Waterways of Southern Africa: A Luxury River Cruise Safari - 2021

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 smart 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 here and 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, in poignant reminder of how this 12-year old boy was killed in the struggle against apartheid. Then, taste township hospitality with lunch at a vibrant Soweto restaurant. You may 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 tonight for a briefing and 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

This morning, we return to Johannesburg airport for a short flight to Kasane, Botswana. It’s just a few minutes from the airport to the banks of the Chobe River, where private speedboats will be ready to whisk us away to our island lodge, situated in Namibian waters.

On the way downriver, you can start your bird-watching and animal-spotting activities. Look out for kingfishers, herons, elephants, and crocodiles on the riverbanks, and hippos popping up out of the water as we pass by.

Although we landed in Botswana, we have to enter Namibia, because our private island is about one hour downriver in Namibian territory. We will be at the unique spot in the river where four countries meet: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It’s also around here that the Chobe River merges into the Zambezi. So, if you want to know which country you are in and what river you are on, you’d better ask your skipper!

The trip to reach Cascade Island Lodge is all part of the adventure and we arrive at a small forested island encircled by rapids, with eight gorgeous river-facing suites. While your bags are taken to your room, enjoy an afternoon tea and cake in the lounge and admire the Zambezi.

Relax for the rest of the day on your terrace or dip in your own private plunge pool. If you feel like stretching your legs, go for a bush-whacking walk around the island — it’ll only take you 15 minutes!

Included Feature:

• Speedboat trip along the Chobe and Zambezi rivers to our island lodge

We’ll emerge from our island hideaway after breakfast and cruise with the current back to Botswana for a morning game drive inside Chobe National Park. You’ll soon find out why this park is so famous . . . and it’s got everything to do with elephants. This park contains about one quarter of Africa’s total elephant population, along with buffaloes, lions, cheetahs, antelopes, and the life-giving Chobe River flowing through it.

We’ll be back on the river for lunch at The Raft Floating Restaurant, where we’ll dig into traditional grilled foods straight off the grill. This restaurant is moored in the flow of the river, with a 360-degree water view.

From here, we step aboard our waiting launches and sail along the Chobe to uninhabited Sedudu Island, where elephants come to feed on lush grasses. The elephants swim to the island — if you see something resembling a moving drainpipe, it’s just an elephant’s trunk sticking out of the water!

We’ll take a speedy boat ride back to the lodge, for relaxation time before an evening feast on our romantic little island.

Included Features:

• Morning game drive in Chobe National Park
• Afternoon cruising the Chobe River on a small boat

Today, we’ll board a boat for the 2-minute ride across the water channel to Impalila Island, where time has stood still. You’ll find the locals very friendly and willing to share their way of life with you as we stroll to a local village, school, and clinic. You might find yourself joining kids for a kick around with an old soccer ball or tapping your feet to a beatbox loudspeaker made from an oil can. Life’s pleasures are all around.

We’ll head back to the lodge for lunch, followed by an afternoon at leisure, where you can cool off in your own private dip pool or explore the Zambezi on a river trip. This area is renowned for fishing. If you fancy trying your hand at tiger fishing, this afternoon is the right time and place for it.

Tonight, we’ll enjoy a barbeque dinner and listen to a storyteller who’ll enchant us with tales and legends of these islands.

Included Features:

• Impalila Island visit
• Discover the Zambezi river trip, with optional fishing

• Listen to stories and legends about Impalila Island

After breakfast, we are off to extraordinary Lake Kariba on the next stage of our exciting adventure of southern Africa’s waterways. We’ll transfer to Kasane Airport, Botswana where we connect with our charter flight to Kariba Airport.

Local people believe that the Zambezi River god Nyami Nyami was responsible for the once-in-a-thousand-year flood during the building of the massive hydroelectric Kariba Dam Wall in 1958. The river was showing its displeasure at being harnessed into a lake the size of an ocean, 140 miles long and 25 miles wide. There are many stories and legends associated with the creation of Lake Kariba, and we’ll hear more of them from our guides. We’ll have a picnic lunch and look down at the dam wall from an elevated viewing point to get a sense of it’s might and power.

Our Vantage-exclusive accommodations on the water for the next few days is the deluxe boutique houseboat African Dream. All eight air-conditioned suites feature water views, which constantly change as the ship cruises around the lake. Two distinctive features of Kariba — apart from stunning sunsets — are the mopane and leadwood tree trunks, sticking out of the water like bleached bones, but still sanding years after being submerged.

Settle in for dinner in the wrap-around-view restaurant. Then, be sure to head to the roof-deck to marvel at the most incredible African night sky, with the Milky Way cutting a star-studded swathe across the heavens.

