Study Abroad in Stellenbosch: Cultural Excursions

Garden Route Tour (6 days)

Included in program fee

Every semester the AIFS Resident Director organizes a trip to the famous Garden Route during the break. There is much to experience on the Garden Route, including kayaking with seals and dolphins, visiting cango caves or an ostrich farm. The Garden Route boasts unspoiled stretches of rocky coast, mountains covered by indigenous forests, beaches, amber-colored rivers and chains of lakes. At the Knysna Elephant Park you can join the elephants that live in a free-range environment, and for a unique and exclusive early morning or late afternoon walk, touch them and even feed them. If you have time left, there are always the game reserves and safaris elsewhere in South Africa and neighboring countries.

Visit the Kleinplasie Open Air Museum for an insight into the lifestyle of an early Cape farming family. Continue via Robertson to Swellendam and from there through the Little Karoo via Barrydale and Calitzdorp to Oudtshoorn, the Ostrich capital of South Africa. After a visit to the limestone caverns at the famous Cango Caves, check into a country lodge.

Visit to the Crocodile and Cheetah farm and one of the many area Ostrich farms. Travel by bus across the Outeniqua Mountains to George and along the coast to Wilderness. Board the old steam train, the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe, at Wilderness station for a scenic two hour ride through the lake districts of Wilderness and Sedgefield to Knysna.

Enjoy a cruise across the Knysna Lagoon to the Featherbed Nature Reserve. A guided trailer ride to the top of the reserve reveals marvelous views of the area. Join the guide for a walk back or jump on the trailer for a slow drive back to the lagoon. Lunch will be served under the Milkwood trees before cruising back to Knysna in the late afternoon.

Head east towards Plettenberg Bay, stopping at Monkey Land to “meet” the different species of monkeys and apes living in the reserve. Continue to the indigenous forests of Tsitsikamma National Park. Enjoy an afternoon walk to the suspension bridge at Storm’s River Mouth. Finally, visits to Big Tree and Nature’s Valley en route to Mossel Bay provide the perfect end to the trip of a lifetime.

Includes accommodations, transportation, breakfasts, dinners, sightseeing and entrance fees.

Optional Safari to the Kalahari (3 days - $550)

Spring semester only

Visit the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park on the borders of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana with a professional safari tour leader. The park, which is malaria free, covers over 8 million acres of desert sands and sparse vegetation. On the full-day game drive students will have an excellent chance of seeing rare animals including cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and the definitive black-maned lions that roam the red sand dunes. Also seen in large numbers are other animals such as wildebeest, springbok and eland.

Includes transfer by bus, camping equipment, breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days, a full-day guided drive, a guided desert walk with San Bushmen, a ferry boat cruise on the Orange River, and a visit to the mighty Augrabies Falls. Dates are tentative and subject to change.

Optional Excursion to the Cederberg Mountains (3 days - $195)

This wild and unspoiled land, two hours north of Cape Town, has lots to offer, namely the beauty of the mountains, rock art, bird-watching, historical buildings and the scenic beauty of wild flowers. Cederberg, proclaimed a wilderness area in 1973, is also ideal for hiking and rock climbing. Accommodations in mountain cabins at a local farm. Meals will be cooked the South African way, on an open fire called a “braai.” Vegetarian food will also be provided.

Includes accommodations, transportation, Friday dinner; Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner; Sunday breakfast and lunch.

Dates and itineraries for all excursions are tentative and subject to change.