Experiences
The experiences worth building a holiday around
A holiday is made of days, and days are made of these. One hundred and ten things worth building an itinerary around, grouped by where they happen.
The first question
Road or flying
Nearly every safari answers this before it answers anything else, and the trips we are proudest of do some of each. One page sets the two against one another properly; the two halves below are the detail once you have chosen.
Road Safaris
Drive it, and the country between the parks becomes part of the trip. The Rift Valley, the tea, the escarpment, and a vehicle that is yours for the week.
Flying Safaris
Fifty minutes instead of six hours. Fly between the parks and a seven-night trip holds five days of game viewing rather than three.
What you do
Seven experiences
Some are a morning out of a longer trip; some are the reason for the trip. Tell us which ones matter and the itinerary arranges itself around them.
Balloon Safaris
Up before the sun, an hour over the plains with the burner off, and breakfast laid out wherever the wind puts you down.
Rhino Conservation at Ol Pejeta
A day on a Laikipia conservancy built around black rhino, where the fences, the tracking teams and the two remaining northern whites are the point rather than a detour on the way to somewhere else.
Elephant Conservation in Samburu
Northern Kenya, where elephants have been followed by name for decades and orphaned calves are raised by the communities who share the land with them.
Night Game Drives
An hour or two after dinner in an open vehicle behind a red-filtered spotlight, out on a conservancy where driving after dark is allowed, looking for the animals that sleep through the daylight hours.
Helicopter Safaris
The country roads do not reach: Suguta and Turkana in Kenya's north, Natron and the Rift wall in Tanzania's, with a picnic on lava and back for dinner.
Horseback Safaris
Game at eye level and no engine noise.
Camel Safaris
Walking pace through Laikipia with the camels carrying the camp, and a Samburu guide reading the ground ahead of you.
Five experiences
Tanzania
The other half of the Serengeti ecosystem, with a collapsed volcano full of animals in the middle of it. Bigger distances than Kenya, and a quieter kind of remote once you land.
Balloon Safaris
Up before the sun, an hour over the plains with the burner off, and breakfast laid out wherever the wind puts you down.
The Ngorongoro Crater
A day inside a collapsed volcano, on a floor two thousand feet below the rim you slept on, with more animals per square mile than anywhere else you will drive in East Africa.
A Morning with the Hadza
A few hours near Lake Eyasi with a Hadza family who still hunt and gather for a living, walking out with them at dawn, at their pace and on their terms, if they are willing that week.
Fly Camping
One or two nights in a light camp pitched away from the lodge: canvas, a bucket shower, dinner by the fire and a walk back in the morning.
Helicopter Safaris
The country roads do not reach: Suguta and Turkana in Kenya's north, Natron and the Rift wall in Tanzania's, with a picnic on lava and back for dinner.
One experience
Rwanda
Gorilla country. Forest high on the flanks of the volcanoes, mist moving through it, and a green folded landscape falling away below.
Seven experiences
Uganda
Rainforest, savannah and a great deal of open water in one country. Gorillas here too, in a forest that keeps its own weather.
Gorilla Trekking
One hour with a habituated gorilla family in Rwanda or Uganda, at the end of a walk that could be forty minutes or most of the morning.
Gorilla Habituation
Four hours with a gorilla family that is still getting used to people, in Bwindi's southern sector, with a research team rather than a tourist group.
Chimpanzee Trekking
An hour with a chimpanzee community in Kibale Forest, mostly spent walking fast and looking up.
The Tree-Climbing Lions
The Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where the lions are known for lying up in fig trees through the heat of the day.
The Kazinga Channel by Boat
A slow boat along the channel joining Lakes George and Edward, with hippo in the water, buffalo and elephant on the banks, and birds packed along the shoreline the whole way.
Shoebill Tracking
A morning in a canoe through the papyrus at Mabamba Swamp, close to Entebbe, looking for a prehistoric-looking grey bird that nobody can promise you will find.
White-Water Rafting on the Nile
A day on the water at Jinja, where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria.
Twelve experiences
Seychelles
Granite islands and an ocean you get into rather than look at. Quieter days than a safari asks for, and most of them on the water.
Island Hopping in Seychelles
Mahé for the mountains, Praslin for the palm forest, La Digue for the bicycles.
Catamaran Sailing
A day sail out of Mahé or Praslin: two hulls, a skipper who knows which anchorage is out of the wind, and lunch somewhere you could not have driven to.
