Exquisite Safaris South Africa
Exquisite Safaris South Africa Experiences
Our private South Africa tours feature the best luxury safari lodges in the game parks and private game reserves that offer optimal and uncrowded wildlife viewing opportunities, including Singita and other legendary properties in Sabi Sand Reserve, Kruger National Park and the malaria-free Madikwe Reserve.
In beautiful Cape Town, private touring with our expert guides is the ideal way to explore iconic destinations such as Table Mountain, Robben Island and the Cape Peninsula, experience the sophisticated art, shopping and dining scene, an to enjoy wine touring in the spectacular Winelands.
Other highlights of our luxury South Africa tours are a visit to spectacular Victoria Falls in neighboring Zambia; an overnight journey on one of the world’s most luxurious trains; a private tour of Soweto township; private visits to important archaeological sites; private cooking classes; shopping for baskets, beadwork, diamonds, ostrich leather goods and other local specialties; and much more.
Our private luxury tours and safaris in South Africa feature:
• Top rooms in the best safari camps and lodges
• Touring with expert local guides
• Highly personalized itinerary planning
• Expert advice from our Africa specialists, all of whom have traveled extensively in Botswana, South Africa and elsewhere on the continent
• 24-hour access to our associate offices throughout Africa
• Internal transportation, including flights, luxury train tickets, as well as ground, airport and restaurant transfers
• Restaurant and spa reservations, shopping recommendations, tickets to cultural events, and exclusive access to local activities and experts
• All tours are private, depart daily, and can be customized to suit individual interests and schedules.
About South Africa
Situated at the southern edge of the African continent, South Africa is bounded by oceans on three sides, with an interior that has a wonderful assortment of habitats, from lush tropical forests to arid deserts, from mountains to the open savannah of the bushveld.
Much of South Africa’s natural wealth can be explored in facts and figures – on 1% of the planet’s total land surface it has 10% of the world’s known bird, fish and plant species and 5% of the world’s mammal and reptile species; the third most biologically diverse country on Earth. Such diversity is due to great variations in climate, geology and landscape. Geologically, the country can be divided into three main regions: A narrow coastal strip that demarcates the edge of the continent for 3 000km, an extensive central plateau reaching 2 000 metres above sea level, and the Great Escarpment whose mountain ranges and hills stand in between the first two. These can be split further into rolling plains dotted with acacia trees and scattered dwellings, grasslands that meet the blue sky at the ruler-straight horizon, enormous brooding peaks of the Drakensberg, and chattering rivers that force themselves noisily through narrow gorges – to name but a few.
At the southernmost point, Table Mountain stands like a sentinel guarding Cape Town and its beaches. The south-western Cape is home to the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of the world’s six Plant Kingdoms. Its heath-like vegetation, called ‘fynbos’, is endemic to this area – some 8 000 plant species grow only here, making this one of the most significant concentrations of plant species on Earth. Along the coast eastwards is the dramatic, rocky shoreline where forests grow down steep cliffs to meet spectacular, rough seas crashing on jagged rocks: the Garden Route.
Moving north-east, the straight lines of the arid Karroo with its semi-desert and arid-adapted life give way to the endless, flat grasslands of the plateau, formed millions of years ago when the centre of the continent lifted up. This is the country’s economic centre both in terms of grain produce and mineral wealth; some of the world’s largest gold and diamond deposits lie deep beneath the unassuming surface.
Around the centre, the escarpment’s mountain ranges break the flatness and the land falls towards the coast. These land forms are not just beautiful but are of great importance in the generation of rainfall and runoff; all major rivers have their origins amongst the peaks and precipitous cliffs.
The country’s eastern edges – bordered by the Lebombo Mountains (and Mozambique and Swaziland) in the north-east and the Indian Ocean in the south-east – generally receive more rainfall and are covered with savannah bushveld and woodland. This is the site of some of Africa’s great conservation and wildlife stories, such as the Kruger National Park, the Hluhluwe Game Reserve where the southern white rhino was brought back from the brink of extinction, and the Simangaliso (Greater St Lucia) Wetland Park, where the great sea turtles haul themselves up onto the beaches to lay their eggs.
Despite being threatened by increasing population numbers and development, many game reserves and national parks dot the country, protecting some of its 243 mammal, 900 bird, 370 reptile and 220 fish species and its more than 20 300 species of flowering plants. Each reserve or concession serves a vital role in helping to protect a small piece of this immense, picturesque and life-filled land.
