for canapés and cocktails while reviewing your itinerary. Thereafter enjoy a delicious welcome dinner at the hotel – including pre selected South African wine.

Overnight:    Protea Hotel Balalaika                     Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 2        Brenthurst Estate & Soweto Tour

There are not many people around town who have 45 gardeners to tend their garden. But then there're not many people around town who have 45 acres of gardens that need tending. One person who does is Strilli Oppenheimer of Brenthurst, in the heart of Parktown.

And those 45 gardeners are doing a magnificent job - the gardens are breathtaking. Led by head gardener and horticulturist Dawid Klopper from Kirstenbosch, who joined the team at Brenthurst two years ago, the gardens range from gracious avenues of planes and oaks, to indigenous grass enclaves, beautifully manicured circular lawns, and several miniature forests. All this is interspersed with tumbling fountains and sculptures, and several kilometres of stone pathways. We also visit the Brenthurst Library during our time at the Brenthurst Estate.

Therefore after we visit the township of Soweto where lunch will be enjoyed at Wandies Restaurant. Shrouded in myth and controversy, vibrant Soweto is a city of surprise and contrast, of emerging enterprises and of vigorous cultural interaction. This morning takes in the biggest city in Southern Africa - steeped in apartheid history.   Visit the former home of Nelson Mandela as well as the houses of Winnie Mandela, Bishop Tutu and the Hector Pietersen Memorial.  See the millionaire mansions cheek by jowl with the tin shacks of the poor.

Later the evening, you are collected at your hotel and transferred for dinner at Moyo’s.

Overnight:    Protea Hotel Balalaika                    Full Board

Day 3        Pretoria City Tour, Pretoria Botanical Gardens & 2 Private Gardens

Pretoria today is a mix of ultra-modern architecture and stately old buildings dating from its days as the capital of the Transvaal Republic. It is a pretty city - its gardens and trees flourish in the fertile, well-watered soil of the Apies river valley - and springtime brings the spectacle of tens of thousands of flowering jacaranda trees. Visit the Union Buildings, Church Square, the Voortrekker Monument, the diplomatic suburbs and the University.

Guided tour of the Pretoria Botanic Gardens where a light lunch will be enjoyed

After lunch the group will visit a private garden in Pretoria.

Another garden visit with tea and snacks in the true South African tradition.

Time permitting; we will pay a short visit to the Safari Nursery, claiming to have the biggest variety and most beautiful plants and flowers in South Africa.

Overnight:     Protea Hotel Balalaika                    Lunch, Bed & Breakfast

Day 4        Depart Johannesburg to Cape Town – At Leisure

In the morning after you have enjoyed breakfast, you are collected at your hotel and transferred to O.R. Tambo International Airport via the Johannesburg Art Gallery - for your domestic flight (flight excluded) to Cape Town. On arrival at Cape Town International Airport, you are greeted by an iKapa Tours & Travel representative as you are assisted and transferred to your hotel. After check in procedures, you are more than welcome to spend the remainder of the day at leisure.

Overnight:     Vineyard Hotel                            Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 5         Vineyard Gardens, Kirstenbosch & Private Garden

In the morning after you have enjoyed breakfast, the curator takes you on a garden tour at the Vineyard Hotel.

Depart for a visit of the Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, where we will spend the rest of the morning on a guided tour of the gardens. Thereafter enjoy lunch at the Silvertree Restaurant.

Our last garden visit of the day will be a private garden in the near-by up-market suburb of Constantia.

Dinner this evening will be at the homes of a few South African garden lovers. You will be transferred to a private home where dinner and good conversation will be enjoyed.

Overnight:     Vineyard Hotel                            Full Board

Day 6        Table Mountain, Company Gardens & Cape Town City – OPTIONAL Robben Island Tour

You are collected from your hotel and taken to the lower cableway station on the slopes of Table Mountain. Weather permitting, ascend the mountain by aerial cable car (entrance fee included), and from a height of 1067 metres, view the city and Table Bay below, Robben Island, the Atlantic Seaboard as well as most of the spectacular Cape Peninsula.  Afterwards, head down into the Malay Quarter with its’ narrow cobbled streets and colourful Mosques.  Next we continue to Government Avenue where we park at the top and stroll to the National Gallery and SA Museum, as well as view the Houses of Parliament.  We then travel to the City Hall on the Grand Parade and afterwards, visit the Castle. Enter the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront – a region that abounds with shops, pubs, restaurants and entertainment, where lunch will be enjoyed. You may either leave the tour here to explore on your own, or return to your hotel in the early afternoon.

