Ultimate South Africa Family Vacation: City to Safari

Cape Town delights from first glance as Table Mountain looks down over the city.  The Atlantic Ocean stretches out with yachts lulling in the harbor beneath your V & A Waterfront hotel. Nature dominates, and it is easy to be won over on the transfer from the airport to your hotel. Check into your accommodations, and your guide will stay at your hotel should you wish, providing transfers to different parts of the city or simply a short orientation walk around the waterfront. Musicians play marimba on the Waterfront’s pedestrianized streets as restaurants and cafes look out across the ocean with art galleries tucked beside small boutiques. There is an excellent food market with over 30 stalls, perfect for finding something for everybody’s palate. So take it easy, create your own impressions, and watch Table Mountain turn to a silhouette.

Stare up at Table Mountain as your first full day in South Africa begins. Your time here is flexible, and your guide may adjust your plans based on the weather. The best advice for anyone visiting Cape Town is to make it up the mountain on the first day of clear weather. If there’s only 5% of cloud cover, you can guarantee that the cloud is atop the mountain. On most summer afternoons, a layer of mist tumbles down the mountain’s front face-obscuring visibility on the summit from early afternoon onwards – it is known as the tablecloth. So after breakfast, you will travel to the cable car station and revolve your way skywards, rising to over 1,000 meters above the nearby ocean.

The flat face is only the front face, and there is a whole mountain to discover. There are countless hiking options on the summit, depending on how your family is feeling and how far you want to walk. Beneath you is the city, tucked into mountain folds while wilderness lies to the north with beaches and bush that you will see more of in a few days. Africa’s southwestern point is to the south, and from the summit, you can look down across the mountain towards the end of a continent. Table Mountain is spectacular for all ages, and everyone can be humbled by nature here. The mountain also has its secrets, and from the summit, you will head to Constantia, where vineyards roll down the slopes. After some wine tasting, the rest of the day is left free, so you can hit the beaches at Clifton or Camps Bay, Greenmarket Square, or possibly head back to the hotel for a quiet afternoon and evening.

The road clings to the mountain as it twists south, passing a couple of fishing villages en route to Simon’s Town. There is no doubt that the Cape Peninsula is spectacular as springbok skips beneath the lighthouse, rugged bush meets the cliff-lined ocean, and the sense of being on the edge of the world abounds. But the highlight of Cape Point is always the penguins at Boulders Beach. These are jackass penguins to be precise, a wild colony that waddles across the sand and dives off rocks. Your guide will take you away from the main viewing area where there are more penguins and no public access to the beach. There is also a smaller, lesser-known beach, where you and the kids can sunbathe and swim on the same sand where penguins waddle.

After enjoying your time with the penguins, you will continue to Cape Point and then loop back to Cape Town via Muizenberg, a colorful seaside suburb. As with your last two nights, there is a fabulous choice of restaurants this evening. Those at the V & A Waterfront are very accessible and good for entertaining kids, or you might consider something more exquisite, especially as Cape Town is a city that turns everyone into foodies. Even the simple burger joints are on a different level from what is experienced at home. There are restaurants for sampling exotic meats, those with traditional drumming, and then those with a serene ocean view.

The San are bushmen, except that is a simplistic term and there is so much more to their culture than stereotypes. Khwa ttu is keeping their legacy alive, a San cultural center an hour north of Cape Town. Meet with your San guide and he will take you out around a zebra-dotted landscape to teach you about history, culture, animal tracking, and the plight of his people. It will be an intimate first-hand experience with a mostly ignored group of people, and it is very hands-on for the kids, especially when you go mountain biking or walking in the bush.

There will not be an abundance of animals – that comes tomorrow – but you will all get a good feel for the wilderness and the people who once lived here while encountering zebra and different antelope. After a morning spent in the bush, you will need to escape the sun, so you can either head back to Cape Town city to continue your exploration at a museum, around the beach or up on Signal Hill for sunset. You could also opt to visit Darling, a postcard gem of a town that hardly anyone knows about. The town is South Africa from the late 19th century, with whitewashed houses, small vineyards, bakeries, cafes, and ochre-hued lanes.

Fly direct to the Greater Kruger, and once again the first impressions will stick with everyone. An elephant may rumble past as three giraffes fill a small clearing. Buffalo block the dusty trail, and this is only the airport transfer. The Sabi Sands is a collection of private reserves bordering Kruger National Park, and the area is mostly unfenced, ensuring free movement of wildlife between the different reserves, Kruger National Park, and wilderness areas in neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Some lodges are built on the outside, at the edge of the ecosystem, but Londolozi is hemmed in on a natural migratory route for wildlife.

