Sample Itinerary - KwaZulu-Natal

The richly diverse province of KwaZulu-Natal, which stretches along the warm Indian Ocean from Port Edward in the south to Swaziland and Mozambique in the north, provides an abundance of attractions.

To the west, the Drakensberg, in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, is a Unesco World Heritage with dramatic natural beauty and wealth of San Bushman rock art found in its caves - the richest concentration on the continent of Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal Midlands offers lush, green countryside brimming with historical little towns, attractive country hotels and irresistible craft routes. KwaZulu-Natal is also where battles that captured the world’s attention took place in the 1800s and early 1900s, when Boers and the British battled Zulus, and Boers battled the British.

In the interior, north of Durban, among other smaller game parks and superb private Big Five game reserves, is the iconic Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park - which is the province's premier reserve and one of the biggest in South Africa covering 96 000 hectares of stunningly beautiful landscape. The Park has the distinction of being the oldest formally protected area in Africa and has a long and interesting history.

Some of South Africa’s best-protected indigenous coastal forests are found along the subtropical coastline of KwaZulu-Natal, such as at Dukuduku and Kosi Bay.

It is also along this coast that the magnificent iSimangaliso Wetland Park is found – along with the Drakensberg, one of KwaZulu-Natal’s two Unesco World Heritage sites.

With a total area of 94 361 square kilometres, KwaZulu-Natal is roughly the size of Portugal. While it’s the country’s third-smallest province, taking up 7.7% of South Africa’s land area, it has the second-largest population, with 10.3-million people living there.

The principal language is isiZulu, followed by English and Afrikaans. Remnants of British colonialism and a mix of Zulu, Indian and Afrikaans traditions give the province a rich cultural diversity.