Overnight:    Vineyard Hotel                            Lunch, Bed & Breakfast

Day 7        Cape Point & Peninsula

After being collected from your hotel, you will view the exclusive suburbs of Sea Point, Clifton and Camps Bay before continuing via Llandudno to the fishing harbour of Hout Bay. If calm seas prevail, join an optional launch cruise to view the Duiker Island seals and cormorants at close quarters. Travel along the spectacular Chapman’s Peak Drive to Kommetjie, and enter the Cape Point Nature Reserve where you will be taken to the best vantage point to view what is erroneously said to be the meeting place of two mighty oceans. After a stop for lunch, the tour continues to an African penguin colony, the Naval hamlet of Simon’s Town and then continues via Fish Hoek and Kalk Bay to Muizenberg. Return to the city via Rhodes Drive, which bisects the plush suburbs of Bishopscourt, Claremont and Newlands. The tour terminates at your hotel again in the late afternoon.

Later the evening you will be collected at your hotel and transferred to local South Africa residence, where a home dinner will be enjoyed.

Overnight:    Vineyard Hotel                            Full Board

Day 8         Cape Town via West Coast to Cederberg Wilderness Area

The road north from Cape Town leads along the western seaboard past the grand dune fields and the Darling Hills where the wild flowers of spring put on an exquisite show. We will drive past Langebaan and Saldanha where we will stop for a brief walk in the West Coast National Park. From there we will continue towards the Olifants River Valley and the beautiful town of Citrusdal – the areas main center of citrus groves. Here we will have a light lunch before we continue to Clanwilliam and the 54 hectre Ramskop Nature Reserve. This reserve is the home to more than 200 different flowering plant species. The curator will show us around.

Overnight:    Bushman’s Kloof                        Full Board & Lodge Activities

Day 9        Nieuwoudtville & Calvinia

After the morning lodge activity and breakfast, we leaving Bushman’s Kloof for one of the biggest succulent farms in the world called Kokerboom at Vanrhynsdorp (Kners Vlakte), on our way to Calvinia via Nieuwoudtville on the guest farm in Calvinia we will be warmly welcomed with a glass of wine or juice, campfire & braaivleis.

Depart from the farm Brandwag to Calvinia on our way to the farm Torings, experiencing most exquisite views and flowers. During the last hours of the day the 4 x 4 guide will take us on a most intriguing trip in the Hantamberg, believe to seeing ribbokke, baboons, succulents, flowers and black eagles (witkruis arende)' where we will also enjoy a sundowner and snacks while absorbing the stunning, twilight view of Calvinia from atop the Hantam. Dinner will be served on the farm Brandwag.

Overnight:    Calvinia B&B’s and Guest Houses                Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 10        Calvinia to Sutherland – Star Gazing

In the morning after you have enjoyed breakfast, we will enjoy a morning hike in the Calvinia surrounds, as we are educated on the fauna & flora of this region. Thereafter, we depart Calvinia as we make our way towards Sutherland. After check in procedures, you are more than welcome to spend the remainder of the day at leisure.

In the evening, you are collected at your relevant guesthouses and taking to smallholding just outside Sutherland, where you will enjoy stargazing with insight into the stars.

Kambrokind Guest House:

In Sutherland's main road you will find the old style Bed and Breakfast of Rita and Jurg Wagener called Kambrokind. The Tourism Grading Council grades Kambrokind 4-star. We were awarded the prestigious B&B Guest House large style award in 2004 as a semi-finalist by the AA Travel Guide - an award of which we are justifiably proud! We are finalists in the 2005 competition. Six en-suite rooms are available at Kambrokind with a sheltered outside braai (BBQ), "Die Tolhuis" with microwave, DSTV, cutlery and crockery is also available to all of our guests.

"Baroe" Guest House:

A second house has just been completed called "Baroe" offering two en-suite rooms and a comfortable living room with DSTV and inside braai (BBQ). An outside braai and double lock-up garage is also available.

"Skrywershuisie" Guest House:

The third cottage is called "Skrywershuisie" with two rooms with double beds, living room with DSTV and fireplace, kitchen and single bathroom. On the same premises is another en suite room with a double bed.

