Visiting South Africa.

[Snowy Owl]

My OH and I would love to visit South Africa. However, we do not want to spend time on safari. The wine country appeals, as does the coast and Cape Town, possibly the gold and diamond mining areas too. We feel that we would be happiest on a tour (slightly concerned about safety if we went it alone) so, does anyone know of a tour company who 'does' SA but without the animal bits! We are in our 60s but fit and have travelled a fair bit across the globe.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[jno]

http://www.balesworldwide.com/luxury-holidays- south-africa.html

http://www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk/destinations/S outh%20Africa

People like those aren't cheap but offer all sorts of tours and will tailor-make one for you if you want.

You could actually just stick to the southern coast - wine country is near Cape Town, and you could do a 'Garden Route' tour along the coast, which is very scenic. But the mining country is mostly up near Joburg, I think.

[Snowy Owl]

Thanks jno, I have bookmarked them for later perusal!

[buildersmate]

Don't underestimate the size of this country. We spent three weeks last year just pootling in Western Cape and one half of Eastern Cape. That agenda makes one decent holiday, and there's scarcily any Big Game around those parts.
The best scenic high land is around Kwazulu-Natal, with the battle sites and the coast around Durban. That;s another holiday.
Not sure about gold and diamonds - just big holes in the ground, surely, around Kimberley - miles from anywhere else and not particularly interesting scenary either?

[Snowy Owl]

Thanks for that Buildersmate. Sounds like the Cape region is the one to go for if we are not interested in the safari side of things.