Johannesburg & Kruger Safari

Once you have arrived at OR Tambo International Airport, you are met by your driver-guide for the transfer to your hotel, where you check in.

Please note: flight arrival time and hotel check-in are to be confirmed based on your own travel arrangements.

The rest of the day is free for you to relax.

After breakfast, you are collected by your driver-guide for a full day exploring Soweto and Johannesburg. The tour begins in Soweto, exploring the area's history during the struggle against apartheid, along with a taste of the vibrant local lifestyle. You visit the Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial, commemorating the Soweto Uprising of 1976, before continuing to Vilakazi Street - known for its Nobel Prize-winning former residents and its lively mix of restaurants and local entertainment - where you visit Mandela House, where Nelson Mandela spent his first nights after his release from prison.

You then continue to the Apartheid Museum, where you're welcomed by the seven founding values represented as pillars in the first courtyard. The museum offers a clear picture of how apartheid policy was implemented from the 1940s until its end in 1994, when South Africa became a democracy - a transition which, by 1996, had led to a new constitution enshrining equality, human rights and freedom of expression, marking the country as one of the world's more progressive nations at the time.

From here, you continue to Gold Reef City, themed around the 1886 gold rush that first drew people to Johannesburg, before heading into the city itself to take in the views from the Top of Africa observation deck at Carlton Centre, a 50-storey building housing offices and shops. The tour concludes with a visit to Constitution Hill, a former prison that once held Soweto Uprising students and Boer military leaders, where you learn more about South Africa's journey to democracy. Afterwards, you are dropped off at your hotel.

At an agreed time, you are collected from your hotel and transferred to OR Tambo International Airport for your flight to Skukuza Airport. On arrival in Kruger, you are welcomed by a representative and transferred to your safari lodge, where you spend the next two nights.

Please note: should your intended lodge be unavailable, an alternative of a similar standard will be arranged.

Your lodge sits within Sabi Sands Game Reserve, which shares unfenced borders with Kruger National Park, allowing wildlife to roam freely between the two and offering excellent chances of spotting the Big 5. After checking in, you enjoy lunch and, time permitting, afternoon tea, before being collected for an afternoon safari game drive - one of the best times to see wildlife on the move. You keep a lookout for the Big 5, including lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, along with plentiful antelope, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and other wildlife.

After the drive, you return to the lodge for sundowners and dinner before retiring for the night.

You wake early for another safari game drive, with fresh coffee and tea available before setting off. You continue the search for the Big 5 across the reserve, before returning to the lodge for breakfast.

The rest of the morning is free to relax or join available activities, such as guided bush walks or a spa treatment. In the afternoon, you enjoy lunch and tea before a late afternoon safari game drive in search of more of the reserve's wildlife. In the evening, you return to the lodge to freshen up before dinner and an overnight stay.

You are collected from your lodge and transferred to Skukuza Airport for your flight to OR Tambo International Airport, where your tour comes to an end.