Vallée de Mai
A palm forest on Praslin where the coco de mer grows and nowhere else on earth does.
La Digue by Bicycle
An island with almost no cars on it, a bicycle hired at the jetty, and Anse Source d'Argent at the far end of a track through a vanilla plantation.
Giant Tortoises on Curieuse
A boat across from Praslin to an island of red earth and free-roaming Aldabra tortoises, with a mangrove boardwalk between two bays and lunch on the sand.
Snorkelling Ste Anne Marine Park
A cluster of islands in sheltered water off Victoria, protected for fifty years.
The Creole Table
Fish on ice in the Victoria market, a roadside grill at dusk, and octopus in coconut milk somewhere with six tables.
Deep-Sea Fishing
Out to where the plateau drops away, with a skipper who has been reading this water for years.
Sunset Cruise
Out for the last hour of light with the engine off and a drink in your hand.
A Day at Anse Lazio
Praslin's north-west corner: takamaka trees for shade, granite headlands at both ends, and swimming water rather than a reef.
Mahé from Coast to Coast
One day across Mahé and round its south: Victoria's market and clock tower, the mountain road over to the west, a Creole lunch, a spice garden and a village of craft makers.
The Walk to Anse Major
A guided walk along Mahé's north-west coast to a beach with no road to it, where a catamaran waits in the bay with lunch, a swim and the sail home.
Thirteen experiences
Mauritius
One island with several coasts, and a green interior behind them. Reef days, mountain days and plantation country, each with its own kind of morning.
Undersea Walk
A brass-and-glass helmet lowered over your head, a ladder down into the lagoon, and twenty minutes walking the sand floor with the reef fish at eye level.
Catamaran Day to Ile aux Cerfs
Out of Trou d'Eau Douce under sail, a snorkel stop in the lagoon, lunch grilled on deck, and an afternoon on the sandbar the east coast is famous for.
Dolphins off Tamarin
Out of Tamarin Bay before the sun clears the mountains, looking for spinner dolphins in the flat water along the west coast, and no promises about what the sea does that morning.
Ile aux Aigrettes
A guided walk on a coral islet off the south-east coast, through the last of Mauritius's lowland ebony forest, among pink pigeons and giant tortoises that were put back on purpose.
Climbing Le Morne Brabant
The basalt mountain on the south-west corner, walked early with a guide: a forest track, a steep upper section, and a summit plateau over the lagoon that everybody photographs from below.
Chamarel: Coloured Earths and the Waterfall
The winding road up off the coast to a plateau of rum, coffee and dead volcanoes: dunes of clay in half a dozen colours, and a waterfall that drops off the edge of the plateau in one go.
The Wild South Coast
The one stretch of Mauritius the reef does not protect: open ocean hitting black cliffs at Gris Gris, waterfalls over basalt at Souillac, and the lake in the crater where the island comes to pray.
The Tea Route
Tea bushes on the high ground south of Curepipe, a working factory you can smell before you reach it, and a tasting on a terrace above a lake with vanilla in the cup.
Port Louis on a Market Morning
The capital before lunch: the fruit hall and the tailors in the central market, dholl puri eaten standing up, Chinatown, and the quay where the indenture ships landed.
A Sega Evening
A goatskin drum warmed over a fire, a rattle full of seeds, and the music Creole Mauritius made out of the worst part of its history, danced barefoot, on sand, until late.
The Blue Safari Submarine
A small air-conditioned submarine that takes you down beyond snorkelling depth, with the reef and its fish passing the porthole.
La Vallée des Couleurs
A nature park in the hills above the south coast, where a bare hillside shows red, ochre, violet and grey.
Pamplemousses and the North
The top of the island in a day: the botanical garden at Pamplemousses, a plantation house with its own jellies and rum to taste, and the red-roofed church at Cap Malheureux.
Ten experiences
Dubai
A city built fast at the edge of a desert, with the creek it started on still trading. Glass towers on one bank, gold and spice on the other, and sand where the streets run out.
An Evening in the Desert
Out of the city on the afternoon road, over the dunes in a 4x4 while the light turns orange, then camels, a falcon on the glove and dinner under lights on the sand.
The Creek and the Souks
The old trading city, crossed on a wooden abra for coins: gold in Deira, spices and cloth on the far bank, dhows still loading for Iran and India, and a lot of tea drunk while you decide.
The Observation Decks
The city read from above: the top of the Burj Khalifa, the Frame standing between the old town and the new, and the deck on the Palm that looks back at the skyline rather than down at it.
