Gorilla Trek, Safari, Cape Town + More
Travelers are often faced with a dilemma in the safari planning stage: East Africa or Southern Africa? Supplemented by a gorilla trek or paired with Cape Town? Thanks to a new flight routing from Nairobi to Cape Town, marvels from across the continent can be witnessed in a single trip! After a chance to spot the magnificent Mountain Gorilla and possibly the migration of wildebeest and zebra across the Mara river, head to South Africa for more wildlife wonders and the top city attractions including Table Mountain and the Boulders Beach penguin colony.
At Travel Beyond, we believe your trip should be designed just for you, not for the masses. Our travel consultants create a custom itinerary for each client, offering recommendations for places and experiences that best fit your style. The itinerary below was planned for a past client, but we’re sharing it for travel inspiration and as an example of what a honeymoon to East Africa and Southern Africa might look like. Let us know when we can design a trip just for you!
Upon arrival in Kigali, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your transfer to the 5-Star Kigali Serena Hotel, where you will spend two nights.
Enjoy the remainder of your evening at leisure.
Kigali Serena Hotel Meals: N/A
Enjoy your day at leisure to explore the area. Your hotel is located in the charming, colorful center of Kigali, where there is much to do. You may also choose to visit the Kigali Memorial Center, a tribute to the lives lost in the Rwandan genocide.
Kigali Serena Hotel Meals: B
This morning, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your transfer to Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, where you will spend one night. Volcanoes National Park protects the steep slopes of this magnificent mountain range – home of the rare and endangered mountain gorilla – and the rich mosaic of montane ecosystems, embracing evergreen and bamboo forest, open grassland, swamp & heath.
Enjoy the remainder of your day at leisure.
Mountain Gorilla View Lodge Meals: B/L/D
Enjoy a gorilla trek today in Volcanoes National Park. Following a briefing at the Park HQ, you will be assigned to a gorilla family group and then embark on your first gorilla trek. Your experienced trackers, who have spent their entire lives near this forest, soon bring you up close with one of the ten gorilla families. Upon sighting the gorillas, you will stay with them for a magical hour as they go about their daily life: feeding, playing, resting, and raising their young. Nothing can prepare one for the impact of encountering a fully-grown silverback gorilla, up to three times the size of an average man, yet remarkably peaceable and tolerant of human visitors. In the afternoon, your guide will accompany you through the rural countryside and villages of Kinigi and Musanze to experience spontaneous street level culture, or alternately you may visit the beautiful twin lakes of Burera and Ruhondo.
Following your trek, you will be transferred to the Kigali Serena Hotel, where you will spend one night. Enjoy the remainder of your evening at leisure.
Kigali Serena Hotel Meals: B/L
Today, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your transfer to the Kigali Airport for your commercial flight to Nairobi. Upon arrival in Nairobi, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your transfer to Giraffe Manor, where you will spend two nights. This exclusive boutique hotel is home to a herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes, who poke their long necks in the windows each morning and evening in search of a treat.
Giraffe Manor Meals: B/D
This morning, after spending your breakfast with giraffes, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative and taken for a visit to the Giraffe Center, the historic Karen Blixen Museum and the Utamaduni Craft Center and Kazuri Bead Factory for shopping.
Later this afternoon, you will be taken to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage where you can meet, feed and adopt a baby elephant. After your visit you will be transferred back to the hotel. Enjoy the remainder of your evening at leisure.
Giraffe Manor Meals: B/L/D
Today, you will be transferred to the Nairobi Wilson Airport for your light aircraft flight to Amboseli National Park. Upon arrival at the airstrip, you will be transferred to Tortilis Camp, where you will spend two nights. This small and intimate lodge was built entirely from local materials and provided jobs for many in the surrounding Maasai community. This afternoon, meet your guide for a game drive.
Tortilis Camp Meals: B/L/D
On safari! Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives. Roughly 1.5 million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra cross the rivers and plains that lie between the Serengeti and Masai Mara regions, thousands at a time. The river crossings are an excellent location to witness this, as various antelope species face the threat of lion, cheetah, hyena and crocodile.
Tortilis Camp Meals: B/L/D
Today you will be transferred to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to the Nairobi Wilson Airport. Upon arrival in Nairobi, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your private transfer to Lake Elmenteita Serena Camp, where you will spend one night. This afternoon, meet your guide for a game drive.
