The Thorntree Country House

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

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

Romantic Safari + 2 more + 3 more

South Africa Safari & Beach

South Africa, Mauritius

A seamless South Africa and Mauritius holiday.

14 days

from £4,450 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

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

Quirky excursions

View all excursions in South Africa

The Swartberg Pass

The Swartberg Pass is a dirt road that rises over the Swartberg Mountains, linking Oudtshoorn with the town of Prince Albert. The drive is absolutely stunning, the views afforded down from the pass are vast and dramatic, whilst the rock formations you drive through are fascinating – layers of rock representing millions of years folded and crumpled on itself. On the far side, Prince Albert is as strange a place as you are likely to visit in South Africa. Almost every building is over a century old and it still feels like a settler outpost; it’s a small place and feels completely cut off from the 21st century, in a way that makes it wonderful visit, but still makes you glad you’re not staying too long! Instead of doubling back on yourself over the Swartberg Pass again, there is a loop road, tarmacked, which goes back towards Oudtshoorn through the spectacular Meiringspoort Pass.

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.

Ostrich farm visit

When the Victorians discovered that the Klein Karoo was the perfect place to rear ostriches, they piled in here setting up ostrich farms because of the craze at the time for ostrich feathers as part of a lady’s formal attire, a craze that made many of these pioneers very rich. That fashion has passed today, yet you’ll still see ostrich farms around every corner of the road in the region. Partly this is because of the leather they make, and partly because their meat is highly prized in South Africa, and becoming increasingly valued in Europe and America as well, thanks to its very low fat content. By visiting an ostrich farm you can learn more of the history of ostrich farming, and about the big, ungainly birds themselves. There’s even the opportunity to ride one, for the lighter people out there, which makes it a perfect family excursion.

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.

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.