***All three houses are 4-star graded by the Tourism Grading Council***

Overnight:    Kambrokind Guest House                    Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 11        Sutherland & Surrounds

On route to the observatory, one will find Salpeterkop, the last active volcano south of the Equator some 66 million years ago. It lies at a height of 1767 meters above sea level. The University of Cape town made an intensive study in the early 1970. They found traces of 77 minerals and only one - Barite - was worth exploring.

Seismographically - the Japanese discovered that Sutherland and the surrounding area are the quietest in the world!

Probably one of the most important reasons why anyone visits Sutherland can be found 18 km outside of the town in the direction of Fraserburg, the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere namely SALT (Southern African Largest Telescope).

In the early evening, we will commence on a nature hike in surrounding areas of Sutherland to explore and discover the fauna & flora of this diverse ecosystem.

Overnight:    Kambrokind Guest House                    Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

Day 12         Sutherland via Karoo Desert National Botanical Gardens to Stellenbosch

After breakfast, we depart the town of Sutherland for Stellenbosch via the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden located to Worcester.

The Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden is totally unique in that it is the only truly succulent garden in the southern hemisphere and on the African continent. One of the floral highlights of the year is spring, when thousands of annuals and brightly coloured vygies come into flower. This colour spectacle lasts from mid-August to the end of September. A must for succulent lovers, the Garden lies on the outskirts of Worcester, 120 kilometres from Cape Town. Falling within the succulent karoo biome, which includes the Namaqualand flora so famous for its spring flowers, the Garden boasts some 400 naturally occurring species. The garden is also a haven for rare and endangered plants, with over 300 species being protected and propagated.

Lunch will be enjoyed at the Kokerboom Restaurant at the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden.

Overnight:    Lanzerac Hotel & Spa                        Full Board

Day 13        Kaaimansgat Farm (protea & fynbos) & Private Garden

We depart for a mountainous scenic drive through the Elgin Valley and over the pass to a unique experience at Kaaimansgat Farm near Villiersdorp. On Careene Roux’s protea and fynbos farm we will be taken up the mountain in 4x4 vehicles to enjoy the lovely view of the valley.

An El Fresco lunch will be enjoyed at the campsite.

Time permitting; we will visit a private garden, on our route back to Stellenbosch.

Overnight:    Lanzerac Hotel & Spa                        Lunch, Bed & Breakfast

Day 14        Stellenbosch via Harold Porter Botanical Gardens to Grootbos Nature Reserve

After you have enjoyed breakfast, we depart the beautiful town of Stellenbosch we head for the Grootbos Nature Reserve via the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens. This beautiful, secluded garden is set between mountain and sea, in the heart of the Cape fynbos region and encompasses 10 hectares of cultivated fynbos garden and 190.5 hectares of pristine natural fynbos.  Situated in the centre of the coastal fynbos where the flora is at its richest, the garden encompasses mountain slopes with their wind-clipped heathlands, deep gorges with relict forests, flats and marshes with restios, sedges and bulbs, as well as dunes adjacent to the beach with their specialised salt-adapted plants. 

Overnight:    Grootbos Nature Reserve                    Full Board & Lodge Activities

Day 15        Explore & Discover the Grootbos Nature Reserve

Experience nature like never before. Let our expert guides introduce you to the wonders of the fynbos. Discover the fascinating relationship between the insects, birds, mammals and flowering plants of this diverse ecosystem. Smell the aromatic wild herbs, watch exquisite birds and be awed by the scenery that surrounds you.

Take a meandering path through an ancient Milkwood forest, where thousand-year-old trees send exploratory branches in search of sunlight, or visit one of the remnant Afromontane forests on the reserve. Young and old can explore this natural wonderland on foot or by four-wheel drive vehicle, or take a horse ride to enjoy views from the elevation of a comfortable saddle on a well-schooled horse or pony.

Overnight:    Grootbos Nature Reserve                    Full Board & Lodge Activities

Day 16        A Fond Farewell…

In the morning after you have enjoyed breakfast, you are colleted at your hotel as transferred to Cape Town International Airport for your international flight home. This is where we bid you a fond farewell, as you at home many wonderful memories of South Africa.

**End of Services**

Please contact us for detailed pricing on info@ikapa.co.za

Includes

Accommodation in standard rooms or similar.

Meals as stated in itinerary

Transfers as stated in itinerary

Sightseeing and excursions as stated

Welcome Pack

Excludes

All flights & taxes

All visas and passport documentation

All other meals

All other sightseeing

All other items other then stated in the above

The flower season is at its best from August to October in the Western and Northern Cape.