A Wedding in Cape Town, and a Decision That Could Go Two Ways
How one client turned a single wedding invitation into a two week journey across South Africa and into Zimbabwe, and the two very different ways we're helping him finish it
A wedding invitation abroad is one of my favourite things to work with. It gives a client a fixed point in the calendar, a reason to be on the other side of the world, and from there the rest of the trip gets to be entirely their own. That's exactly the position one of my clients is in at the moment. He's heading to a wedding in Stellenbosch, and rather than book a week and come home, we've built a route that takes in Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, a safari, and Victoria Falls. There's just one decision left to make, and it's a good one to have.
Two Nights in Cape Town
The trip opens in Cape Town, staying at One&Only Cape Town on the edge of the V&A Waterfront, with Table Mountain visible from the room. Two nights is enough to shake off the jet lag, take the cable car up the mountain on a clear day, and get a first taste of the city before the wedding takes over. Direct flights from London to Cape Town run at around twelve hours with British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Norse Atlantic, so there's no connection to worry about on the way out, which matters when the whole trip is built around being somewhere on time.
Two Nights for the Wedding, in Stellenbosch
From Cape Town it's a short drive into the Winelands for the wedding itself. Stellenbosch is one of those places that makes an ordinary free afternoon feel like a holiday in its own right, all gabled Cape Dutch buildings, oak-lined streets and vineyards running right up to the mountains. Two nights gives enough time to enjoy the wedding properly and still have a morning free to explore before moving on to the next leg.
Then Comes the Fork in the Road
This is where the trip splits into two options, and where my client and I have been going back and forth. Both routes end the same way, in Victoria Falls, but they get there completely differently.
Option One: A Proper Safari, Then the Falls
Three nights at a Big Five lodge in the Greater Kruger area, with morning and evening game drives built into every day. This is the option for anyone who wants safari to be the main event rather than a side note, since three full days gives a genuinely strong chance of seeing everything on the list, not just a taster. From there, three nights at Victoria Falls, staying close enough to walk to the falls themselves, with time for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi and a couple of local game drives before flying home. It's worth noting that a yellow fever certificate can be requested on arrival into Zimbabwe if you're connecting through a country with transmission risk, so that's one to check before booking flights.
Option Two: Rovos Rail to Victoria Falls
The second option swaps the flight to safari for a flight to Pretoria, with an overnight there before boarding Rovos Rail the following morning. From Pretoria, the train runs north through Bela-Bela and Modimolle, crosses the Tropic of Capricorn and the Limpopo River, and rolls through Bulawayo before a game drive through Hwange National Park along the way. Three nights on board bring you into Victoria Falls itself, one of the more memorable ways to arrive anywhere, followed by two nights at the falls with time for further game drives before flying home. This is one of the great train journeys in the world, and it comes with a genuine trade-off: less total safari time than Option One, but an experience that very few people ever get to say they've done. Cabin availability on this particular departure is already down to single figures, so it isn't one to sit on.
A Few Practical Notes
• Visas: UK passport holders can enter South Africa visa-free for stays of up to 90 days. Zimbabwe is different, a visa is required for British citizens, usually issued on arrival for around 30 days and paid for in US dollars, though it can also be arranged as an eVisa in advance.
• Best time to travel: South Africa's summer months, broadly November through March, tend to give the best of Cape Town's weather, while safari viewing in the Greater Kruger and Hwange is strong for most of the year, with the dry winter months making game easier to spot around waterholes.
• What's included: both options are built on a fully guided basis at the safari stages, with game drives, park fees and most meals included at the lodges. Rovos Rail includes all meals, drinks and the Hwange game drive as part of the fare.
• Passports: both South Africa and Zimbabwe require at least two to three completely blank visa pages and six months' validity from the date of arrival, worth checking well before travel.
So, Which Would You Choose?
My client is currently weighing it up, and I genuinely don't know which way he'll land. Option One gives him the deepest possible safari experience and a simpler route between stops. Option Two gives him one of the world's iconic rail journeys and an arrival into Victoria Falls that most people only ever read about. Either way, it's proof that a single wedding invitation, handled properly, can turn into a trip worth talking about for years.
If you've got an occasion abroad on the horizon and you're only thinking about the event itself, it might be worth thinking bigger. Get in touch and let's see what we can build around it.
