Best of Africa: South Africa, Zimbabwe & Botswana - 2022

Leave your cares behind and travel to Johannesburg, South Africa, on an overnight flight, arriving on Day 2.

Touch down in Joburg or Jozi, as it’s affectionately known, South Africa’s city of gold. A Vantage Representative will be at the airport to meet, greet, and escort you to your hotel in one of Joburg’s leafy city suburbs. Rest and recover from your journey for the rest of the day.

After breakfast, we head off on a guided bus tour of South Africa’s largest township, Soweto. Known before as a shanty town, Soweto now has affluent neighborhoods. You’ll sense the significance of the anti-apartheid struggle history as you walk along the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates used to live: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

Stop at the house in Vilakazi street where Nelson Mandela lived prior to his arrest. Walk around the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, a poignant reminder of how this 12-year old boy was killed in the struggle against apartheid. Taste township hospitality with lunch at a vibrant Soweto restaurant. You may just be treated to a delightful singing performance by the proprietor of the restaurant, too!

After lunch, it’s back to the hotel for an afternoon of relaxation, admiring the magnificent views over the city of Johannesburg from the poolside.

We’ll come together for a tour orientation before a Welcome Dinner.

Included Features:

• Morning Tour of Soweto
• Visit to Nelson Mandela’s House
• Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum visit

• Traditional local lunch in Soweto

After breakfast at the hotel, it’s time to head to our first safari camp beside Kruger National Park. We take a short transfer to the airport and a 50-minute flight, followed by a 1-hour road transfer to our idyllic tented safari camp on the banks of the Sabie River. This is our base for exploring Kruger National Park and it’s Big Five animals.

The afternoon is yours to spend at leisure: explore the grounds, admiring the prolific birdlife, or sip a glass of fine South African wine beside the Sabie River while nibbling on macadamia nuts grown on this subtropical plantation.

Dinner is at camp tonight.

After breakfast at the lodge, be sure to pack your binoculars and camera for your first game drive in Kruger National Park. We’ll drive slowly along routes known for the best animal sightings in the hope of spotting lions and their prey — including antelopes, buffaloes, zebras, and giraffes — as well as elephants. And, if we’re very lucky, we may even see rhinos and leopards to round out our first potential Big Five spotting.

With nearly 500 species of birds in Kruger, you can start the process of selecting your favorite. Will it be a majestic bateleur eagle soaring above the floodplains, or smaller, colorful little bee-eaters or lilac-breasted rollers, often perching by the roadside?

You’ll also have the opportunity to stretch your legs and enjoy a picnic lunch at a scenic spot inside the park. Then it’s a game drive back to the gate, returning to the camp for a tranquil afternoon at leisure and dinner at the camp.

Included Feature:

• Morning game drive in Kruger Park with a picnic lunch

As the lions in the park are naturally night owls, we’ll want to catch them in action before morning. So, we will be up before breakfast and inside Kruger Park while predators are still at large. It’s the best time of the day for seeing game activity! Our eagle-eyed rangers will seek out the animals while we are still waking up!

We’ll stop for a picnic breakfast before continuing our morning game drive, leaving the park in time to be at our safari camp for lunch.

After such an early morning, you can catch up on rest during an afternoon at leisure.

Tonight, we enjoy a last evening meal at our South African safari camp.

Included Feature:

• Morning game drive in Kruger Park with a picnic breakfast

This morning we’ll check out and drive to Kruger Airport for a short flight to Livingstone in Zambia. From here we’ll transfer by road across the famous Victoria Falls bridge and through the border into Zimbabwe.

Enjoy lunch at our new Vantage-exclusive safari lodge The Wallow, Victoria Falls, our home for the next three nights.

This afternoon, you can relax at the lodge, while observing the far-off mist rising up from the torrent of water falling over Victoria Falls. We’ll get right up close to Victoria Falls soon enough, so consider taking the optional afternoon Zambezi River Cruise.

We highly recommend this 2.5-hour cruise on the mighty Zambezi, hosted by a local Zimbabwean, who will offer a fascinating cultural and historic insight to the area. Float along the very same stretch of river as David Livingstone, hearing stories that you won’t find in books, passed down through generations.

Dinner tonight is at the lodge.

After breakfast, embark on a guided walk to the very edge of Victoria Falls, marveling at the immense power and majesty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. With the roar of the falls, Devil’s Cataract, and the aptly named Rainbow Falls all around you, you’ll understand and hear just why Victoria Falls is known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (the “Smoke that Thunders”). There are more exceptional viewing sites as we walk through the subtropical rainforest of this National Park (raincoats advised).

