Southern Africa Luxury Trip

Begin your trip in Johannesburg. It’s been a lengthy journey, so we receive your party right at the jetway. You’ll be whisked through customs alongside a VIP escort, and bags are loaded into a waiting vehicle. A private driver brings you to the Saxon Hotel Villas & Spa, an oasis tucked within 10 acres of gardens. Shake off your jet lag with a spa treatment or dinner at Qunu. 

Creative, dynamic, and complex, Johannesburg is a place best deciphered with the help of a local insider. Meet artist James Delaney in his Victoria Yards studio where he will pair your group with a Joburg Guru for a private city tour. Edited to your interests, you might delve into street art and local makers, architecture and history, contemporary art and museums, or hidden gems and local haunts. 

Detour to a most unexpected wilderness, Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, located in a secretive corner of Zimbabwe. Travel via a private charter, where a guide meets your group upon arrival. A short drive brings you to Singita Pamushana, one of Africa’s most exclusive safari lodges. Settle into just one of eight suites perched high on a sandstone ridge overlooking the shimmering Malilangwe Dam. Later, sit for a gorgeous dinner eaten first with the eyes.

At Pamushana, game drives unfold across 130,000 private acres where leopards, lions, rhinos, buffalo, elephants, hyenas, hippos, and cheetahs take refuge. Moving at your own pace and without distraction, wildlife encounters are preserved in unblinking wonder. No vehicles jostling for a better view; no reason to move on until you’ve fully absorbed the moment; no one else in sight.

Days at Malilangwe are textured with safari experiences that coax you beyond the Land Cruiser. Follow guides into the veld on a walking safari or mountain biking safari. Though you’ll cover less ground than driving, you gain an intimate understanding of the landscape, noticing the finer aspects, from bugs to flower buds. 

Stick together or split up to follow the whims that make your heart leap. Stake out a spot in the photographic safari hide to play waterhole paparazzi; cast a line to hook a tiger fish or tilapia; inspect 2,000-year-old rock art sites; melt during a massage; or meet a local Shangaan community. Sundowners are served on the pontoon boat, and dinner is served upon a candle-lit table beneath an ancient baobab. 

Board a charter flight to Victoria Falls, stopping en route at the UNESCO-designated Great Zimbabwe National Monument. The site’s towering walls, built without mortar, still defy explanation and offer a tangible connection to Africa’s pre-colonial past. Your party’s tour is animated by the esteemed anthropologist Paul Hubbard, who brings it all to life. In the afternoon, settle into Royal Chundu Island Lodge, arriving in time for a convivial sunset cruise on the Zambezi.

After morning coffees, depart for a privately guided tour of Victoria Falls, exploring the icon’s history and many awe-inspiring viewpoints. Cross into Zambia to visit to Livingstone Island, where Dr. Livingstone first viewed “the Smoke that Thunders” in 1855. Enjoy a three-course seated picnic lunch at this most complete vantage point, then dare the bravest in the group to swim in Devil’s Pool or Angel’s Armchair. 

Anointed as one of the best lodges in Zambia, we’ve scheduled your group a full day to revel in Royal Chundu’s jungle island aura. Rise to coffee delivered through a butler hatch then go canoeing, fishing, or birding. A standalone tub on the deck overlooking the river beckons. Village-sourced ingredients mean meals here celebrate the local terroir. Sip a baobab pina colada then graze a Zambian tasting menu at dinner. 

Depart Zambia for Botswana, flying into the heart of the Okavango Delta. Your party stays at Duba Plains, Botswana’s answer to the Maasai Mara: a remote, wildlife-rich reserve known for thrilling predator-prey dynamics and pristine floodplains. The only operator in this private concession, your safari is as wild as it is exclusive. The camp is notably owned by Dereck and Beverly Joubert, National Geographic filmmakers and prolific conservationists.

