Personalized Best of South Africa Safari

Lioness and two cubs in South Africa

What to expect on this itinerary

The Rainbow Nation is yours to explore on this astounding 12-day adventure leading from Cape Town to Madikwe Game Reserve. Tailormade to spotlight the fascinating local culture, remarkable history, and heritage, as well as the wondrous unspoiled wilderness, this journey across South Africa is set to reveal a country more beautiful than one may believe made possible through participating in an array of enchanting activities.

Countries Visited

South Africa

Places Visited

Cape Town, Franschhoek, Kapama Private Game Reserve, Madikwe Game Reserve

Suggested Duration

12 Days

Customizable Itinerary

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Day 1

Cape Town - Paradise on the Shores of the Western Cape

Table Mountain climbs to the clouds from Cape Town city’s borders, velvety beaches hug the coastline that wraps around Cape Peninsula, and emerald wilderness havens sweep slices of the Western Cape’s cosmopolitan jewel destination. You will gaze upon these mesmerizing scenes as your airplane approaches the international airport and you transfer with your private driver to an accommodation tucked away in Bantry Bay. With views of the sparkling sea ahead and scenes of the soaring mountains behind, you will feel swept away by the paradise shores of the Western Cape.

What's Included:

Transfer
Accommodation
Day 2

Cape Town - Unraveling the History of the Rainbow Nation

Day 3

Cape Town - Beauty Beyond the City’s Borders

Day 4

Franschhoek - Seclusion in the Emerald Franschhoek Valley

Day 5

Franschhoek - The Fabulous Flavors of Franschhoek’s Wines

Day 6

Kapama Private Game Reserve - The Starry South African Sky

Day 7

Kapama Private Game Reserve - Searching the Bushveld for the Big Five

Day 8

Kapama Private Game Reserve - Unique Animal Encounters in Kapama

Day 9

Madikwe Game Reserve - Your Second Stay in Wildlife Paradise

Day 10

Madikwe Game Reserve - Meandering through Majestic Madikwe

Day 11

Madikwe Game Reserve - Fine Dining amongst the Green

Day 12

Madikwe Game Reserve - Slow, Radiant Mornings in the African Bush

Trip Highlights

  • Witness the wonderful scenes of Cape Town from atop Table Mountain and discover the history of the Rainbow Nation at iconic cultural landmarks peppering its diverse districts
  • Discover the fascinating untamed wilderness that surrounds Cape Town city as you cruise along the Cape Peninsula towards the spectacular tip of Africa at the Cape Point Nature Reserve
  • Find refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city in the evergreen rolling hills of the Franschhoek Valley, where some of the country’s finest vineyards are grown to produce exemplary wines
  • Cruise across the luxuriant Franschhoek Valley to elite wine estates, alongside a knowledgeable guide, for superb wine tasting tours of prestigious vintages led by sommeliers as well as tours of the wineries’ cellars
  • Soak up the splendors of the African wilderness from the comfort of your game reserve camp in Kapama, gazing upon the bright stars in a region unaffected by light pollution
  • Ride through the forested lands of Kapama during sunrise and in the evening to discover the marvelous animals and curious critters dwelling in the bushveld, as well as search for the famous Big Five
  • Journey across the golden pastures and emerald grasslands of Madikwe in search of more marvelous wildlife encounters
  • Tuck into an array of delectable South African dishes prepared by master chefs and enjoyed alongside panoramas of Madikwe’s spectacular environments

Starting Price

$8,100 per person (excluding international flights)

Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.

What's Included

  • Accommodations
  • In-country transportation
  • Some or all activities and tours
  • Expert trip planning
  • 24x7 support during your trip

Your final trip cost will vary based on your selected accommodations, activities, meals, and other trip elements that you opt to include.

