South Africa - Featured Trips

Stay Another Day and get to know the real Western Cape region. Change or extend your itinerary to include interesting and off-the-beaten track experiences. Whale Watching Boat Cruise, Shark Cage Diving and !Khwa ttu San Culture are just some of the examples of activities and excursions that you can add to your Western Cape itinerary to extend your stay and learn more about its natural environment, people and cultures.

All of the below Stay Another Day suggestions create jobs & social upliftment and are as environmentally friendly as possible. They are also carefully chosen for their sustainability and many are FTTSA accredited. For more information and prices, please contact us.

South Africa is surrounded by oceans on three sides and has a long coastline of about 3,000 km swept by two major ocean currents. The warm south-flowing Mozambique-Agulhas current skirts the east & south coasts and the cold Benguela flows northwards along the west coast. Along its southern coast the Great white shark experience has become one of the defining tourist attractions. Forever cast as a villain by Hollywood, this misunderstood predator is actually becoming an endangered species. Where done sensitively by minimising intrusion to the marine environment, shark cage diving can be a breathtaking experience accessible to anyone - not just scuba-divers.

Shark cage diving can be organised in the Gansbaai region. Depending on sea conditions, it only takes 20-30 minutes to reach the site. They allow only up to 20 people per boat, to avoid intrusion on the marine habitat and allow best time below water in the steel shark cages (up to 5 people max/cage).

During low season (Dec-Mar, South Africa's summer) there is a risk of not seeing sharks, although this is rare! Hence it is recommended to have 2 days of cage diving. If weather is poor, the boat may not launch or the cage may not be lowered, but sharks can still usually be seen from the boat. Water temperatures are approx between 12-16 degrees Celcius.

Marine Dynamics (FTTSA accredited) aims to educate people about the dangers sharks face (approx. 100 million sharks are killed every year) and changing the image that is a legacy of Jaws. Although bait is used to attract sharks, they endeavour not to reward the sharks and let them associate boats & people with food, by withdrawing the bait before the shark can catch it.

Marine Dynamics support shark research and consult on a regular basis with research biologists from leading South African Universities and museums as well as international researchers' institutions.

The Cape provides some of the world's easiest and best places for whale watching with all 9 of the southern hemisphere great whale species passing its shores. The Southern Right whale, a species once hunted to the verge of extinction, is most commonly spotted visiting the area between June and November to calve and mate. Humpback whales are also sometimes seen.

The whale watching trips are magical & rewarding and capture everyone's imagination. In Gansbaai exciting and informative eco-tours around Dyer Island are on offer and between July-December it combines the Island experience with boat-based whale watching. Dyer Island Cruises (FTTSA accredited) guarantee Southern right whale sightings between July and December. You may also see African penguins, Cape fur seals, Great white sharks, Bryde's whales, Humpback whales, Southern giant petrels, Cape gannets and dolphins.

Dyer Island Cruises is actively involved in coastal conservation, e.g. creating artificial penguin homes for nesting purposes on Dyer Island, collects & cares for injured birds and seals found along the coast and a percentage of their income is donated to Western Cape Nature Conservation Board. They are also committed to community upliftment, e.g. training local guides, distributing handcrafted cards to clients after boat trips and making an annual donation to the Silwerjare Old Age Home.

!Khwa ttu, the San Education and Culture Centre (FTTSA accredited), is located near Yzerfontein 70 km north-west of Cape Town and introduces you to the world of the descendents of the first indigenous people of southern Africa. The San themselves will take you on a journey into their history, traditional knowledge, skills, languages, customs and current affairs.

On the 3 hrs guided cultural tour the San will demonstrate their skills, share their ancient knowledge about oral history, tracking animals and identifying plants with you. They will also teach you words in some of their languages and enlighten you about recent achievements in obtaining their rights to land and intellectual property.

!Khwa ttu's cosy restaurant serves creative dishes and you can buy unique San-produced items in their craft shop. If you would like to extend your stay at !Khwa ttu, they offer a variety of accommodation.

Make your way over Sir Lowry's pass to the region of Elgin and Grabouw. Visit one of the many farmstalls along the way to sample some of the regions home-made preserves, breads, cheeses, olive oils and a variety of herbal teas and coffees. From your base at a guesthouse in the area you will explore the wineries along the regions eco-wine route and learn about the unique Cape Floral Kingdom on a 4-day walking trail. You will meander through beautiful Elgin Valley and the Kogelberg Biosphere and learn about Fynbos, sustainable wine production, meet eccentric locals and colourful wine farmers and visit the oldest winery in Bot Rivier.

The African Horse Company organises all inclusive horse riding trails anything from 1 hour to multiple days through the vast and unspoilt Southern Overberg. They have transit rights through the Agulhas National Park, Walker Bay Nature Reserve and a multitude of various private nature reserves, vineyards and farms.

The horses are local 'Boereperd' crosses with an old and intimate connection to the Cape Overberg. They are the ideal trail-companions through the very varied terrain of the area. The horses roam freely in the 800 ha of the Reserve of Farm 215, are never stabled and live as a herd in a natural state. All trail riding horses are recruited from the herd itself.

A local Karoo culinary crusader in Prince Albert, an historic village at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains, will host a cooking course and teach you how to create Real South African Christmas spread. No more turkey, mistletoe and snow covered steamy plum puddings - this will be true Karoo style Christmas fare for those hot lazy summer days. The kitchen provides a perfect setting for families to get together and have some pre-Christmas fun. This course is specifically designed with children in mind so that you can start off the family holiday with a wonderful creative Christmas experience. Explore new ways to create summer soups, the perfect Christmas braai (Karoo style), Christmas Tapas for long languid lunches and some festive drinks to try out in preparation for the New Year bash.

Different themed cooking courses are available throughout the year. All the courses include master class demonstrations, hands-on cooking and of course savouring the fruits of your labours.

Meerkat Magic offers walks with wild meerkats (suricates) at the only wild meerkat conservation project in the world in the Karoo, Oudtshoorn. Meet the 'Meerkat Man', your scientist guide with years of conservation experience and known for his filming projects with the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery. Needs to be booked well in advance!