On our way back to the lodge, we’ll stop at Victoria Falls Craft Market, where you can barter for beautiful handmade arts and crafts and Nyami Nyami Zambezi River God totems. Lunch is back at the lodge. After such a thrilling morning, you have the afternoon at leisure to rest up, or join one of two optional tour options.

The first option is a “Flight of the Angels” helicopter ride over Victoria Fall. The second is the extended “Zambezi Spectacular” flight, which includes aerial game viewing along the river. The falls are impressive from any vantage point but soaring over them is an experience that promises to entrance you.

Tonight, you’re in for an authentic cultural treat — sharing a meal with a Zimbabwean family in their own home. Known for genuine smiles and sincere friendliness, this heartfelt encounter will truly enrich your trip. Any gifts you bring along are always most welcome, such as a can of peaches, infant formula, coloring books and crayons, or any other items.

Included Feature:

• Guided walk to Victoria Falls viewpoints

• Interact with traders at Victoria Falls Craft Market and barter for gifts
• Enjoy dinner and conversation with a Zimbabwean family in their own home

Enjoy breakfast and a morning at leisure or consider an optional early morning Elephant Encounter. This powerful experience allows you to interact directly with these majestic creatures, and even feed them. Being so close to them and learning about the work being done to save them, is both enlightening and rewarding.

Later this morning, you’ll be warmly welcomed at Chinotimba Primary School. Through your patronage, Vantage Cares — our philanthropic arm — positively affects the lives of these children. These joyful youngsters often show their appreciation with vivacious songs and dance. Many guests cite this experience as a highlight of the trip! Lunch is back at the lodge.

For our final evening at The Wallow, we gather for a Vantage-exclusive safari cocktail party, then head out for a secret location in the bush, where a three-course bush dinner awaits under a glittering night sky. If you hear drumming emanating from the darkness, it just might be the music and dance troupe coming to entertain you.

Vantage Exclusive:

• Safari cocktail party

• Chinotimba Primary School visit
• Starlit private bush dinner and African singing and dancing

After a leisurely breakfast, you’ll transfer by coach to our Vantage-exclusive safari camp on a private concession of Hwange National Park, which is renowned for excellent game viewing.

You’ll love the authentic feel of Iganyana Tented Camp, as it gives you the impression that you are the only people in the African wilderness. Throughout our 3-night stay here, we will be privileged to encounter plenty of animals, including the famous huge herds of elephants, many of which turn up nightly at camp to drink from the waterhole. Bring your camera to capture a cameo from these majestic animals.

Settle into your air-conditioned tented safari suite before having lunch at the camp. This afternoon, we head out on our first Hwange game drive. Have cameras and binoculars at the ready to get a taste of a really wild African safari. There’s a potential surprise behind every bush, like when past traveler Janis Schnabel and her group watched a tiny baby elephant emerge unsteadily from between the protective females!

After a delicious dinner, head for the campfire and contemplate the spectacular night sky of the Southern Hemisphere and its astounding Milky Way. Look for the Southern Cross constellation pointing the way south — just to make sure you never get lost!

You will surely be ready for a good night’s sleep, but if you’re woken by the sound of lions roaring or other African wildlife sounds, think of it as a “bucket list” experience, because it doesn’t happen every day (except here in the bush)!

Included Feature:

• Afternoon game drive

Early morning is the best time to see wildlife. So, we’ll be up at dawn in search of lion, leopard, hyena, and — with luck — rare and elusive wild dogs. But we’ll be enraptured by all the many animals of the bush however large and small.

Then, it’s back to the camp for lunch and a short rest before tea. After, we head out on another exciting game drive, this time lasting beyond sunset so we can look for nocturnal animals by spotlight on our way back to the camp. During the afternoon drive, we’ll head to a water hole and stop for a while, quietly observing who comes to drink and who gets right of the way, taking advantage of the golden light of dusk to snap some great photographs.

With special sightings still fresh in your mind, we return to camp for dinner, often cooked over the coals by our cheerful chef. To finish off this special day, make yourself comfortable around the fireside under a dazzling Milky Way, where a local storyteller will entrance you with stories and legends from the area.

Included Features:

• Morning game drive
• Afternoon game drive

• Local storytelling around the fireside

After breakfast we set off on foot, camouflaged in neutral-colored safari clothes, for a game walk. You’ll be led by an experienced professional guide, qualified to walk with guests in the Big Five country. On foot, we’re much closer to the sights, sounds, and smells of the bush, and you’ll learn some survival tricks and tracking skills, like identifying spoor (footprints), so you know whether it was a lion or leopard that passed this way and how long ago! Smaller creatures are exciting too, and you may even learn how to coax a ferocious little ant-lion, a native insect, out of its lair. There are many secrets of the bush to be discovered and your guide will reveal them all to you.

