Icons of Southern Africa - Cape Town to Johannesburg

Nothing can quite prepare you for what awaits in Cape Town! Table Mountain, endless beaches, and big city scenes, all this and much more are ready to welcome you today. Explore the heart of the city and get a first-hand feel of this cosmopolitan buzz, before starting the trip off right, with your Travel Director and your fellow travelers, where excitement will be riding high.

Bo-Kaap color, castle walls and Table Mountain views are all on today’s Cape Town line-up. Start with an orientation tour as your Travel Director gets you up to speed on the Mother City, from the Company Gardens to the 17th-century Castle of Good Hope. Later, add a Choice Experience to the Cape Flats and hear Athlone’s anti-apartheid stories where they happened. Then ride the cableway up Table Mountain, with the City Bowl and Atlantic Seaboard spread out below. This evening, add another Choice Experience at GOLD Restaurant, where African flavors, live entertainment and a djembe drumming session get everyone involved.

• Cape Town Orientation

Take Cape Town at your own pace today. Browse the V&A Waterfront, explore Bo-Kaap or stretch out on the sand. Keen to see more? Add a Choice Experience, with a full-day Cape Peninsula tour tracing the coast or a Gansbaai Ocean Safari searching for marine life. Stay in the city, follow the shoreline or head out on the water. In the evening, keep the local flavor going with a Choice Experience — a home-hosted South African barbecue dinner served with warm hospitality and plenty of conversation. The plan is yours, with two very different add-ons waiting if you fancy either one today.

Farewell Cape Town, it’s been a dream. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. You're in for a treat though, as another adventure in the form of a safari, awaits today! We board our included flight and say a quick hello to Johannesburg, before hopping straight to it as we make tracks to Mabula Game Reserve, home to the main event. Set against the picturesque backdrop of the UNESECO-listed Waterberg Mountains, the fantasy of coming to Africa will really set in. Wild, open and magical, in our 4x4 vehicle, it will be all eyes peeled as the sun sets over the bushveld and the animals begin to emerge.

Rise early and get ready for a game drive across Mabula Game Lodge, where lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo may be hiding in the bushveld. With your Local Guide leading the way, you’ll follow dusty tracks and learn what it takes to protect this wild corner of South Africa. You’ll also meet a graduate of Mabula’s Community Field Guide Training Program, who’ll share their journey from training in the field to building a future in conservation and wildlife tourism. Big 5 sightings are never guaranteed, but inspiring local stories and a proper taste of the wild? Absolutely.

We’ll bid a fond farewell to the bushveld, tucking into a tasty breakfast, and just like that it's time to head back to civilization to our next city stop. Johannesburg is hard to resist, get your bearings first up with an orientation of its sights and sounds with your Travel Director. With an afternoon to explore your way take the opportunity to get a history fix at Soweto, delving into the infamous history of South Africa's oldest township and once home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners. For a slice of adventure, consider donning a helmet to explore the Sterkfontein Caves and wander the Maropeng Visitor Center, where humanity’s origin story comes to life through interactive exhibits. However you choose to explore this afternoon, you’ll be sure to have taken away a piece of why people fall in love with the people and energy in this vibrant city.

Your trip around southern Africa's icons comes to an end today. Say 'totsiens' (until we see each other again) to your new friends as you prepare to return home.