4.9

Verified Traveler Reviews

Based on 555 reviews

Travel Review: Luxury Africa Safari, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Cape Town, Robben Island, Victoria Falls, Franschhoek

We had a very enjoyable trip to Victoria Falls, back to the Republic of South Africa (via Botswana) for a typical safari experience in the Northwest Province at Madikwe Game Reserve, and then a week in the Cape.  Our travel agency suggested the Victoria Falls stop and Elephant Camp in particular.  Elephant Camp was very nice (and we were in the intimate four "tent" family camp that opened just in March) with excellent service and good food.  However, our agent oversold the opportunity to interact with the somewhat tamed elephants on the Wild Horizons/Elephant Camp Reserve.  We had literally no more than five minutes with the elephants, feeding them, so far less than we expected.  We enjoyed the visit to Victoria Falls National Park, as well as a canoe safari on the Zambezi above the falls.  We also very much enjoyed our time at Madikwe Safari Lodge, a very nice facility with an excellent guide, good food, but not always top-rate service.  However, I wish the agent had suggested the opportunity to fly in and out of Madikwe because it has an air strip, and this would have saved us a great deal of travel time doing mostly road transfers to and from Madikwe.  Our travel company was responsive to our requests for particular accommodations in Franschhoek and Cape Town, though they were different than the accommodations suggested by Born Free.  In both cases, we enjoyed our choices very much, as much because of location as because of the facilities themselves.   In Zimbabwe and Madikwe, service was not always up to par at all facilities, and meals were not always as excellent as we expected, but our travel company is not responsible for this.  

When our son left his Kindle on one of the transfers, Born Free helped track it down and get it sent by courier to catch up with us at Cape Town.  This was very helpful, but instead of charging us the cost of the courier and telling us what that cost was, they passed onto us the round figure of ZAR 500. I would have preferred transparency on that.  One of the other transfer operators officiously collected form the safari lodge things of ours (plaster imprints of animal tracks) we had asked them for--she did this while we were having breakfast our last morning.  But then the transfer operator forgot to give the things to us when she dropped us off at Oliver Tambo Airport--even though they were on the front seat of the van next to her!  Again, we were able to get these items sent by courier to catch up with us on Cape Town, but I didn't think we should bear the cost of that.   

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South Africa & Mozambique Travel Review: Luxury Africa Safari Anniversary Trip, Franschhoek, Cape Town, Benguerra Island
Our holiday was INCREDIBLE!!! The trip has been almost 10 years in the talking and it took 3 months of planning and the effort in the planning showed in the quality of the trip.  We celebrated our 40th year on a magical 15 nights in South Africa and Mozambique, an unforgettable trip, created lots of memories, saw 32 animals, soaked up every opportunity to see and do things and enjoyed every single moment!!!!!!After speaking to many travel companies we decided to proceed with Zicasso because they met our requirements, understood what we wanted to get out of the holiday, had some really good suggestions and met our budget.  Our travel planner and Zicasso really took the thinking out of the trip for us.  When we were on holiday we knew what time we had to meet our private tour guide and that was it .. no thinking about navigation, cars, logistics.  It was all taken care for us! Communicating with at planner at Zicasso was easy via email and then we later switched over to an App.   When you're dealing with large time zone differences and a travel companion, this seemed the easier option to communicate with.Our travel planner replied in a really timely manner which was very helpful.  Zicasso created a website for our itinerary was really useful to get the details and the pictures helped to visualise our accomodation.  We did summarise the website into a one pager to carry with us and this might be something Zicasso consider because you can't carry a website around with you when you have no network coverage!It would also be good to include the price and payments made on the website so its a one-stop-shop and being used to convey the whole itinerary and cost - saves asking the questions repeatedly! We had all transfers, flights and accommodation booked by Zicasso and they satisfied the "luxe" requirement.  Each hotel we stayed at was really nice but the one's that blew us away were the lodge in Franschhoek, Ngala Safari Lodge on the Kruger National Park and the resort on   Mozambique.  Our planner was ever so kind to ring the hotel in Franschhoek and arrange fresh lemon and ginger for me after we met at The Clarendon, Cape Town as I had been unwell - a nice touch!  I will add that some properties have 2 locations in the one area.  Eg, A hotel chain has two properties in Cape Town, the other chain has two properties in Franschhoek and Ngala has two properties on the Kruger.  We got caught out twice going to the wrong accommodation as we had taken the address from the itinerary.   This was resolved after going to the other property.  However our itinerary had stated Ngala Tented Camp but we had been booked to stay at Ngala Safari Lodge.  In hindsight this worked out for the best - Ngala Safari Lodge was just beautiful but after travelling for hours in the heat, you don't want to be be thinking that you're at the wrong place and have more travel to do.     

