South Africa: Family Cape Adventure

From safari giants to mischievous meerkats and playful penguins, discover the really wild side of South Africa

Search for big cats, walk with penguins, meet meerkats, summit Table Mountain and explore subterranean caves. All in just 11 days. No wonder the Western Cape of South Africa is one of the top destinations in the world for a family getaway. This highlight-filled adventure encompasses the very best of the region with lots of time to encounter the extraordinary local wildlife and get into nature (including a night glamping in the Karoo with your very own wood-fired hot tub). Expect smiling faces all round and memories to last a lifetime.

People, Places & Planet

We work hard to create trips that improve life for the people and places we visit and look after the planet we explore. To read more about sustainable travel ethos and practice, click here, and to find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation click here.

People

How this trip helps improve life for local communities.

• The use of a local guide means our customers will be well informed about local traditions, and cultural-social sensitivities.
• This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally owned hotels, vineyards and restaurants, the emphasis on eating locally produced food and support of other local enterprise.

Places

How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.

• Read about our commitment to nature protection and restoration here, including our rewilding commitment for every customer who travels.
• By travelling in a small group, led by a local guide, we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
• Our trips adhere to ABTA’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines to ensure the best possible practices with regard to working animals and wildlife viewing. Our animal welfare policy can be found here.
• We work with our partners on the ground to proactively eliminate or reduce waste, for example eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles and instead providing refills for reusable bottles.
• Our local partners support the Save Our Sausage Trees initiative in Botswana, which aims to address the issue of depleting forests in the area. The mokoro is a canoe used by the people of the Okavango Delta and it is crafted traditionally out of a single mature kigelia Africana tree (or sausage tree). Although increased tourism has had some obvious benefits to the area, it has also brought a higher demand for mokoro boats and therefore more trees are being cut down. As a wooden mokoro only lasts about five years, there are hundreds of these trees being felled per year and there are not enough to sustain this. We have consulted with the Okovango community, and we have agreed to pay half the price of a fibreglass mokoro if a poler wants to purchase the other half, in order to save the trees.

Planet

How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.

• Read about our climate action here, including our carbon reduction and compensation commitments.
• By favouring smaller, locally run hotels and guesthouses we have a much smaller impact on the surrounding environments.
• We encourage guests to try local specialities such as ostrich sausages, traditional pap (maize and water) and snoek As these are sourced locally it means there will be a reduction in food miles.

Tips for sustainable travel on this trip

Extra steps you could take to minimise your impact when travelling.

• Leave no trace: We do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish behind in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, we’d ask you to consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
• Plastic waste reduction: Please bring your own reusable water bottle on this trip; filtered water will be provided where tap water is not drinkable.

Is this trip for you?

This trip has been graded Activity Level 1 (Easy). For more information on our trip gradings please visit the Activity Level Guidelines page.

Though this trip has been designed for 13 to 16-year-olds, it’s also suitable for nine to 12-year-olds. Our Family trips are aimed at children in the primary age group, so if your child is in the secondary age group, they may find it a little harder. If you have any queries about the difficulty of the trip please do not hesitate to contact us.

Several days involve early starts to allow us to get the most from our time in South Africa. Driving is generally restricted to a few hours a day with a maximum drive time of approximately four hours.

The safaris are half-day excursions that shouldn’t last longer than five hours. Morning game drives start as early as 7am, allowing us to see the wildlife at their most active.

The longest included walk on this trip is approximately three hours over undulating foot paths and boardwalks.

Activities that could be more challenging for younger children have been made optional. This includes kayaking with penguins and zip-lining.

Legal note: All group members joining this tour will be asked to sign an indemnity form at the start of the holiday. This indemnity form is a requirement of the South African Tourism Service Association, of which our local supplier is a member. As a client of Exodus Travels Ltd, your rights under the Package Travel Regulations (1992) are unaffected, and Exodus remains liable for the actions of our sub-contractors.

Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.

Vaccinations and Health

South Africa

There are no required vaccinations. However, recommended vaccinations include hepatitis A, tetanus, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis B, rabies and tuberculosis. You will also need a yellow fever vaccination certificate if you’re arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever transmission or transiting for more than 12 hours through a country with risk of yellow fever transmission. Please confirm with your doctor or travel clinic.

Malaria prophylaxis is essential if travelling in the greater Kruger area; seek advice from your doctor or travel clinic about which tablets to take. The rest of South Africa, including the Garden Route, has a low risk of malaria.

Dengue fever, a tropical viral disease spread by daytime biting mosquitoes, is also a known risk in places visited. There is currently no vaccine or prophylaxis available, so we recommend taking the usual precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

Visa

South Africa

Travellers from the UK, US and most (though not all) EU states normally do not need a visa to enter South Africa. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.

Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.

• Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/africa/south-africa
• Canada: www.travel.gc.ca/destinations/south-africa
• United Kingdom: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/south-africa/entry-requirements
• USA: www.travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/SouthAfrica.html

Please note, all travellers to South Africa who require a visa need at least two consecutive blank pages in their passport (ie a left- and right-hand page) to enable an entry visa to be issued.

Additionally, any child under 18 travelling to South Africa needs to be in possession of an unabridged birth certificate with the names of both parents. If a child under 18 is only travelling with one parent, they will also have to have an affidavit, no less than three months old, from the absent parent confirming the child can travel with the other parent; a court order granting full legal guardianship of the child; or a death certificate of the deceased parent.

Food & Drink

All breakfasts, one lunch and two dinners are included.

The food you’ll encounter is very similar to the kind of food you’ll be used to at home. There may be the opportunity to try meats such as ostrich, kudu or eland. Vegetarians and vegans can be well catered for on this trip – please inform us at least two weeks’ before departure of any special dietary requests so our local team can be well prepared.

One of the included meals of the tour will be a braai (South African barbecue). Braais are serious business for South Africans and should never be called a barbecue! Steaks and boerewors (a spiced sausage of beef or pork) are typically served but others options will be available.

Where meals are not included, the leader will recommend a restaurant for a group meal. Dinners can cost on average £12‐18 ($20‐30) per person and lunches from £5 to £8 ($8 to $13).

The water provided on this trip is safe and clean drinking water, normally from boreholes. It is not bottled water, however. If you would rather have bottled water then this will be at your expense, though we would encourage you to make use of the safe drinking water provided as this helps diminish plastic consumption.

Weather

South Africa’s summer is from October to April and winter is from May to September. The Western Cape is typically Mediterranean with a mild climate and can be visited anytime of year. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 9°C to 25°C and is rarely below 5°C or above 29°C. Winter months are wetter than summer months but even during this time there will be warm, sunny days. Strong winds can occur at any time of year.