Included Feature:

• See the Kariba Dam Wall

We set sail aboard tender boats at sunrise today, cruising up the Gache Gache River and admiring the landscapes of Lake Kariba. There, you'll spot crocodiles, abundant birdlife, and, with some luck, the fabled pink albino hippo “Ermintrude.” This may sound like another Kariba myth, but photographic evidence proves otherwise.

After lunch on our ship, we will cruise into the impressive Sanyati Gorge, with rocky banks and wooded hills on red sandstone rising high on either side.

As we gently cruise along into the sunset, we’ll have the opportunity to learn more from our guide about the lake, its inhabitants, and the fascinating ecosystem.

Relax for the rest of the day, with another delicious dinner and a terrifically romantic night sky — especially if the moon is glinting off the water.

Included Features:

• Tender boat cruise up the Gache Gache River
• Cruise up the Sanyati Gorge

Today, we’ll disembark the ship and load into our safari vehicles for a morning game drive in Matusadona National Park, a vast, rugged, and remote wilderness with lots of birdlife and big game but limited access, making our visit a rare privilege.

During the creation of Lake Kariba, an initiative called Operation Noah saved the lives of over 6,000 animals, some of which were brought to Matusadona. With nutritious grasslands along the shoreline, large mammal populations have increased. We should spot elephants, buffalos, zebras, and waterbucks, as well as predators like hyenas and lions. The park is also home to some rhinoceros, which were relocated here for their safety.

Back in our small private boats, we’ll check out the Matusadona shoreline before heading back to the ship for lunch. Enjoy cruising the afternoon away onboard our ship.

Enjoy your last dinner on the beautiful African Dream tonight.

Included Features:

• Morning game drive in Matusadona National Park
• Tender boat ride along Matusadona shoreline

After a short cruise to Kariba town, we head to dry land, where we catch a charter flight to Hwange National Park — one of Zimbabwe’s most prolific game parks.

You’ll love the authentic feel of the Vantage-exclusive Iganyana Tented Safari Camp, on a private concession of Hwange National Park. It has expansive views of the African savanna, crisscrossed by well-trodden animal pathways between waterholes — one of which is right in front of our camp!

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.

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, cameras and binoculars at the ready to get a taste of a really wild African safari.

After a delicious dinner created by the camp’s chef — who cooks everything over an open flame — you’ll head for the campfire and contemplate another spectacular night sky.

Included Feature:

• Afternoon Hwange game drive
• Visit the Painted Dog Conservation Center

Early morning is the best time to see predators. So, we’ll be up at dawn in search of lions, leopards, hyenas, and — with some luck — the rare and elusive painted wild dogs. We’ll be enraptured by all the many animals of the bush, however large or 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, lasting beyond sunset, so we can look for nocturnal animals by spotlight on our way back to camp. During the afternoon drive, we’ll head to a waterhole and stop for a while, quietly observing who comes to drink and taking advantage of the golden light of dusk to snap some great photographs.

With special sightings still fresh in your mind, we return to our camp for another delicious dinner, prepared with love over the fire.

To finish off this special day, make yourself comfortable around the fireside for a tribal cultural experience: Around the fire under a dazzling Milky Way, a traditional Shona or Ndebele storyteller will entrance you with stories and legends from the ancient bushmen past to the present day. You will retire to your room with a tribal gift to always remind you of this remarkable moment.

Included Features:

• Morning game drive
• Afternoon game drive

• Traditional Shona and Ndebele stories 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.

Afterward, enjoy lunch at the camp and relax a little before the next exciting excursion.

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. Be aware that we can’t shine the light into the eyes of zebras and antelopes, as it would blind them to lurking predators — just one of the many ways that nighttime in the bush can be simultaneously serene and exhilarating.

You’ll be ready for dinner and a good night’s sleep after a day of new experiences in the bush.

Included Features:

• Morning game drive
• Afternoon game drive

After breakfast, we take an easy coach journey from Hwange to Old Drift Lodge, our luxury tented lodge that faces the river on one side and a water hole in Zambezi National Park on the other. There’s only a 4-mile stretch of the Zambezi between our lodge and the main cascades of Victoria Falls. With no fence around it, animals like elephants and antelopes regularly come into camp to graze.

We’ll check in and have lunch before heading out on a guided walk to the very edge of Victoria Falls. You will marvel at the immense power and majesty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the 7 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 (“Smoke that Thunders”). There will be more exceptional viewing sites as we walk through the subtropical rainforest of this National Park (raincoats suggested!).

You’ll have thoroughly stretched your legs with a good walk this afternoon, and can now relax in your suite before dinner. Take advantage of some of the room’s special features, like the private plunge pool and outside claw-footed bath to enjoy a star-bath submerged in hot bubbly water.

Included Feature:

• Guided walk to Victoria Falls viewpoints

You have the choice of two incredible optional tours today: The first is a “Flight of the Angels” helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. The second is “Zambezi Spectacular Flight,” which is a little longer and 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 give you quite a thrill.

