Journey to South Africa September 25 October 6, 2018 Sponsored by: South African Tourism & South African Airways. Designed by Advantage International, LLC Meals listed: B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner with you. Meals in flight. September 25 th : Depart from O Hare International Airport (ORD), connecting at Dulles International Airport to Johannesburg, on South African Airways, with daily flights from the USA and Africa s Most Awarded Airline. Overnight flight with meals. Advantage International staff members will be onboard September 26 th : Upon arrival at O. R. Tambo International Airport, we will be met by our Johannesburg tour guides, who will escort us to the Sandton Sun Hotel, located in the upscale suburb of Sandton. This luxurious five-star property will be home for our four-night stay in Johannesburg. Check in, refresh and join us for a Welcome Dinner in Sandton. Meals: D September 27 th : After enjoying breakfast at the hotel, we will meet you in the hotel lobby and escort you on a tour of Lesedi Cultural Village. This renowned village is located in the heart of the African bushveld, amid the rocky hills within the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site. You ll discover the fascinating cultures and traditions of the people of Africa, visit five traditional homesteads inhabited by Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Basotho and Ndebele tribes who live according to tribal folklore and traditions of their ancestors. Our culture is the light of our nation whoever walks here amongst our culture s at Lesedi can also see the light. Lunch is included. On our return we will visit the Jewel of Africa for an education and history of Diamonds in South Africa. Learn why South Africa is one of the premier destinations for Diamonds in the World. Meals: B,L September 28 th : After enjoying breakfast at the hotel, we will meet you in the hotel lobby for your tour of Johannesburg to include Soweto, the Hector Pieterson Memorial of the 1976 Student Uprising and the home of Nelson Mandela including lunch. Return to the hotel and freshen up before the Joy of Jazz Festival with top Jazz artist from around the World, that evening. Meals: B,L 1
September 29 th : After enjoying breakfast at the hotel, we will meet you in the hotel lobby and depart for the World-Famous Apartheid Museum. Later we will visit Lilliesleaf with lunch included. Later that evening return and enjoy the final night of the Joy of Jazz Festival. Meals: B,L Apartheid Museum The Apartheid Museum opened in 2001 and is acknowledged as the pre-eminent museum in the world dedicated to 20th century South Africa, at the heart of which is the apartheid story. For anyone wanting to understand and experience what apartheid South Africa was really like, a visit to the Apartheid Museum is fundamental. The museum is a beacon of hope, showing the world, how South Africa is coming to terms with its oppressive past and working towards a future that all South Africans can call their own. The first of its kind, the museum illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid. It was created by an architectural consortium comprised of several leading architectural firms who conceptualized the design of the building on a seven-hectare stand. The museum is a superb example of design, space and landscape, offering the international community a unique South African experience. The exhibits have been assembled and organized by a multidisciplinary team of curators, filmmakers, historians and designers. They include provocative film footage, photographs, text panels and artifacts illustrating events and human stories that are part of the epic saga known as apartheid. Group at Hector Pieterson Memorial & Nelson Mandela Home in Soweto Liliesleaf: Tucked away in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Rivonia, is Liliesleaf Farm. Once the nerve center of the liberation movement and a place of refuge for its leaders, today Liliesleaf is one of South Africa's foremost, award-winning heritage sites, where the journey to democracy in South Africa is honored. 2
September 30 th October 2 nd : After enjoying breakfast at the hotel and completion of check out procedures, we will leave Johannesburg for a road trip to the Pilanesberg National Park and a two-night stay at the deluxe Ivory Tree Lodge, in the heart of the game park. In Pilanesburg you will enjoy life in a Game Park and the opportunity to see the Big Five as well as wild animals in a natural setting. Ivory Tree will be your home for the next two (2) nights. Meals: B,L,D A typical day on safari consists of the following: Times and events subject to change. 5:00 a.m. Wake-up call 5:30 a.m. Morning game drive 8:30 a.m. Breakfast 1:00 p.m. Lunch 4:00 p.m. High tea 4:30 p.m. Sunset game drive 8:00 p.m. Dinner 3
