Tailor-made private journeyPrice on request10 days / 9 nights · per person sharing*

Overview

Some destinations make you choose. Mountains or ocean. Wilderness or a good bottle of wine. City lights or complete quiet. Cape Town simply refuses the question: Table Mountain stands at the end of the street, two oceans meet an hour down the peninsula, and the vineyards begin where the suburbs stop.

This ten-day Cape Town romantic getaway is built for couples who want both halves of the Western Cape, unhurried and entirely private. You start with three nights in the Mother City, with a half-day city and Table Mountain tour and a full day out to Cape Point, Chapman’s Peak and the penguin colony at Boulders Beach. Then the road turns inland along Route 62 to Montagu, a Karoo village of hot springs, Victorian street fronts and mountain passes, where two nights are yours to do very little at all.

After that, the coast. Hermanus is the finest land-based whale watching in the world, and in season the southern right whales calve close enough to the cliff path that you hear them breathe. You finish in Stellenbosch, oak-lined and slow, with a private full-day Winelands tour through Paarl, Franschhoek and the Stellenbosch estates. Nine nights that move from city lights to whale song to the last glass of the evening on a vineyard terrace.

Every departure is private and tailor-made by Sevira Journeys: your own English-speaking guide and vehicle throughout, hand-picked boutique hotels and country houses, and the freedom to add a whale-watching boat trip, a shark cage dive or a spa afternoon wherever it suits you. One of our most requested honeymoon and anniversary journeys in Africa.

Trip Highlights

Three nights in Cape Town with a private guide and vehicle at your disposal, never a group coach
A private half-day city tour and Table Mountain ascent (weather permitting), taking in the Company’s Garden and the Slave Lodge
A full day on the Cape Peninsula — Cape Point, the drive over Chapman’s Peak, the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach and the historic Groot Constantia wine estate
The scenic drive along Route 62 into the Little Karoo, stopping for wine tastings and lunch on the way to Montagu
Two unhurried nights at Montagu’s landmark Art Deco country hotel, minutes from the town’s natural hot springs
Two nights on the Whale Coast at Hermanus, the world’s best site for land-based whale watching (southern right whale season runs roughly June to November)
Optional southern right whale-watching boat trip, or a great white shark cage dive, quoted and arranged on request
A private full-day Winelands tour with tastings in Paarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch
Two nights at a five-star country house and spa set among the Stellenbosch vineyards, with sauna, steam room and two pools
Private meet and greet by your Sevira representative on arrival at Cape Town International, and private transfers from first day to last

Day 01 :

Arrival in Cape Town, the Mother City

Your Sevira representative is waiting inside the arrivals hall at Cape Town International Airport to help with luggage collection and customs, and to introduce you to the private guide who will look after you for the next ten days. From there it is a short drive into the city.

Cape Town sits where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet, wedged between the flat summit of Table Mountain and the sapphire of Table Bay, and very few cities anywhere manage its combination of harbour, beaches, vineyards and mountain fynbos. You check in at The Hyde Hotel in cosmopolitan Sea Point, an all-suite boutique property a short walk from the Promenade, and the rest of the day and evening are yours to shower off the flight, walk the seafront and find dinner.

Overnight: The Hyde Hotel, Cape Town — Hyde Suite, bed and breakfast

Day 02 :

Table Mountain and a Private City Tour

After breakfast your guide meets you in the hotel foyer for a private half-day Cape Town city tour, including the ascent of Table Mountain by cable car, weather permitting.

Sitting below Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head, Cape Town carries an unusually layered history, and the morning traces it from the first Dutch refreshment station to the modern city. You walk the Company’s Garden, planted in 1652 to grow vegetables for passing ships, and visit the Slave Lodge, one of the oldest buildings in South Africa and now a museum of the country’s difficult past. If the mountain is clear, the cable car turns and lifts you 1,067 metres to a summit plateau with the whole peninsula laid out below.

Today’s highlights: Cape Town city centre, Table Mountain (weather permitting), the Company’s Garden, the Slave Lodge.

The afternoon and evening are at leisure. Ask your guide about sundowners at Camps Bay or dinner along the V&A Waterfront.

Overnight: The Hyde Hotel, Cape Town — Hyde Suite, bed and breakfast

Day 03 :

Cape Point and the Cape Peninsula

A full private day exploring one of the most scenic stretches of coast on earth. The Cape Peninsula runs from the city centre to the towering headland of Cape Point, and the day strings together beaches, mountain passes and fishing villages the whole way down.

You travel out along the Atlantic seaboard and over Chapman’s Peak Drive, cut into the cliff face above the sea, to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, where the old lighthouse looks out over water that seems to have no end. On the return leg you stop at Boulders Beach in Simon’s Town to spend time with the resident African penguin colony, and finish at Groot Constantia, the oldest wine estate in South Africa, founded in 1685. Please note that Chapman’s Peak is subject to the road being open; Ou Kaapse Weg is used as an alternative when necessary.