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Review: Luxury South Africa Safari, Kapama Private Game Reserve, Cape Town, Franschhoek, Food & Wine

The overall trip was amazing and such a memorable experience. From the wild safari to the Winelands  and Cape Town, the service , food, accommodation was emmaculate and exceptional. The safari guide ,Monika at Kapama Buffalo Camp was not only knowledgeable but patient and passionate about her job which translate to such a great experience for us. The accommodation was superb, it exceeded our expectation in terms of spaciousness, coziness and luxury. Food was great as the menu changes every day. We get to see all the Big 5 as our guide was persistent to ensure that we spotted all the animals that we wanted to see. When we arrived at Cape Town, we went straight to Franschhoek and the Villa that was prepared for us was beautiful. Special mention to our guide Dion whose knowledge of history, wine and food is impressive . Again the professionalism of the guide shines through as we travel and ate and drank our way round the Cape. We were shown the diverse food and wine culture of each region . The whole 10 days flew by so fast and makes us craving for more. Only one word to sum up the whole experience. MINDBLOWING! Thank you Zicasso and this travel company for making our bucket list destinations one of the Best ever yet. The memories will forever be imprinted in our minds and hearts ♥   

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South Africa Honeymoon Review: Cape Town, Franschhoek, Kruger National Park, Safari, Food & Wine, Spa, 12-Night Trip

My wife and I used this travel company for our honeymoon and we couldn't have had a better experience. From the beginning, our travel specialist was extremely responsive, listened to our needs, and steered us away from bad ideas.

The trip was in two parts. In Cape Town, our itinerary was full, but left a few days for self-exploration. Must-dos are the food tour and the wine train in Franschhoek.

Our favorite was the second part, the safari in Kruger. We stayed in two game reserves near there. Each location had top-notch service, food, and game sightings.

The best part of using our travel specialist and her team was not just the trip planning; the transfers were well-communicated and executed. We truly did not have to worry about a thing, while also getting great value. Five stars for everything.

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South Africa Luxury Tour Review: Cape Town, Franschhoeck, Safari, Wine Country, Golfing, Wildlife, 2-Week Travel
When booking this trip I got three quotes, Andre's stood out as it reflected the most of what I requested. The trip was awesome, first being the Bush portion in the game reserve. Being there in person is hard to relate. Seeing the Big 5 plus many others over our time was outstanding. Our guide was great. The facilities for being in the bush were better than expected. We had asked Andre to put us into the resort, primarily to play golf, which went well. After going into the bush we made it to Cape Town, flying out of the game reserve was much more of a trip than the normal airport! The hotel in Cape Town was excellent, service and facilities all well done. Tour conducted by Phaldie was informed and fun, as he had numerous stories and information to tell us. Finally, Franschhoeck and the wine country were a fitting end to the trip. The food and wines and some shopping all went well. The wine tram is a great way to get around the area. We also played golf at an upscale Country Club, with a well manicured course.

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Review: Luxury Africa Safari, South Africa & Tanzania, Zanzibar, Dulini Private Game Reserve, Franschhoek Wine Tours

Our safari travel company and our tour designer were the perfect choice for our 3+ week southern Africa vacation. We have used Zicasso referrals for several monthlong vacations, including Vietnam [2015], and this 27 day trip to southern Africa [2 Tanzania safari locations, Zanzibar Island for a beach stay, then into South Africa's Cape Town and Franschhoek in the Winelands, and finally several days the Dulini Private Game Reserve in the Sabi Sands section of Kruger National Park. Our travel agent recommended terrific lodgings (save one, more on that later) and arrangements including transfers were flawless. We have already begun a conversation with her about a future trip to the Maldives or Seychelles. She wisely steered us to the right regions for safari for our January/February travel, knowledgeably aware of where to have the best viewing opportunities, she listened to our preferences and understood our style of travel perfectly.  I cannot recommend this agent and her safari travel company highly enough.

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Customizable Itinerary

This is a sample itinerary to inspire a personalized trip designed with your travel specialist.

28,000+ Verified Traveler Reviews