Lake Elmenteita Serena Camp Meals: B/L/D
Today you will be transferred to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to Masai Mara Game Reserve. Upon arrival at the airstrip, you will be transferred to Kicheche Bush Camp, where you will spend three nights. Game viewing starts at your doorstep in this prime wildlife viewing region. This afternoon, meet your guide for a game drive. Dinner will be served at camp.
Kicheche Bush Camp Meals: B/L/D
On safari! Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives, or gain a different perspective through an escorted walk on the savanna. This location is ideal for viewing the wildebeest migration. You may also make a cultural visit to a local Maasai Village for a firsthand look into their everyday life.
Kicheche Bush Camp Meals: B/L/D
Today you will be transferred to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to the Nairobi Wilson Airport. Upon arrival at the Nairobi Wilson Airport, you will be transferred to the international airport for your flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Upon arrival in Johannesburg, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative who will assist you through airport formalities and escort you to the Intercontinental Airport Hotel, where you will spend one night.
Intercontinental Hotel – Johannesburg Airport Meals: B/L
Today you will be met in the hotel lobby by a Travel Beyond representative who will escort you back to the Johannesburg Airport for your commercial flight to Skukuza.
Upon arrival in Skukuza, you will be met by a camp representative and transferred to MalaMala Main Camp where you will spend three nights. This afternoon, meet your guide for a game drive, where wildlife sightings are truly unparalleled. The likelihood of seeing the Big Five- lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino- is extremely high here due to an unfenced boundary between the MalaMala Private Game Reserve and the Kruger National Park. Its grasslands are flourishing, attracting herbivores which in turn attracts predators.
After an action-packed game drive, a superb dinner will be served at camp. Enjoy superb food and wine under the stars in the reed enclosed boma under an ancient Jackalberry tree, or a candlelit dinner overlooking the Sand River.
MalaMala Main Camp Meals: B/D
On safari! Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives. Wake up at sunrise, with snacks, tea and coffee, for your morning game drive followed by breakfast. After breakfast you will have the option to join a ranger for a guided bush walk, relax around the pool or take a nap before lunch. Your afternoon game drive will turn to darkness, and your guide will scan the bushes with a spotlight in search of nocturnal game. Dinner will be served at camp.
MalaMala Main Camp Meals: B/L/D
Today, you will be transferred to the Skukuza Airport for your commercial flight to Cape Town. Upon arrival in Cape Town, you will be met by a Travel Beyond representative for your private transfer to the elegant and luxurious Cape Grace Hotel along the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, where you will spend three nights. Enjoy the remainder of your day at leisure. In addition to being within walking distance of most of the city’s top attractions, you will have a complimentary chauffeur service at your disposal.
Cape Grace Hotel Meals: B
This morning you will be met by a Travel Beyond guide for your full-day Peninsula and Table Mountain tour.
The first stop is Table Mountain’s Lower Cableway Station, for a revolving cable car ride to the top. At 3,500 feet above sea level, Table Mountain affords bird’s-eye views of both the city and peninsula, as you explore its summit. Navigate Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the world’s most spectacular passes, with a chance of seeing southern right whales offshore from Jun-Nov! After lunch at a popular coastal restaurant, enter the Cape of Good Hope section of the Table Mountain National Park where you have a chance to see herds of bontebok and Cape mountain zebra, two of the Park’s many endemic species, as well as ostrich and the charismatic Chacma baboons. Climb to Cape Point Lighthouse to capture the magical vistas of False Bay, and stop at the south-westernmost point of Africa: breathtaking Cape of Good Hope. Drive on to Boulders Beach for a close-up encounter with a colony of African penguins, before heading home on a coastal scenic route.
Following your tour, you will be transferred back to the hotel. Enjoy the remainder of your evening at leisure.
Cape Grace Hotel Meals: B
Enjoy your day at leisure to explore Cape Town on your own! Regarded as Africa’s first metropolis, this vibrant city offers shimmering waterfront scenery, panoramic mountain views, historic museums and art galleries, an increasingly diverse culinary profile and plenty of hidden gems to be discovered.
Meals: B/L/D
This morning after breakfast and checkout, you will be transferred to the airport for your overnight flight home.
Overnight Flight Meals: N/A