A Dhow Dinner Cruise
A wooden boat strung with lights, dinner served while you move, and two hours of the city going past at water level: the trading creek if you want the old town, the Marina if you want the towers.
Old Dubai and Its Museums
Al Fahidi's coral-and-gypsum lanes and wind towers, the museums along the Shindagha side of the creek, coffee poured in a courtyard, and the short version of how a pearling town became this.
Waterparks and a Beach Day
The day the children pick: slides at Aquaventure or Wild Wadi, then the warm flat sea off JBR or Kite Beach with the towers standing behind the sand and somewhere to eat every few steps.
The Mall, the Aquarium and the Fountain
Downtown Dubai in one evening: sharks and rays passing over your head in the aquarium tunnel, a wander through a mall with more than a thousand shops, then the fountain on the lake under the Burj Khalifa, going up every half hour after dark.
Global Village and the Miracle Garden
Two things Dubai only does in the cool months: an afternoon among flower sculptures at the Miracle Garden, lit up once the sun goes, then Global Village after dark, with food and shopping from dozens of countries, fairground rides and a stage that barely stops.
A Yacht Out of the Marina
An hour or three on a yacht out of Dubai Marina: between the towers, past the big wheel on Bluewaters and the beach at JBR, then along the coast with the city behind you, with breakfast, a barbecue or the sunset depending on when you sail.
Theme Parks and the Snow
The family days that are not about water: Marvel and cartoon worlds indoors at IMG Worlds, Legoland, Motiongate and Real Madrid World at Dubai Parks and Resorts, and real snow with penguins at Ski Dubai, kept below freezing all year inside a shopping mall.
Six experiences
Abu Dhabi
The capital, on an island off the coast. A white mosque best seen as the light goes, a museum under a dome that lets the sun through in stars, and a long corniche with its own beach.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
White marble under 82 domes, the world's largest hand-knotted carpet across the prayer hall, and floodlights that follow the phases of the moon.
The Yas Island Theme Parks
Four big parks on one island: Ferrari World and the fastest coaster launch anywhere, Warner Bros.
A Desert Evening from Abu Dhabi
Out towards Al Ain to the dunes of Al Khatim: a 4x4 over the sand as the light goes, camels, Arabic coffee and dates at camp, and dinner under the stars.
The Louvre and the Saadiyat Museums
The Louvre Abu Dhabi under its dome of 7,850 stars, teamLab's rooms of light, the new Zayed National Museum and a T.
Qasr Al Watan and the Corniche
A working presidential palace that opens its Great Hall to visitors, the fort where the city began, the heritage village on the breakwater and eight kilometres of waterfront.
The Mangroves and the Beach
A kayak through the protected mangroves at high tide, herons along the channels and flamingos in season, then an afternoon on the white sand at Saadiyat, where hawksbill turtles nest.
Six experiences
Singapore
A city that is also a country, ordered and green and at its best after dark. The eating is the through-line: a shared table between everything else the day holds.
Gardens by the Bay
Steel trees planted the whole way up with ferns and orchids, a walkway strung between two of them, a cooled cloud forest with a waterfall inside it, and a light show on the grass after dark.
A Day on Sentosa
Over the water by cable car, then whichever Sentosa you came for: Universal Studios for the whole day, or beaches, a boardwalk, an aquarium and a luge run down the hill with the sea in front of you.
The Hawker Table
A hall of open stalls, a plastic packet of tissues holding your seat, and chicken rice, char kway teow, laksa and a satay order arriving from four different cooks who each make one thing.
The Night Safari
An open tram through low-lit forest after dark, then walking trails on foot: tapirs, civets, flying squirrels going over your head, and a leopard doing what leopards do at night with very little between you.
Marina Bay After Dark
The waterfront promenade round the bay on foot, a bumboat up the river past the old godowns, the Merlion spitting into the water and the whole skyline coming on at once when the light goes.
A Peranakan Morning in Katong
Two-storey shophouses painted mint, coral and butter yellow, tiled façades and carved shutters, a bowl of Katong laksa eaten with a spoon, and kueh in a box to take away.
Twenty-six experiences
South Africa
Two oceans at the bottom of the continent, and a mountain standing over the city between them. Vineyards behind it, a whale coast along from it, and Big Five country away to the north.
Table Mountain and the City Bowl
Up the front of the mountain in a cable car that turns as it climbs, then down into the bowl it stands over: Bo-Kaap's painted streets, the Company's Garden, District Six, and Signal Hill for the last of the light.
