Swartberg Country Manor

Kruger, Canyons & Cape

Safari Wildlife & Nature + 2 more + 3 more

The perfect South African summer holiday.

14 days

from £3,995 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

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 Family Holiday

Family Safari + 1 more + 2 more

The ultimate family adventure through South Africa's highlights.

15 days

from £3,495 pp

Family Classic + 3 more + 3 more

City, Safari & Beach

South Africa, Mauritius

South Africa’s culture, safari and beaches rounding off with an indulgent island escape.

15 days

from £5,010 pp

The Best of South Africa

Romantic Classic + 3 more + 3 more

Cape Town, wine & wildlife: South Africa's highlights over 11 days.

11 days

from £3,225 pp

Quirky excursions

View all excursions in South Africa

Cango Wildlife Ranch

Located in Oudtshoorn, the Cango Wildlife Ranch is home to an amazing number of animals. Whilst no substitute for a genuine safari, the ranch offers the chance to see animals not just from the African continent, and to get up close and personal with them. An endangered species breeding centre, you’ll be able to see snakes, including King Cobras, crocodiles, cheetahs, Bengal tigers, white lions, pygmy hippos, lemurs and Marabou storks, amongst many, many others. You’ll have a guided tour of the ranch, including the newly opened Valley of the Ancients attraction, before having the chance to wonder at leisure. There are chances to pet and stroke many of the animals, including cheetah and tigers, whilst for the really adventurous, how about cage diving with crocodiles?! Although everyone will enjoy a visit to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, it’s particularly good for families.

Port tasting

The dry, sunny climate of the Klein Karoo means that grapes grown here become very concentrated and sweet, so it’s no surprise that South Africa’s best port is made here. Two estates in particular are renowned for it, De Krans near Calitzdorp and Boplaas which is actually in Calitzdorp. By going along for a tasting, the uninitiated can start to appreciate the remarkable variety of port available: pink port, white port, tawny port, reserve port, vintage port – the list goes own, each with their own flavours and characteristics. And given the similarities in climate with the Iberian Peninsula, it’s perhaps obvious that De Krans would also offer wines like Tempranillos. Port is part of life in this part of the world: it’s almost certain that your guesthouse or hotel will leave a glass or two of it in your room during your stay – so take the chance to come and learn more about it.

The Cango Caves

The Cango Caves are scoured into the limestone hills north of Oudtshoorn and the whole system extends over four kilometres, although you can’t explore all of it without some serious caving equipment! Fortunately the largest cavern has been beautifully lit to show off its best features, huge stalactites and stalagmites, some of which have coalesced into huge formations resembling organ pipes or enormous lumps of brain coral. The main cavern is easily accessed via steps and stairways, and is obviously well lit; regular tours take you round the highlights. For the less claustrophobic and more daring, there is a longer adventure tour that takes in all the highlights of the main cavern but then also continues up ladders, through narrow cracks and along features with names like “Lumbago Alley”. It’s exciting and fascinating, but not for everyone; fortunately the standard tour on its own ranks up there as one of the two or three most amazing natural spectacles in South Africa, an absolute must-see if you’re in the region.

Meerkat Adventures

Walking with meerkats is one of those fascinating and exciting things that will appear on most people’s “must-do” lists; traditionally you’ve had to head up to remote parts of the Kalahari desert, staying in exclusive lodges to be able to do it – either that or content yourself with watching Meerkat Manor on the television! But now there is a very accessible reserve near the Klein Karoo town of Oudtshoorn offering this experience. You arrive early in the morning and meet your guide, who will walk you to the meerkat burrow before sunrise. You then watch as the meerkats emerge from the burrow, warm up, perform their morning rituals and greetings, and then you follow them as they set off to forage. All the while your guide will be filling you in on what the meerkats are up to and the highly structured and significant nature of every tiny action they take. The tour lasts about three hours and is a wonderful way to get to know these fantastic animals on a very close and personal basis! You need to be staying in or around Oudtshoorn to get to the reserve early enough. If it's raining, it's highly unlikely that the meerkats will emerge from their burrows and the tour may have to be cancelled.

Going to Hell

Even in a vast country like South Africa, finding somewhere truly off the beaten track is difficult, yet there exists a valley that although only 100 kilometres from Oudtshoorn, hadn’t seen a motor vehicle until 1958. The farmers who lived in this remote slice of heaven, called Gamkaskloof, lived cut off from the outside world until the road was built in 1962; the resultant exodus of the younger generations meant that in 1991 the last permanent resident left the valley. To this day the road is still only a dirt road, and it takes around three hours to cover the distance from Oudtshoorn. The scenery is very dramatic, with folded rock strata cut through with canyons and rivers, all within the protected Swartberg Nature Reserve. No-one knows exactly why the valley came to be known as Die Hell (Hell in Afrikaans), but it is an unmerited moniker, as the solitude and beauty of this spot make it well worth taking a trip to Hell! Although it can be done as a daytrip from Oudtshoorn, we’d recommend staying the night in one of the quaint manor houses in the valley to really get the best Hell experience.