Afrinkong
Nature & Landscapes
Fynbos and the Garden Route
The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest and richest of the six on earth, and most of it grows nowhere else.
Southern Africa · Afrinkong
South Africa
A world in one country.
Table Mountain over Cape Town, Big Five in the Kruger lowveld, the Drakensberg escarpment, two oceans meeting, and eleven official languages.
Where it is
Africa · Southern Africa · South Africa
The land in brief
- Spans
- 1,480 km E–W, 1,340 km N–S
- Latitude
- 22°S to 35°S
- Borders
- 6 countries
- Sea
- Has a coast
- Best time
- Year-round, but the Cape is a summer place and Kruger a winter one.
Also in Southern Africa
AngolaThe Kalandula falls, and a coast nobody has seenBotswanaA delta that never reaches the seaEswatiniSmall, and full of everythingLesothoThe kingdom in the skyMalawiA lake with more fish species than any other
Compare South Africa with another countryAll fifty-four, worked through the same twenty-seven categories.When to come
JFMAMJJASOND
Year-round, but the Cape is a summer place and Kruger a winter one.
01Highlights
What South Africa is known for.
Six of the twenty-seven, and the ones most people come for. The rest are below — and none of them is filler.
Nature & Landscapes
Wildlife
The Big Five, Close
Kruger and the private Sabi Sands reserves beside it, where the leopards have been watched for generations.
The Drakensberg
The Amphitheatre wall runs five kilometres and drops a kilometre, with San rock art in the caves beneath it.
Two Oceans
Cold Atlantic on one side of the Cape peninsula, warm Indian on the other, forty minutes apart.
Forests & Rainforest
Tsitsikamma
Old yellowwood forest running down to a rocky coast, with the Storms River mouth cut through the middle.
Eleven Languages
Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and eight more, plus the Cape Malay cooking that came with the slave trade.
02Experiences
25 ways to spend the time.
Every country we cover works through the same twenty-seven categories, so you can hold two of them side by side and compare like with like rather than one brochure against another. Compare South Africa with another → The two not listed here are the hero picture and the case for going, which has a section of its own below.
Landscapes
- Fynbos and the Garden RouteThe Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest and richest of the six on earth, and most of it grows nowhere else.
- The DrakensbergThe Amphitheatre wall runs five kilometres and drops a kilometre, with San rock art in the caves beneath it.
- Tugela, Off the AmphitheatreNearly a thousand metres in five leaps off the Drakensberg escarpment — among the highest falls on earth.
- Blyde River CanyonThe third largest canyon in the world and the greenest, with the Three Rondavels standing in the middle of it.
- Two OceansCold Atlantic on one side of the Cape peninsula, warm Indian on the other, forty minutes apart.
- TsitsikammaOld yellowwood forest running down to a rocky coast, with the Storms River mouth cut through the middle.
Wildlife
- The Big Five, CloseKruger and the private Sabi Sands reserves beside it, where the leopards have been watched for generations.
- Sabi Sands, Off-RoadPrivate traverse means the vehicle can leave the road, which is why the sightings are what they are.
- Marine and Rhino WorkWhale watching at Hermanus, penguins at Boulders, and rhino monitoring in the reserves that fund it.
- Lion's Head at DawnNinety minutes up a spiral path with chains near the top, for the whole peninsula at sunrise.
People and culture
- Eleven LanguagesZulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and eight more, plus the Cape Malay cooking that came with the slave trade.
- Zulu, Xhosa, NdebeleNdebele wall painting, Zulu beadwork with its own grammar, and Xhosa initiation still practised in the Eastern Cape.
- Carnival and AfrikaBurnThe Cape Town Carnival in March, the Kaapse Klopse minstrels in January, and AfrikaBurn out in the Karoo.
- Ndebele BeadworkBeadwork, wire sculpture and telephone-wire baskets, sold everywhere and made properly in very few places.
- Braai, Bunny Chow, CurryFire is a national institution; Durban curry and Cape Malay bobotie came from two very different arrivals.
- Township Tourism, Done RightGuided by residents, spending in the neighbourhood, and honest about what apartheid planning actually built.
- Soweto, SundayVilakazi Street, the shisa nyama grills, and a township of a million people that runs at its own pace.
Places
- Cape Town and JohannesburgOne built around a mountain and a harbour, the other on a gold reef, and nothing about them is alike.
- Bo-Kaap and Cape DutchPainted Bo-Kaap terraces on the slope of Signal Hill, and gabled Cape Dutch homesteads out in the winelands.
- Robben IslandTwelve kilometres off Cape Town, a political prison for three decades, now guided by the men who were held there.
- The Cradle of HumankindThe Sterkfontein caves have produced more early hominin fossils than any other site on the planet.
Ways to travel
- Bloukrans and the CageThe highest commercial bridge bungee in the world, and great white cage diving out of Gansbaai.
- The WinelandsFranschhoek and Stellenbosch: Cape Dutch estates, serious kitchens, and a wine tram that means nobody drives.
- Chapman's Peak DriveNine kilometres cut into the cliff between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, and every turnout is a photograph.
- The Wild Coast and KarooHole in the Wall and the Transkei green hills, and the Karoo's enormous silence in the other direction.
03Why go
The case for South Africa.
Why Visit This Country
Two Weeks, Four Countries' Worth
Mountain, desert, reef, bush and two of Africa's most interesting cities, on roads you can drive yourself.
Hidden Gems
The Wild Coast and Karoo
Hole in the Wall and the Transkei green hills, and the Karoo's enormous silence in the other direction.
Eco Tourism
Marine and Rhino Work
Whale watching at Hermanus, penguins at Boulders, and rhino monitoring in the reserves that fund it.
Heritage
The Cradle of Humankind
The Sterkfontein caves have produced more early hominin fossils than any other site on the planet.
04Go deeper
All of South Africa, four ways in.
Who would take youAfrinkong
The ground is ours right across Africa: your vehicle, your driver for the whole journey, and the days shaped around what you came for.
In Cameroon, Uganda and Namibia you travel with companies of our own as well.
Plan your journey →
Begin
Your South Africa starts here.
Tell us the month, or simply the thing you want to see, and a guide who works there will answer.