Cape Town fills a week. The rest fills a month.
What the Cape Point loop really costs once the penguins are added. Which winelands day pours enough to justify the driver. Whether the Big Five are worth the drive from the city or the flight to the Kruger gate. Reviews of every tour you can book in South Africa.
- 1Cape PeninsulaCape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day TourBoulders penguins, the Cape of Good Hope and the Chapman’s Peak road in one loop.from $40
- 2The WinelandsWine Tour: Paarl, Franschhoek & Stellenbosch incl 3 wineriesPaarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch in a day, with a driver so nobody has to spit.from $44
- 3The Big FiveBig Five Game Reserve with LunchElephant, lion and buffalo three hours from the city, no flight north required.from $236
- 4HermanusBoat Based Whale Watching ExperienceSouthern rights calving under the Overberg cliffs, close enough to hear.from $93
- 5St LuciaHippo and Crocodile Cruise on a 15-Seat VesselHippo pods and crocodiles on the estuary at the head of the Elephant Coast.from $23
Cape Town first. Then the road east, or the flight north.
A flat-topped mountain in the middle of a city, wine farms an hour inland, whales off the Overberg cliffs, elephants at Addo and the gateway towns below the Kruger gates. Six places to sleep, and the best day out from each.
Every safari here is sold from a town, not from the park gate.
Which town you wake up in decides which reserve you can reach and what the day costs. Four honest starting points, and the cheapest way into each.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Big Five Game Reserve with Lunch
Big Five, out of Cape TownA private reserve up the N1 and back before dinner.
Kruger, off the escarpmentHazyview and Nelspruit put you at the gate by sunrise.
Pilanesberg, from JohannesburgTwo hours north, inside an extinct volcano, malaria-free.
Addo, from GqeberhaThe densest elephant population in the country, an hour up the N2.
All 373 game drives and safaris →
South of Cape Town the road runs out where two oceans meet.
Chapman’s Peak cut into the cliff face, African penguins on the granite at Boulders, baboons working the car park at the Cape of Good Hope and a funicular up to the old lighthouse. One road, one day, and the direction you drive it decides how much of it you actually see.
South Africa’s most booked days out.
Every tour review on the site →More travellers book these than anything else between the Cape and the Kruger gates. What earns each of them the slot is below.
1
Wine Tour: Paarl, Franschhoek & Stellenbosch incl 3 wineries
Explore Paarl, Franschhoek, and Stellenbosch on a full-day Cape Winelands tour with 15 tastings, food pairings, history, and scenic views.
From · $43
Read our review →
2
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Optional Cruise
from $23
3
Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup
from $52
4
Table Mountain Cable Car, Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $45
5
Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour
from $34
6
Cape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day Tour
from $40
7
Big Five Game Reserve with Lunch
from $236
8
Cape of Good Hope & Boulder Penguins Full-Day Tour from Cape Town
from $48
Table Mountain: go up early, or plan on not going up at all.
Everything on the mountain →
The cableway shuts for wind more often than anyone warns you, and it shuts at short notice. The first cars beat both the queue and the cloud that settles on the plateau by mid-morning. When it is closed, Lion’s Head is two hours on foot and looks straight back at it.
Straight up the front face
The car turns as it climbs, so everyone gets the Camps Bay side and the city side without elbowing for it. Buy the ticket the night before and check the wind reading at breakfast; a closed cableway refunds, a queued one does not give the morning back.
Lion’s Head, before the sun
The spiral path goes right around the peak, then finishes on chains bolted into the rock. Sunrise groups leave in the dark and reach the top as the light comes over the Hottentots Holland. It is the view of the mountain the mountain cannot give you.
Twelve minutes over the bay
The short loop lifts off the V&A, runs the Atlantic seaboard past Clifton and turns back over the stadium. The longer ones carry on to Cape Point and back up the False Bay side. Both go on the wind, so book early in the trip and keep a spare morning.
An hour inland the mountains close in and the farms start.
Stellenbosch pours the serious reds, Franschhoek runs a tram between its estates so nobody has to drive, and Paarl sits between them with the biggest cellars. Most days out take all three. The good ones stop long enough for lunch.
