South Africa Garden Route and Cape Town: Tsitsikamma, Oudtshoorn and Route 62, 9 Nights

You are met at O.R. Tambo International Airport and taken to a hotel nearby for the night. With a short onward flight in the morning, this is a night to rest rather than explore; the hotel restaurant or a nearby mall is the easiest option for dinner after the long journey.

A morning flight south to Gqeberha, the city formerly called Port Elizabeth, on Algoa Bay. You are met and taken to your hotel near the beachfront. The afternoon is free for a walk along the promenade at Summerstrand or a visit to the Donkin Reserve with its lighthouse and pyramid memorial.

West along the coast into the Tsitsikamma section of the Garden Route National Park, where forest meets rocky shore. A trail leads to the suspension bridge across the mouth of the Storms River. You continue past the Bloukrans Bridge, home of a famous bungee jump, to Plettenberg Bay for dinner.

A morning at two neighbouring sanctuaries: Birds of Eden, a vast free-flight aviary over a forest gorge, and Monkeyland, where rescued primates live in natural forest and guides lead walks among them. Later you visit Knysna, with its lagoon and the sandstone cliffs of the Heads at its mouth. Dinner is back at Plettenberg Bay.

Inland over the Outeniqua mountains into the dry Little Karoo, where Oudtshoorn grew rich on ostrich feathers more than a century ago. A guided visit to a working ostrich farm explains the birds and the industry, and the grand sandstone “feather palaces” of the town are a reminder of the boom years.

In the morning, a guided tour through the Cango Caves, a series of limestone chambers full of stalactites and stalagmites. Then comes a long, scenic drive along Route 62 through the Little Karoo, with its small towns and farm stalls, and on through the wine valleys to Cape Town by evening.

A full day around the Peninsula along the Atlantic seaboard past Clifton and Camps Bay, over Chapman’s Peak Drive and down to Cape Point, where the lighthouse stands above the cliffs. On the way back you stop at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town to watch the African penguin colony from its boardwalks.

A day in the valleys east of Cape Town, where vineyards run up to steep mountains and the estates are built in the gabled Cape Dutch style. The tour includes tastings at three wineries and time in one of the historic towns such as Stellenbosch or Franschhoek. Non-drinkers can ask for grape juice or chocolate pairings at many estates.

A morning city tour, starting, weather permitting, with the cableway up Table Mountain for the view over the city, Robben Island and the Atlantic; the cableway ticket is paid separately. The tour continues through the Bo-Kaap and the old centre. The afternoon is free for the V&A Waterfront.

Breakfast, then the drive to Cape Town’s airport for the flight home. With a late flight, the Kirstenbosch botanical garden or the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa at the Waterfront are both good ways to spend the last hours.