Protea Hotel Umhlanga

A South African Fortnight

Classic Safari + 1 more + 2 more

A two-week classic adventure through the best of South Africa.

14 days

from £3,595 pp

South Africa Family Holiday

Family Safari + 1 more + 2 more

The ultimate family adventure through South Africa's highlights.

15 days

from £3,495 pp

South Africa Express

Wildlife & Nature Express + 1 more + 2 more

A whistle-stop adventure packed with penguins, wine and wildlife.

10 days

from £3,050 pp

South African Grand Tour

Safari Wildlife & Nature + 3 more + 3 more

Three weeks, one unforgettable road trip across South Africa’s greatest highlights.

21 days

from £4,295 pp

Go Local in South Africa

Safari Wildlife & Nature + 3 more + 3 more

Real people. Real stories. Real South Africa.

19 days

from £6,690 pp

South Africa Safari Explorer

South Africa's wildlife at its best.

14 days

Safari Wildlife & Nature

from £5,850 pp

Quirky excursions

View all excursions in South Africa

KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board

The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board maintains the long chain of nets designed to keep sharks away from the popular beaches of the province, but they are also attempting to demystify these remarkable animals and by doing so improve their conservation. You need a strong stomach to do the full Sharks Board experience though! Each morning the board go out and patrol the nets to free any sharks caught in them; unfortunately being trapped does often kill the sharks and they are then bought back to the centre for public dissection. These dissections then form the core of a lecture explaining just how amazingly suited to purpose the shark is, and why that means it hasn’t needed to evolve for millions and millions of years. If you can get over the instinctive desire to be nowhere near a dissected shark, it really is an eye-opening and informative experience.

Sharks rugby match

Next to the new FIFA World Cup stadium in Durban is the ABSA stadium, home of The Sharks, a team with a great heritage, if slightly inconsistent performance. Sharks games are great to watch – the crowd is boisterous and passionate, and the antics of the mascot Sharky are normally good for a laugh or two. The open area outside the ground is colonised by pick-up trucks with their tailgates lowered, the perfect platform for a barbeque (known as a braai in South Africa), supplemented with a few cans of cold beer – the classic Sharks post-match party. If you happen to be invited along or wandering through it all after a game, keep an eye out as the Sharks players very often wander out to join in the festivities.

Moses Madhida Stadium

Built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Moses Madhida Soccer Stadium is one of the icons of the Durban skyline, towered over by a huge arch, not dissimilar to Wembley. At the centre, the arch is 105 metres from the ground and there is a platform here offering amazing, if dizzying views, over the whole city and the Indian Ocean – you can reach this by a funicular crane, or walk through the arch itself, a more energetic option and not ideal for those without a head for heights! For the truly adventurous, there is even a swing, swinging you from the top of the arch in a 220 metre arc across the pitch.

Street Scene Tour

This tour is a mixture of driving and walking, all in the company of an enthusiastic, energetic and knowledgeable local, keen to show off their wonderful city to you. You begin with a drive up to the hill overlooking downtown Durban from where the city is laid out before – the perfect vantage point for your guide to introduce you to the city. Then you descend into the busiest part of the city, Warwick Triangle. This is a busy, bustling intersection where traditional markets offer their wares: from the (initially quite shocking) animal parts used in <>muti (traditional medicine), to stalls of bright, vibrant clothes, and the incredible din of the music market, where sellers of cassettes and CDs vie to see whose sound-system is loudest. More so than almost anywhere else in the country, when you walk around these markets you really feel you’re in Africa. Next stop is for lunch, indulging in Durban’s most famous dish: bunny chow. This is a nod to the city’s Indian heritage, as it’s a curry served in hollowed-out bread loaves, and it’s extremely tasty. You walk off lunch with a stroll around the colonial city centre – the ornate Victorian splendour of the City Hall and the peacefulness of the inner city gardens, before a final drive along the edge of Durban’s harbour.

uShaka Marine World

uShaka MarineWorld is one of Durban’s newest attractions, combining water park, aquarium, open-air shopping complex and reptile house into one location, perfect for adults and kids alike. The most impressive part of uShaka has to be the aquarium, the 5th largest in the world and themed around a number of “wrecked” ships, featuring underwater tunnels, shark tanks and dolphin shows. For those who want to get even closer to the fish, there is a caged shark dive, a snorkelling lagoon filled with tropical fish, and a bottom-walking experience, where you wear a clear helmet pumped full of air from the surface as you slowly walk along the bottom of the ocean exhibit.