- 1Wine Tour: Paarl, Franschhoek & Stellenbosch incl 3 wineriesfrom $43
- 23 Regions Wine Tour with 3 Estates, 15 Winesfrom $53
- 3Franschhoek Wine Tram Hop-on Hop-offfrom $50
What a day out in South Africa actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The exchange rate does most of the work here: a good number of the best days out cost less than dinner would at home.
The hop-on bus, the estuary cruise at St Lucia, resident-led township walks and most half-day runs down the Peninsula.
The full-day standards: Cape Point with the penguins, three-estate wine days, whale boats out of Hermanus.
Private game reserves, helicopter loops over the bay, and the multi-day runs up to the Kruger gates.
- 1Big Five Game Reserve with Lunchfrom $236
- 2Pilanesberg Nature Reserve Game Safarifrom $186
- 32-Day Safari at Garden Route Game Lodgefrom $533
Three things South Africa has and nowhere else quite does.
Mountains and beaches are everywhere. A penguin colony on a suburban swimming beach, a cage lowered into a shark channel, and a tram that lets an entire valley of wine farms pour for you are not.
The Boulders Colony
A few breeding pairs walked onto a Simon’s Town beach in 1982 and stayed. There are thousands now, living between granite boulders in the middle of a naval suburb, on a stretch of False Bay warm enough to swim. Boardwalks keep people off the nests, and the birds pay no attention to any of it. Go at opening or late afternoon; the middle of the day is a queue.
- 1Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,362 reviews
- 2Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,118 reviews
- 3Cape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,032 reviews
The Shark Channel
Between the mainland and Dyer Island runs a channel of water thick with Cape fur seals, and the great whites that follow them. Boats drop a floating cage off the stern and you climb in wearing a hood, holding a bar, waiting. Launches go on the sea state rather than the calendar, and the sharks are seasonal, so leave slack days at the end of the trip rather than the start.
- 1From Hermanus or Cape Town: Shark Cage Diving Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 684 reviews
- 2Shark Cage Diving and Viewing with transport from Cape Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 576 reviews
- 3Gansbaai Eco-Friendly Shark Cage Diving Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 326 reviews
The Wine Tram
An open-sided tram and a set of linked buses run a loop of the Franschhoek valley’s estates, and you hop off wherever the tasting room looks right. It solves the problem every wine valley has, which is that somebody has to drive. Seats are capped per departure and the summer slots go weeks ahead.
- 1Franschhoek Wine Tram Hop-on Hop-off★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,972 reviews
- 2Full-Day Winelands Tour with Wine Tastings & Food★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,288 reviews
- 3African Story Wine Tours in the Cape Winelands★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 920 reviews
Four South African bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before, over a braai, with a phone. These four run on ferry manifests, calving seasons, wind readings and a tram timetable that fills weeks out.
- 01Robben Island Ferry Ticket and Guided Prison TourThe ferry carries a fixed number of passengers and sails only in workable seas. Sold-out days and weather cancellations are both normal, so book it early in the trip.
- 02Franschhoek Wine Tram Hop-on Hop-offThe tram runs to a published timetable with a seat cap on every hop. Through the summer the useful departures go weeks ahead.
- 03From Hermanus or Cape Town: Shark Cage Diving ExperienceBoats launch on the sea state rather than the calendar, and the sharks come and go with the season. Keep two spare mornings for it.
- 04Boat Based Whale Watching ExperienceSouthern rights arrive off the Overberg around June and are gone by December. Outside that window there is nothing out there to go and see.
The Cape Doctor shuts the mountain and keeps the boats tied up.
From about November to March a hard southeaster can run for days at a time. The cableway closes, the Cape Point boats stay on their moorings and the beaches turn into sandblasting. The answer is to go inland and into the lee: the winelands sit behind the mountains, and cellars, kitchens and museums do not care what the wind is doing.
Johannesburg is where the country keeps its recent history.
The Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Vilakazi Street all sit within an hour of the city centre, and most guided days link several of them. Soweto walks are led by people who live there. Half a day covers one properly; a full day covers two.
Every day out in Johannesburg →
By place — cities, coast and bushveld
By kind of day — mountain, bush, cellar or swell
Cape Town to Gqeberha, in the order the N2 hands it to you.
Gansbaai
TsitsikammaThe newest South African tour reviews.
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