Today’s highlights: Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, Chapman’s Peak Drive, Simon’s Town and the Boulders Beach penguin colony, Groot Constantia.

Overnight: The Hyde Hotel, Cape Town — Hyde Suite, bed and breakfast

Day 04 :

Route 62 to Montagu and the Little Karoo

After breakfast you check out and meet your guide in the foyer for the drive inland, leaving the coast for Route 62, the scenic alternative to the N2 and one of the great wine roads of the world. You stop along the way for tastings and lunch, both for your own account, at farms where the tasting room is often somebody’s front stoep.

Montagu is the gateway to the Little Karoo, a quiet town of wide streets, more than twenty Cape Victorian national monuments and natural hot springs, ringed by mountains that draw rock climbers from across the country.

Overnight: Montagu Country Hotel, Montagu — Luxury Room, bed and breakfast. An Art Deco landmark that first opened its doors in 1875, lovingly restored with original Art Deco and Victorian furniture, with two pools, two restaurants, a spa, an art gallery and gardens to wander.

Day 05 :

Montagu at Leisure

A day with nothing in it, which is rather the point. Soak in the hot mineral springs, walk the Bloupunt or Cogmanskloof trails, browse the galleries and farm stalls along Long Street, or drive the short passes around town for the views. Montagu is small enough to explore on foot and slow enough that you stop checking the time.

Entrance fees and any activities today are for your own account, and your guide can arrange whatever you would like in advance.

Overnight: Montagu Country Hotel, Montagu — Luxury Room, bed and breakfast

Day 06 :

Over the Passes to Hermanus and the Whale Coast

After breakfast you check out and travel south to Hermanus, built between the cliffs and the shore of Walker Bay about 140 kilometres from Cape Town. What began as a small fishing settlement is now, quite simply, the best-known whale watching town in the world.

On arrival there is time to check in and freshen up, and the rest of the afternoon and evening are at leisure. Your guide and vehicle remain available until 22:00, so dinner in town, at your own account, is easy to arrange.

Overnight: Hermanus Boutique Guest House, Hermanus — Luxury Room, bed and breakfast. A stone’s throw from the rocky shore and the famous cliff path, within walking distance of the Old Harbour district.

Day 07 :

Whales, Cliffs and the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley

Hermanus is the world’s finest site for land-based whale watching. Between roughly June and November, southern right whales come into Walker Bay to calve and court, often within metres of the cliff path, and the town still employs a whale crier who blows a kelp horn when they are close.

The day is yours. Walk the twelve-kilometre cliff path, visit the Old Harbour Museum and the fisherman’s village, hike in the Fernkloof Nature Reserve, or spend the afternoon tasting cool-climate pinot noir and chardonnay in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley, whose name means Heaven and Earth and is not much of an exaggeration.

Optional today: a southern right whale-watching boat trip (in season) or a great white shark cage dive off Gansbaai. Both can be quoted at the time of enquiry and built into your booking.

Overnight: Hermanus Boutique Guest House, Hermanus — Luxury Room, bed and breakfast

Day 08 :

Into the Winelands, Stellenbosch

After breakfast you check out and drive north into the Cape Winelands to Stellenbosch, a university town of oak-lined avenues, Cape Dutch gables and Victorian verandas, ringed by mountains and vineyards. It is the ideal base for the country’s most celebrated wine route, and an unusually pleasant place simply to walk: art galleries, craft shops, boutiques and bistros, all within a few blocks.

You check in and the day is yours to settle in and enjoy the setting.

Overnight: WedgeView Country House & Spa, Stellenbosch — Superior Room, bed and breakfast. A five-star country residence on a one-hectare plot just outside town, with 18 individually decorated rooms and suites, two pools, a bistro restaurant, gardens, and a spa with sauna, steam room and gym looking out over the Stellenbosch Kloof vineyards.

Day 09 :

A Private Day in the Cape Winelands

Today is given over to a private full-day Winelands tour through the three great wine towns of the Cape, at your own pace and with a guide who knows which cellar doors are worth the detour.

You taste in Paarl, home to some of the oldest and largest estates in the country; in Franschhoek, the valley settled by French Huguenots in 1688 and now the culinary capital of South Africa; and in Stellenbosch itself, where the density of leading estates is higher than anywhere else in the region. Lunch on a wine farm between tastings is easily arranged.

Today’s highlights: wine tasting in Paarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch.

The evening is at leisure — a last dinner among the vines, or the spa, or both.

Overnight: WedgeView Country House & Spa, Stellenbosch — Superior Room, bed and breakfast

Day 10 :

Farewell to the Cape

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast and the last of the vineyard views before checking out. Your guide meets you for the private transfer to Cape Town International Airport in good time for your onward flight.

If you would like to extend, the Garden Route, a Kruger safari or a few nights on the Indian Ocean coast all pair beautifully with this itinerary. Your Sevira travel designer can add them to your quote.