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.

Very busy tour, could do with a couple of extra days. Also the lots of walking at times and , which is fine for most people, but not for all and it can spoil the tour for others if people can't keep up, and this put extra pressure on the tour leader, which isn't fair.
The guides in the Safari park were outstanding, Peter and Rehxon on. Also our guide Lizwe, who showed us his love of his country and looked after us.

Wonderful 2 week tour, taking in just enough of everything that this wonderful country has to offer. Quality hotels and lodges with cheerful staff, plenty of lovely food and amazingly cheap beer and wine. Our guides had lots of knowledge, especially our 2 guides in Kruger on safari.

Fabulous varied busy trip. A great range of activities and sightseeing.
Was full on but definately worth it.
Our guide Nabeel and our 2 drivers Alvis and Sivu were excellent.
We had such a great small group of 9, which got on so well.
Hotels were great and there was plenty of food ( maybe too much at times!)
The only thing to add was it would have been nice to have spent an hour or so on one of the beaches so we could go for a swim - either Kynsna or whilst in Cape Town.

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.

This holiday was a great introduction to South Africa. It combined beautiful scenery with wildlife and insight into the history of the country. We travelled right down to the Cape of Good Hope. The Wendy Wu guides were excellent and made the experience better.

A magical experience. During our 3 day safari stay at Sidula Private Lodge we went on 6 safaris & by our 2nd safari we had seen all of the Big Five. We thought it couldn’t get any better but it did each day. Our safari driver Charlie & tracker Peter were absolutely brilliant & so knowledgeable, in fact they gave the experience the magical factor.
Although the tour was full on & action packed there would be nothing I could fault other than the tour being split between 2 national guides - 1 national guide in our opinion would have been better.
The food at breakfast, lunch & dinner was very good, plentiful & varied - take clothes a size bigger to allow for the amount of food you are served & eat.

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.

It was a magical holiday. As a fairly recent widower I was concerned about being one of only three singletons but this was not to be as everyone was really friendly - 'A good bunch of Brits and Aussies!'.
Observations/Comments:
* Slightly disappointed in the 'Sabi River Sun Resort' hotel compared to all the others but understand this was a rescheduled venue for some reason and it was for only one night.
* Lizwe Ndlovu was an excellet ****** for the first part of the tour however disappointed by Nabeel Daniels who was the ****** from Port Elizabeth through to the end of the holiday:
- he made no attempt to get to know 'who was who'. This became evident when one person missing on a 'head count'.
- he did not represent Wendy Wu well in appearance wearing 'joggers' for most of the time and only a 'WW' poloshirt on our arrival at Port Elizabeth and on departure day.
- no formal 'goodbyes' for those leaving at different times.
- he kept reminding us to provide a good review!
* As an observation the double wine tour together with the final night event at 'Gold' was a bit much for the final day even though all much enjoyed.
A great trip and I'll be back for another 'WW' tour - last year was Vietnam and Cambodia (incl Mekong Cruise).

This is a great way to see the wildlife and scenery of South Africa. You get to see lions, cheetahs and leopards in Kruger national park in the North and seals and penguins in the south. With whales off the Cape if you are lucky. The are also lots of colourful birds.
The guides go the extra mile to ensure that you have a greater time and are kept safe.

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!

Excellent itinerary for first time travellers.
Good planning hotels and guides.