Issued an exclusive-use vehicle, draft your own schedule and chart your own course. You’ll wend through landscapes of palm-dotted islands, flood plains, and woodlands, surveying for high-stakes wildlife dramas. Ready your camera for a photographic safari that captures portraits of resident lions, hunting buffalo or swimming in pursuit of lechwe. Between outings, relax on the villa’s elevated deck with views of passing herds or sample rare vintages in the curated wine cellar.

Your party takes a charter flight to Selinda Camp, another standout Joubert property with a conservation heart. Moored upon the wild banks of the Selinda Spillway where it enters the Linyanti River, armchair safaris start right on the timber-hewn decks. Villas are replete with an infinity pool and adorned with Zanzibar doors, a copper bathtub, and Persian rugs. Dinner is a parade of small plates during a chef-hosted interactive dining experienc

A private guide and vehicle are ready when you are. Game drives thread through 320,000 acres of private wilderness, shared only by a handful of other camps. When water levels rise, a labyrinth of channels is explored on boating safaris. Pinch-me wildlife moments might include African wild dogs, the Selinda lion pride (made famous in National Geographic’s Birth of a Pride), and submerged bull elephants munching on water lilies. 

Fly through Maun to arrive in radiant Cape Town. Relish one of the world’s most captivating cities across four unhurried days, getting to know the Mother City through a trio of local insiders. Set above Bantry Bay, a private villa at Ellerman House is your group’s ocean view sanctuary. Enjoy the property’s private South African art collection, exceptional wine cellar, and take advantage of the private chef for one celebratory dinner served in your villa.

Spend the day with David Bristow, renowned environmental writer, former Getaway magazine editor, and one of South Africa’s great storytellers—whose deep knowledge of place brings Cape Town alive. Weather permitting, you’ll hike to the summit of Table Mountain before wandering the city’s layered past, where David’s narratives give color to every street. Pause for lunch at a favorite local haunt, then continue uncovering Cape Town’s history in his memorable company. 

Dive into Cape Town coffee culture with Winston Douglas Thomas, a three-time national barista champion. Arrive at a secret location to sample your first cup, then join him in his home kitchen for a nuanced tasting of one specialty blend, prepared three different ways. Over a light lunch, he recounts the journey that made him a coffee ambassador. 

Spend the day exploring the Cape Peninsula with wild-food innovator Roushanna Gray, whose foraging philosophy follows nature’s shifting seasons. Drive the dramatic contours of Chapman’s Peak Drive before arriving at Veld & Sea for a coastal or fynbos forage and a seated lunch shaped by the landscape. Continue to windswept Cape Point and its sweeping vistas, meet the penguins of Boulders Beach, and end in artistic, salt-washed Kalk Bay.

A private driver transfers your party to the heart of Franschhoek Valley for a three-night stay in South Africa’s Cape Winelands. Hemmed by rows of grapes, La Residence’s six-room private villa emotes the warmth of a refined country home. Gather at the pool, games room, and dinner table for the type of bonding that only happens when staying under the same shared roof. A butler serves happy hour sips and snacks.  

Taste the Cape terroir alongside Delaille Raubenheimer, one of South Africa’s most influential wine specialists whose globe-spanning harvests and sommelier experience shape her vibrant approach. With Delaille as your guide, meet pioneering winemakers, taste varietals that express the region’s character, and linger over a slow vineyard lunch. A stroll through a historic Winelands town rounds out a day steeped in stories, craftsmanship, and the landscapes that inspire them.

Chefs and vintners aren’t the only inspired makers in the Winelands. Alongside internationally acclaimed studio sculptor Dylan Lewis, you’ll explore the region’s art scene. Together, wander Lewis’s sculpture garden (three decades in the making) where fynbos plantings shape the land as deliberately as his bronzes. Step inside his working studio to better understand his creative process, then linger over coffee and cake in the atmospheric Old Store.

Savor a final farm-to-table breakfast in the golden morning light before reluctantly departing La Residence. Your extraordinary journey across Southern Africa comes to a gentle close when a private driver transfers your party to the Cape Town Airport. Carrying a suitcase of shared memories, board your international flight home.