The reserve is private, so access is restricted to guests at one of the five camps. This means you will have exclusive and intimate wildlife experiences, different from the national park where anyone can visit, and there can be a crowd. As it is a private reserve, it also has its own rules, so your drivers take you off the trail to get closer to the animals. Check-in and check out a legendary Savannah on your first game drive. Leopards descend from trees, zebra splash around a waterhole, and you will not go two moments without the children being delighted by another animal. Londolozi is one of the best safaris in Africa, especially with kids, because there is such wildlife density in the area around the camps.

Wake with the sun for a morning game drive and the best time to spot predatory cats on the move. Through the trees, you may spot a tail. It swishes. There is silence. Now the spots move, and your children will point, following the majestic hunter as it tracks a small herd of springbok. Next, a rhino, as over half the world’s wild population lives in the Greater Kruger – horns pointing skyward as it ambles past the vehicle. Spend two to three hours on safari then return to the camp, luxuriate in your surroundings, and enjoy a second breakfast. Lounge by the pool, watching a herd of elephants at the river below. Rest in the lounge, reading a book as springbok graze nearby. Escape the world and do nothing. And the kids? They are learning how to be rangers.

After breakfast, the kids can take part in the Londolozi Cubs program, which is for children aged 6 to 16. The program is very flexible, designed to provide entertainment and education about the wild, while also giving you space to sit back and do nothing. Discover learning how to build a bush shelter, identifying spoor and tracking animals, becoming a park ranger, and dozens of other fun activities tailored to your children’s ages and interests. Londolozi Cubs mostly takes place during the heat of the day. Wildlife is relatively inactive at this time and it is hot, so you should be resting. Except, children do not usually want to spend the middle five hours of the day doing nothing, which is where the cubs program comes in.

Later in the day, everyone will meet back up for a shared safari experience with you and the kids in search of so much more than the Big Five. Many South African reserves advertise the Big Five, but Londolozi is much more about abundance. It will not be just one lion, but multiple prides. You will not spot two lonely elephants, as you will pass numerous herds. That is the beauty of the experience as you and your children become one with the wilderness, learning its smells, sights, sounds, and secrets. You will all experience a connection with a realm that is slowly vanishing from this world. And that is a legacy in itself.

Fly back to Cape Town, and will be less than 30 minutes out to the Cape Winelands, a very calm place after the drama of elephants and rhinos. Vineyards stretch across the slopes, punctuated by old Dutch farmhouses and contemporary tasting rooms. Take a tour of a farm with your guide, and then settle into the opulent surroundings. The Cape Winelands is more a place for adults than kids, but there is enough going on for all. This is where you can sit back and enjoy a tasting while the children play in a jungle gym or take some downtime for themselves. And after the dust and ruggedness of the bush, the Winelands provide a charming contrast.

South Africa has over 700 wine farms, and there are hundreds within a 30-minute drive of your Stellenbosch vineyard hotel. Most have their niche. Some are opulent, focused on highbrow red wines, while others have insatiable views and average wines. You can visit a certain vineyard for the food, another for vertical Chardonnay tasting. Some wine farms are for families and focus on providing children with a place to play and run around, so parents can enjoy a picnic on a terrace while tasting the wine. Your guide will have an encyclopedic knowledge of the area and will customize your day based on what suits your family. Like yesterday, expect the Winelands to impress with their tranquility and charm.

It is less than a 90-minute total journey from the Winelands to Hermanus. Stop in Elgin on route to the coast, where the mountain biking is as good as any in Africa. Various trails crisscross through the trees, and there will be something for all ages and fitness levels. In Hermanus, you can bask on golden sands and enjoy the sheltered waters of Walker Bay. You can walk the cliffs, whales breaching nearby while markets provide energy and entertainment with restaurants looking out across the bay. When you hear a horn, lookout, as the Hermanus whale caller blows a kelp horn, communicating the presence of a whale in the bay as an alert system rooted in tradition.

Southern right whales migrate here to calf in the placid Walker Bay waters, and they also seek to reproduce, which attracts males. They are here from July to November, sometimes over a hundred of them in the bay. Humpback and Bryde’s whales are year-round visitors, splashing and frolicking as they swim past. Try getting closer to all three on a whale and dolphin watching boat tour, sometimes the giants breaching just 50 meters away, which is incredibly close given they are more than ten meters long. Your afternoon will be free, so perhaps you will walk the cliffs to see mother and daughter southern right whales sleeping close to the shore. Maybe you will play on the beach, or it could be that you do nothing but reflect on the last 11 days in South Africa.

Today is left free before a 90-minute airport transfer and your international flight home. Enjoy one last leisurely morning together as you prepare to head home.