Located on South Africa’s Highveld plateau, Johannesburg is a fast-paced, creative city shaped by gold-rush history, cultural diversity and constant reinvention. Its atmosphere is energetic and urban, with contemporary galleries, rooftop bars and leafy suburbs existing alongside powerful reminders of the country’s past. Visitors can explore the Apartheid Museum, tour Soweto’s historic streets or browse vibrant markets and design spaces in neighbourhoods such as Maboneng. The city’s soundtrack shifts from lively jazz and amapiano beats to the hum of busy streets, while the scent of grilled street food drifts through open-air cafés and market stalls. Johannesburg rewards travellers who engage with its complexity and culture, though its size, traffic and contrasts mean it is best experienced with some planning and local insight.
Manyeleti Private Game Reserve shares unfenced borders with Kruger National Park, Timbavati Game Reserve and Sabi Sands Game Reserve, forming part of a vast wilderness where wildlife roams freely. The reserve is managed by the Mnisi people, who have lived on this land for generations. In Shangaan, the language most widely spoken in the region, Manyeleti means ‘Place of Stars’, a fitting name for an area renowned for its clear night skies and brilliant stargazing. Dry for much of the year, the reserve offers exceptional wildlife viewing as animals gather around waterholes. Aside from its outstanding safari experiences, Manyeleti also provides visitors with insight into the rich culture and traditions of the Mnisi community.
Surrounded by subtropical fruit orchards, Hazyview is a small farming town and a gateway to the southern part of the Kruger National Park and the Panorama Escarpment. The town and its spectacularly scenic surroundings, serve as a popular adventure capital with a remarkable array of exhilarating outdoor activities on offer to suit all ages, tastes and fitness levels. These include, among others: mountain biking, quad biking, ziplining, tubing, abseiling, and river rafting. Whether you are eager to hike the Panorama Route with its breathtaking views and impressive waterfalls, visit the Shangana Cultural Village, or horse ride along the banks of the magnificent Sabie River, Hazyview has something for just about everyone.
Adjacent to the Kruger National Park, the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve is a private premier viewing destination. It was the first-ever private nature reserve established in South Africa. The landscape features 65 000 hectares of savannah-covered land interspersed with watering holes, dry river beds, Lowveld woodlands, and the perennial Sabi and Sand rivers. This spectacular reserve offers exceptional game viewing opportunities with frequent sightings of the renowned Big Five as well as cheetah, zebra, giraffe, and a variety of antelope. Visitors can enjoy excellent wildlife viewing, dining under the stars, guided bush walks and enjoying a stay in some of South Africa’s most luxurious safari lodges.
Located between the Chobe National Park and the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana, the 200 000-hectare Khwai Conservancy is an enthralling place of wild landscapes and abundant wildlife. The plentiful Khwai River running through the park and dense Mopani forests in the interior provide the perfect home for numerous animals, and the incredible scenes of animals drinking from the river allow for superb photography opportunities. Visitors can look forward to seeing large elephant herds, and spotting lions, leopards and hyenas quite easily. Other species include wild dog, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, buffalo, lions, cheetahs, leopard, hyenas, hippos, Kudu, Tsessebe, and reasonably rare Roan and Sable. Hiking, game drives, guided walks, spa treatments, and open-air camping are just some of the activities on offer.
Situated in the northwestern corner of Botswana, the Okavango Delta is a World Heritage Site as it is the largest inland delta in the world. The magnificent Okavango River sprawls out over the dry sands of the Kalahari Desert forming this flourishing waterlogged oasis featuring countless meandering waterways and crystal clear lagoons studded with water lilies, as well as fertile floodplains and reeded islands inhabited with abundant wildlife. The Okavango Delta stretches over an impressive15000 square kilometres. Visitors can enjoy a number of wonderful activities such as game viewing, fishing, bird watching or taking an authentic guided Mokoro excursion through this wetland paradise in a traditional dugout canoe. Commonly spotted animals include: lion, rhino, leopard, giraffe, hippos, elephants, crocodiles and countless species of bird.
Forming the boundary between Botswana and Namibia is the Chobe River - one of the most well-known perennial rivers in Africa. The Chobe River Front encompasses vast floodplains fringed by lush riverine woodlands. The abundant wildlife inhabiting the river and its shores can be viewed from a river safari where visitors can spot elephants, hippo, water-loving antelope including the rare red lechwe and a variety of other game such as giraffe, zebra, and buffalo. Nature lovers will delight in the incredibly scenic natural landscapes and bird watchers can look forward to the wide section of bird species which can be spotted along the river banks.
Known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya—“The Smoke That Thunders”—Victoria Falls is one of the world’s great natural landmarks. Straddling the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe, it forms a vast curtain of water that fills the air with mist and sound. The Zimbabwean side grants the most dramatic views, where mist rises like ghostly curtains and rainbows arc through the spray. Measuring about 1,708 metres across, it is regarded as the largest single continuous sheet of falling water on Earth. The adjacent town of Victoria Falls provides a convenient base for exploring the region, with a wide range of activities from scenic flights and microlight trips to white-water rafting, bungee jumping, kayaking, and safaris into Chobe National Park.
Set at the confluence of the Indian and Atlantic oceans and backed by the iconic Table Mountain, the bustling city of Cape Town presents an alluring combination of drawcards. Incredible powdery white beaches, highly acclaimed wine routes, and astonishingly beautiful mountain trails surround a cosmopolitan hub. This diverse metropolis is filled with superb shops and restaurants, extraordinary heritage monuments, a multitude of entertainment venues, and a spectacular, chic waterfront harbour. Highlights include the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art; Table Mountain's jaw-dropping views; Boulders Beach, where penguins might swim right up to you in the warm Indian ocean waters; the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, where you can walk along a treetop canopy among incredible native flora or watch an open-air concert at the base of the mountain; Robben Island, where visitors can see the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years; and many more.
As previously described