Later this morning, we’ll see the Zambezi from various angles. First, we will take a walking safari along the banks to admire this riverine habitat of the Zambezi National Park, where animals roam freely. After, we will drive the short distance into town and stop at Victoria Falls Craft Market, where you can have fun bartering for beautiful handmade arts and crafts like Shona stone sculptures and pick up a Nyami Nyami Zambezi River God totem to remind you of Lake Kariba.

Lunch is on the banks of the Zambezi at the Lookout Café, perched on the edge of the cliff with a vertiginous view of Batoka Gorge and distant Victoria Falls bridge. From here, we can see adrenaline junkies leap off the cliff on the terrifying gorge swing.

We’ll explore more of Zambezi National Park on an afternoon game drive, known for its elephant, lion, buffalo, and leopard populations.

Tonight, you are in for a special treat, with an al-fresco African bush dinner inside Victoria Falls National Park. There’ll be by traditional singing and dancing under the stars, where the rhythm of Africa will make you smile with joy.

Included Features:

• Guided morning walk in Zambezi National Park
• Afternoon game drive

• Interact with traders at Victoria Falls Craft Market and barter for gifts
• Starlit bush dinner and African dancing alongside the Zambezi River

Enjoy breakfast and a morning at leisure, or consider an early morning optional 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.  This optional tour also includes a visit to a local village, where you’ll be shown around by the Chief.

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.

This afternoon, we’ll take a leisurely cruise on the Zambezi, where we’ll be hosted by a local Zimbabwean who will offer fascinating cultural and historic insights to the area. We’ll be floating 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 will be at our lodge, where we bid farewell to the Zambezi.

Cultural Discovery:

• Chinotimba Primary School visit

After breakfast, we head to Victoria Falls Airport, where we check in for our 3-hour flight to Cape Town.

Sailors approaching the Cape in the 17th century reported seeing a magnificent flat-topped mountain rising out of the earth from a great distance. With some luck, we too will see Table Mountain in all its glory as we approach South Africa’s “Mother City.”

It’s a quick half hour road transfer from the Cape Town airport into the central city. We’ll give you a city orientation tour, revealing Cape Town’s beautiful old buildings that tell the stories of its colonial past. We’ll see the battlements of the Castle of Good Hope, Italian-inspired City Hall, and the old Slave Lodge, next to the Houses of Parliament.

Once you’ve checked in at your grand city center hotel, you have the afternoon to relax and explore on your own. The hotel offers a free shuttle to the V&A Waterfront, a quick 5-minute drive.

If time around the heated outdoor pool or a spa treatment sounds like a fine idea, the hotel’s spa offers exotic-sounding treatments, such as African Tranquility full-body hot stone massage; Molala head, neck, and shoulder massage; and Neo Maoto African foot massage.

Tonight, the hotel will serve a buffet that includes Cape Malay dishes, renowned for gently spiced flavors influenced by slaves brought from Malaysia in the 17th and 18th centuries. The nearby Bo-Kaap Quarter of the city is still the traditional home of the local Cape Malay population.

Included Features:

• City coach tour orientation

It’s impossible to resist the mystical allure of Table Mountain, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and today we aim to get to the top (weather-permitting). We’ll do it the most effortless way in a rotating cable car, taking just five thrilling minutes hugging the craggy mountainside all the way to the top. Views from up there seem endless — you’ll be able to see all the way down the mountain range toward Cape Point, across the ocean to Robben Island, and over the city bowl hemmed in by land and water.

Discover the unique fynbos plants that are endemic to the Cape and found only here, which is why this important Floral Kingdom in the Table Mountain National Park was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once down the mountain, we will stop at one of Cape Town’s most popular all-round shopping, eating, and entertainment venues for locals and visitors alike: the V&A Waterfront. We’ll do an orientation walk of this complex, which combines a working harbor, pleasure boats, shopping malls, restaurants, street entertainment, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, and the fabulous Two Oceans Aquarium, all in one fantastic waterside destination. This is the chance to do your last-minute gift shopping.

Included Features:

• Cable car to the top of Table Mountain
• Orientation walk of V&A Waterfront

A trip to Kirstenbosch is among the top 5 things for visitors to do in Cape Town. It’s the magnificent towering scenery of Table Mountain that sets Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens apart from any other show garden in the world. This is a soothing and uplifting experience impossible to rush around. Get ready to see captivating flower displays and to rest on park benches with sweeping vistas! So, take your time to enjoy the gardens. We’ll have lunch in these glorious botanical surroundings.

We’ll return to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon and gather later on for our Farewell Dinner, where we will toast the end of an incredible tour along the Waterways of Southern Africa.

Included Features:

• Visit Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and have lunch there

After breakfast, transfer to Cape Town International Airport to catch your flight home. We’ll say “so long” rather than “goodbye,” because after such an incredible adventure, we know Africa will have touched your soul and you won’t be able to stay away for long!