Reviews

Kruger to Cape Explored
We arrived in Johannesburg and our first taste of South Africa was to experience a power cut at the airport. We were met and greeted by our Tour Guide, Nabeel Daniels who turned out to be an excellent tour guide. He is a credit to Wendy Wu.
We travelled onwards to the Kruger National Park having stopped at the Davinci Hotel and Angels View Hotel along the route. Nabeel stopped at various sites where we could take photos of the landscape and visit some interesting tourist stops such as The Apartheid Museum, God’s Window, Blyde River Canyon, Bourkes Luck Potholes, The Three Rondels and the Graskop Goerge Lift. Whilst travelling we had lunch and had the chance to enjoy a taste of the local cuisine.
We arrived at the Shiduli Private Game Reserve mid-afternoon, and after checking into our rooms we met our game tour guide and driver. We set of on our first drive into the park and were immediately seeing some of the “big five” Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and supplied our group with plenty of information. This was to be the same for all our other drives into the game reserve. This stay was one of the main highlights of the entire holiday. On our departure all the staff gathered in the restaurant area and sang a traditional South African song as we departed.
We then travelled back to Johannesburg Airport to catch an internal flight to Port Elizabeth where we would continue on our tour. The following day we travelled to Knysa stopping on the way to visit Oudebosch Protea Farm where we had the chance to see the process of growing the Protea flower. Our next stop was the Tsitsikamma National Forest. We climbed up ino the forst and down into the Storms River Mouth where we crossed a few suspension bridges and returned back to starting point of the walk.
We continued on to Kynsa and after checking in at our hotel in Knysa we had some free time to explore this picturesque harbour before being taken to really good fish restaurant situated in the harbour. The following morning we crossed the lagoon over to the Featherbed Eco Experience by ferry, where we were taken by tractor to the top of the Western Head. We then descended by foot following the paths back to the visitor centre getting the chance to take in the picturesque scenery of the lagoon and cliffs. We had a superb lunch before we returned by ferry to continue our journey to Oudtshoorn.
The following morning we visited the Cango Caves where we were taken on a guided tour of the cave system. Our next stop was an Ostrich Farm where we given a tour of the farm on a trailer and given the opportunity to feed the Ostrich. They certainly like their food. We travelled on to Cape Town after enjoying lunch.
Cape Town was a mixture of old and new building. We started off with a tour of the city and then we had a guided walk of part of the city. Table Mountain was on our agenda for the day but the cable car was closed due to poor weather so we were taken on a scenic tour of the area. The next day we visited two vineyards where we had the opportunity to sample a selection of their local wines followed by lunch providing views across the valley.
The next day we went on a cruise to see the local seal colony. Afterwards we went on to Boulders Beach where we visited the local African Penguins colony followed by lunch. Our surprise for the afternoon was that Table Mountain was now open and we were able to go to the top of Table Mountain by cable car. Stunning views of Cape Town. Our final outing was to The Gold Restaurant to experience an authentic African Experience where everyone was encouraged to take part in the evenings entertainment The food was a 14 course dish taste of South Africa.
The final day in Cape Town before our flight home was a leisure day where we just ambled around the Water Front Area.
Suumary
Was it value for money? Yes, it was a busy holiday and certainly value for money.
Highlights? A hard question as it was all stunning. But the main two were The Kruger Private Game Reserve and Table Top mountain.
Tour Guide Quality? Nabeel Daniels was outstanding. We have done several tours over the years with various companies and he was by far the best. He was always doing his best to make sure that we got the most from this holiday and that we enjoyed it..
Drivers. We had two drivers both were very good, Robert drove in the north and Reg drove in the south. Again both were a credit to Wendy Wu.

An enjoyable tour of Kruger, Johannesburg, and Cape Town with a happy group of travellers.
The tour Guides (Tefo Legobate & Nabeel Daniels) were both knowledgeable, and passionate in showing off their country.
Nothing was too much trouble in making the tour memorable for all of us.
Our third trip with Wendy Wu; we will be back.

Generally the trip was very good and the itinerary was amazing, however it was full on, all days busy often with very early starts so be warned. We did feel that the “Gods Window” & “Tsitsikamma Forest” were a bit more than the level 1 fitness stated as they were both very long and steep climbs.
The 6 safari drives were amazing and we got to see all of the big 5
We very much enjoyed the Wendy Wu experience as we have on all previous holiday but would make 2 points.
1 The coach used on the Port Elizabeth to Cape Town section was too small & uncomfortable for journeys up to 12 hrs long.
2 we all paid our $180 tip money which added up to $3240 for the 18 on the trip. We were often urged to pay more direct to people. On previous Wendy Wu trips the national guides handed out the tips openly especially to local guides, which there were none on this trip. Obviously there were the Rangers & trackers plus hotel staff but it was difficult to know where all that money went. I should add we are happy to pay it if we knew where it was all going.

Overall a very good holiday, good accommodation, good meals, and the coaches were OK but could have been newer (and quieter with better sound systems), both drivers were first class. For our first week, we found our guide Lizwe to be excellent.
The itinerary was satisfactory, but too rushed on the first day when visiting the Apartheid Museum and then travel to Mpumalanga - consequently we did not stop to appreciate view points on route and arrived at Angel's View after dark.
A separate day for Johannesburg sight seeing then travel to Mpumalanga the following day would have been preferable.
Sightseeing on the Panorama Route was spoilt due to bad weather, so it would be sensible to have an alternative sightseeing opportunity if necessary.
The Shiduli Game Reserve was a highlight (in spite of cold weather) and could not be faulted. It would have been good to have had more notice of the optional safari on the last morning so more people would have joined this.
On the Garden Route, the highlight was the Featherbed Eco Experience. We would have liked stops at view points on the route (we travelled the Garden Route but felt there was more to see).
The worst day - which needs to be addressed - was the journey from Knysna to Cape Town. The itinerary said this would take 8 hours including sightseeing, but actually took 13.5 hours even though we only had the planned times for sightseeing, lunch and comfort breaks. We had to buy food at a service station as we would have arrived in Cape Town too late to eat.
We would suggest staying overnight part way to Cape Town to avoid this excessively long journey and enable more enjoyment of sights on route.
In Cape Town the sightseeing trips were good and we included a visit to Signal Hill as there was plenty of time for this.
The queues for the Table Mountain cable car were probably well over and hour, so the group opted to pay extra for the fast track tickets - we feel this should be included as standard.
The trip to the winelands included a gourmet lunch at Haute Cabriere. The service was vey slow but the meal delicious. In the evening we went to the Gold restaurant, so had a second substantial meal - may be a bit too much in one day. We don't know how it would be best to improve this.
OVERALL we felt that an additional day at the beginning (or effectively starting the tour at lunch on the first day, since most of the group had travelled overnight) would be beneficial. Similarly, an extra day on the Garden Route is essential to ensure it is a holiday not a route march!