Before lunch, we head over to the Painted Dog Conservation Center to hear how their community awareness, education, and anti-poaching measures are helping in the conservation of this Red List Endangered species, whose numbers are declining. There are about 700 painted (wild) dogs in Hwange. If we are ever going to see them, this is the best place to do it and what a rare privilege it would be!

After, enjoy lunch at the camp and relax a little before our next exciting adventure.

By late afternoon, you’ll be in the game-viewing vehicle for another game drive — this time, to see what’s out and about in the dead of night. As darkness descends, our guide’s well-trained eyes will find elusive nocturnal animals in the spotlight, including big-eyed bush babies, bat-eared foxes, spotted hyenas, chameleons, and even large spiders.

You’ll be ready for dinner after such a great day . . . but we’ve got one last surprise for your final evening in Hwange! We’ve arranged a special performance of traditional African dance that will get your feet tapping and hands clapping.

Included Features:

• Morning guided bush walk
• Visit to the Painted Dog Conservation Center
• Afternoon/evening game drive

• African music and dance performance

After breakfast we take an easy 2-hour drive through the Zimbabwean countryside to Victoria Falls, where we stop for lunch. Then we continue on to the Botswana border and pass through customs and immigration before arriving at our gorgeous lodge right on the banks of the Chobe River. Every air-conditioned room has river views and a private balcony.

You’ll have time to settle in before an afternoon game drive into Chobe National Park, where you will find out why it’s so famous . . . which has a lot to do with elephants! And also buffaloes, lions, antelopes, and the life-giving river that flows through this park.

Savor a delicious dinner while sitting beside this river of life and listen for the inimitable grunt of hippos as they proclaim the end of another spectacular African day.

Included Feature:

• Afternoon game drive

We re-visit Chobe National Park this morning on an early game drive, exploring its lush riverine bush and sandy thornveld, which contain one of the largest concentrations of game in Africa. Whatever the season, large herds of elephant and buffalo are often seen near the river, while predators like lion and spotted hyena are always around. Look out for huge leguaan lizards and crocodiles sunning on the banks. Game such as kudu, warthog, baboons, and vervet monkeys find refuge in the grounds of the lodge and elephants sometimes crash their way in, too!

Back at the lodge, there’s time to freshen up before embarking on the triple-decker Vantage-exclusive Chobe Explorer cruising boat, where you can truly relax for the rest of the day. This is your time to slow down and soak up the beauty of this incredible wetland and its abundant wildlife. Sit under shaded loungers, binoculars at the ready, to tick off some of the 460 species of birds and still more animals.

When you detect the delicious aroma of sizzling food, you know the traditional braai (barbeque) has been fired up on the lower deck and lunch will be ready soon. The vegetarian options are very popular, too. If you feel an afternoon siesta coming on, there’s nothing to keep you awake, except a few trumpeting elephants or grunting hippos. To complete our special day, we cruise back to the lodge with sundowner drinks in hand and admire the sun’s golden orb sink into a watery horizon. There’s nothing quite like a sunset on the Chobe River.

Included Feature:

• Early morning game drive

• River cruise and barbeque on the Chobe Explorer

After an unhurried breakfast, enjoy a morning at leisure, or opt for our Chobe in Style luxury river cruise with an included breakfast.

Later this morning, we all take to the Chobe River again for what many Vantage guests say is one of their most memorable experiences: the Chobe photography safari. We board special boats equipped with swivel chairs and state-of-the-art zoom lens DSLR cameras and a memory stick for you to take home, containing all the masterful wildlife photos you took during this Feature. We’ll be spread between three boats taking a maximum of 8 people each for individual attention and expert tuition. Take it from Vantage traveler Maureen Robb, who said, “I had never been much interested in birds, but this photographic safari changed my mind!”

The excitement isn’t over. After lunch at the lodge, you can use your newly-honed photography skills on an afternoon game drive in Chobe National Park.

Senses saturated from a day of new adventures, we return to the lodge for a very special Farewell Dinner on your last night on safari.

Included Features:

• Chobe photo safari on boats specially adapted for photography
• Afternoon game drive

After breakfast, you’ll transfer to Kasane Airport to catch a plane to Johannesburg and connect with your flight back home. For those on the recommended post-trip extension to Cape Town, you’ll transfer to Victoria Falls Airport for a direct 3-hour flight to Cape Town.