A Day in the Winelands
Cape Dutch gables under blue mountains: Stellenbosch's oak streets and student cafés, Franschhoek's kitchens and its open-sided tram between estates, and lunch that runs long enough to need a driver.
Game Drives in the Kruger
Big Five country on the low veld: open vehicles out before the gate opens, mopane and marula rather than open plain, and the Panorama Route along the escarpment on the way in or out.
The Garden Route
The coast road east of the Cape: Knysna's lagoon between two headlands, Tsitsikamma's suspension bridge over a river mouth, the Karoo's caves and ostrich farms inland, and a different bed most nights.
The Whale Coast at Hermanus
Southern right whales in Walker Bay, watched from a cliff path above the town rather than from a boat, with the Hemel-en-Aarde vineyards behind it and a coast road out that is half the reason to go.
Robben Island and the Waterfront
The ferry out across the bay, a prison tour led in part by men who were held there, the limestone quarry, one cell, and then back to the working harbour it sails from, with its market, museum and aquarium.
Cape Point and the Peninsula
A loop of the peninsula south of Cape Town: Chapman's Peak, the harbour at Hout Bay, the headland at Cape Point, and penguins among the boulders on the way home.
Walk to Freedom in Cape Town
The City Hall balcony where Mandela spoke on the day he walked free, then District Six and its museum, and Langa, Cape Town's oldest township, telling its own story.
Cape Town's Saturday Markets
Saturday morning the way Cape Town spends it: breakfast at the Oranjezicht City Farm Market by the sea, then Neighbourgoods at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock.
Feathers and Fins in Cape Town
A family afternoon in two halves: the walk-through aviaries of World of Birds in Hout Bay, then the Two Oceans Aquarium on the Waterfront, where a kelp forest moves behind glass.
Sunset and Dinner out of Town
Sparkling wine on a beach outside Cape Town as the sun goes down over the sea, the Southern Cross found in the dark, then a long dinner of seafood and Cape cooking.
The Winelands, Privately
A private day through the Cape's old estates: Rustenburg's long history, Delaire Graff's art above Stellenbosch, and L'Ormarins with its manor house and the Franschhoek Motor Museum.
The Swartland and Riebeek Kasteel
A private day north into the Swartland: red wine at Allesverloren, a slow few hours in Riebeek Kasteel among galleries and orchards, then olive oil and wine at Kloovenburg.
The Robertson Wine Valley
A private day over the mountains to the Robertson valley on the Breede River: cellar-door tastings, olives and cheese, a short river cruise and brandy at Klipdrift.
West Coast Wild Flowers
Spring on the West Coast, when the veld turns orange, white and purple: a private day through Darling to the Postberg flowers in the West Coast National Park, above the Langebaan lagoon.
Woodstock's Makers and Studios
A private day in Woodstock, Cape Town's workshop district: designers' studios at the Woodstock Exchange, a shoemaker at work, the Old Biscuit Mill, and bronze cast at a foundry.
Soweto and the Apartheid Museum
Soweto's own history, from the Freedom Charter at Kliptown to Regina Mundi, the Hector Pieterson Museum and Vilakazi Street, as an afternoon or as a full day with the Apartheid Museum.
Johannesburg and Constitution Hill
Johannesburg in a morning: the Old Fort prison and the Constitutional Court on Constitution Hill, the city the gold built, Maboneng's streets on foot, and back through leafy Houghton.
Cullinan Diamonds and Pretoria
The Cullinan mine, where the largest gem diamond ever found came out of the ground, then Pretoria: the Voortrekker Monument, Paul Kruger's house and the Union Buildings above the city.
Pilanesberg Game Drive
Big Five country as a day out of Johannesburg: an early start and a guided game drive through the Pilanesberg, a park set in the rings of an ancient volcano.
Cradle of Humankind and Lesedi
A day between deep time and living culture: Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind, where the fossil caves are, then Lesedi's homesteads, songs and a traditional meal to finish.
Drakensberg Rock Art
A long day out of Durban to Giant's Castle in the Drakensberg: a walk up the river to caves the San painted, a local guide to read them, then lunch.
Sani Pass into Lesotho
Up Sani Pass by 4x4 into Lesotho: a passport stamp at the top of the escarpment, a Basotho village, and lunch at a pub looking back down the hairpins.
Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift
The Anglo-Zulu War battlefields of 1879: Isandlwana, where the Zulu army overran a British camp, and Rorke's Drift, the mission station that held out the same night.
Durban City and Markets
A Durban morning from the Golden Mile and the harbour to the spice and herb stalls of the Warwick markets, the Phansi Museum's beadwork, the Botanic Gardens and the stadium arch.
The KwaZulu-Natal Midlands
A private day on the Midlands' back roads: the sculpture at the Mandela capture site, shoes and bags made by hand, farm goat's cheese, Ardmore's ceramics and tea facing the Drakensberg.
Eleven experiences
Zimbabwe
Victoria Falls from the rainforest side: a path along the rim through the spray, the Zambezi wide and slow above the drop, and the gorges zigzagging away below it.
Victoria Falls on Foot
A guided walk along the edge of the gorge, facing the falls: rainforest and spray on the Zimbabwean bank, the Knife Edge Bridge on the Zambian one.
The Flight of Angels
A helicopter over Victoria Falls and down the zigzag gorges below it.
A Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi
Two hours on the river above the falls as the sun goes down, with a drink in hand and hippo grunting somewhere in the reeds.
White-Water Rafting on the Zambezi
A full day at the bottom of the Batoka Gorge, rafting the Zambezi below the falls between dark basalt walls.
Bungee from the Victoria Falls Bridge
A bungee jump off the old railway bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia, into the gorge below the falls, with the Zambezi a long way down and the spray hanging upstream.
The Batoka Gorge Swing and Zipline
The gorge below Victoria Falls from the end of a rope or a cable: a swing, a zipline, a flying fox and an abseil, from a base on the rim.
The Zambezi by Jet Boat
A small jet boat that threads the shallow channels between the islands above Victoria Falls, where the bigger boats cannot go, in the late afternoon.
A Day in Chobe, Botswana
Chobe is in Botswana, a day across the border from Victoria Falls or Livingstone: a boat on the Chobe River, a game drive in the national park, and lunch above the water.
Dinner and Drums at the Boma
An evening of food, song and drumming at Victoria Falls: a chitenge wrapped round you at the door, game off the braai, and a drum of your own by the end.
A Sunset Cycle to the Falls Bridge
A guided bicycle ride through Victoria Falls town, out along the river on Zambezi Drive and down to the old bridge over the gorge, arriving as the light goes.
A Home-Hosted Meal in Chinotimba
Lunch or dinner with a family at home in Chinotimba, in Victoria Falls town: sadza, kapenta, pumpkin leaves, a glass of Mazoe, and a long conversation.
Eight experiences
Zambia
The other bank of the same falls, with Livingstone for a town. The river is the one you crossed the border beside, and the island at the lip of the drop is reached from here.
Victoria Falls on Foot
A guided walk along the edge of the gorge, facing the falls: rainforest and spray on the Zimbabwean bank, the Knife Edge Bridge on the Zambian one.
Livingstone Island and Devil's Pool
A boat to the island at the lip of the falls, a meal on it, and a swim at the very edge when the river allows.
The Flight of Angels
A helicopter over Victoria Falls and down the zigzag gorges below it.
A Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi
Two hours on the river above the falls as the sun goes down, with a drink in hand and hippo grunting somewhere in the reeds.
White-Water Rafting on the Zambezi
A full day at the bottom of the Batoka Gorge, rafting the Zambezi below the falls between dark basalt walls.
Bungee from the Victoria Falls Bridge
A bungee jump off the old railway bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia, into the gorge below the falls, with the Zambezi a long way down and the spray hanging upstream.
The Batoka Gorge Swing and Zipline
The gorge below Victoria Falls from the end of a rope or a cable: a swing, a zipline, a flying fox and an abseil, from a base on the rim.
A Day in Chobe, Botswana
Chobe is in Botswana, a day across the border from Victoria Falls or Livingstone: a boat on the Chobe River, a game drive in the national park, and lunch above the water.
And the occasion
When the trip is about a date
Proposals, weddings, milestone birthdays, reunions, babymoons and retirements: the date is fixed, so we plan backwards from it.
How this works
Pick the moments, not the package
Most people arrive with one fixed idea (the balloon, the gorillas, a fortieth birthday) and the rest is open. That is the right way round.
The fixed idea
The one thing the trip is really for.
Your dates
Some of these care a great deal which month you come.
The days either side
We build the rest around it, and price it properly.
Plan an experience
Tell a travel designer which one matters most. We answer within one working day.