October 2 nd : After breakfast and check-out, we will travel to O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) for our scheduled flight to Cape Town. Our Cape Town guides will meet us at the airport and drive us to the Taj Cape Town. The Taj Hotel is a luxury 5 Star hotel set in the vibrant heart of Cape Town, offering guests a combination of refined Indian hospitality and an authentic Cape Town experience. Occupying two historic buildings, it retains the architecture and many meticulously restored interior features of the original South African Reserve Bank and the old BoE building formerly the Temple Chambers, built in 1890. Seventeen new story house suites, guestrooms and residences with magnificent views of the Mother City and the iconic Table Mountain. Meals: B October 3 rd : After breakfast, we will visit Table Mountain and tour Cape Point and the Cape Peninsula. Lunch is included. Meals: B,L Table Mountain By the late 1870's, several of Cape Town's more prominent citizens had suggested the introduction of a railway line to the top of Table Mountain. Plans to implement a proposed rack railway got under way but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war put a halt to these efforts. By 1912, with a strong desire to gain easy access to the top of Table Mountain, the Cape Town City Council commissioned an engineer to investigate the various options for public transport to the top. The new cableway was officially opened on October 4, 1997: the anniversary of the original launch, almost 70 years earlier. Cape Point and Cape Peninsula Tour This is an awe-inspiring tour to the towering headland known as Cape Point perceived as the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Enroute, we ll see magnificent beaches, breathtaking views, historic and picturesque coastal villages. 4
The Cape Peninsula is one of the world's most scenic areas and stretches from the city center to Cape Point. We will travel along the Atlantic Seaboard via Sea Point, Clifton and Camps Bay, stopping at a Llandudno look-out point before continuing to Hout Bay, a quaint village and fishing harbor with magnificent mountain views and beach. We ll proceed through Chapman's Peak, one of the world's most breathtaking coastal drives, to Cape Point and the Good Hope Nature Reserve. After lunch at a nearby restaurant, we continue to historic Simon's Town, a village with charming Victorian architecture, a naval base and a large penguin colony at the beautiful Boulders Beach. Boulders Penguin Colony is home to a growing colony of the vulnerable African Penguin. Wooden walkways allow visitors to view the penguins in their natural habitat. October 4 th : After breakfast we will meet you in reception and escort you on an emotional journey to Robben Island, via ferry from the Waterfront, home to Nelson Mandela for 18 of the 27 years he spent incarcerated. Then a visit to the winelands of South Africa to see the region of many of the famous wines and do a tasting. Return to hotel in the evening before departing for the Farewell Dinner. Meals: B,L,D Robben Island Formerly the site of a political prison and before that leper colony, this well preserved historic landmark was recently established as a museum and national monument heralding the triumph of freedom, dignity and determination over humiliation and oppression. Experience the conditions of incarceration, view Nelson Mandela's maximum-security prison cell (Cell 5), and see the lime quarries where he and many other prisoners later developed eye problems due to the sun's reflection off the lime surfaces. While serving hard time, these quarries offered opportunities for prisoners to discuss strategy, freedom and the future. No easy road to freedom was a central theme in most of the Mass Democratic Movement's campaigns, from the early days through to the late 1980s. Any understanding of present day conditions in South Africa is greatly enhanced by looking at past injustice, the legacy of the struggle and the promise of reconstruction and development initiatives under way at present. Please note that on Robben Island, visitors' movements are restricted, by regulation. We must stay with our guide. 5
Winelands This delightful drive winds its way to the heart of the Cape Winelands, through superb mountain ranges, vineyards and Cape Dutch homesteads. Head off to the wine country via the N2 to the heart of South Africa's wine industry, Stellenbosch, boasting great beauty and culture that is steeped in South African history. In the evening, you will enjoy our multi-course Farewell Dinner with a Difference at Gold Restaurant. From the moment you walk through the glass doors into the aged brick interior with its ancient doors, wooden beams, and iron pillars, you will feel the pulsating rhythm of one of Cape Town s most unique African restaurants. The entertainment, which begins at the entrance, will delight you throughout the evening. October 5 th : Today after breakfast and check-out, we will return to Cape Town International Airport for our overnight international flight home. Meals served onboard. Meals: B, D October 6 th : We will arrive in the U.S. at JFK International Airport and connect after immigration and customs to our flight to Chicago, via LGA (LaGuardia Airport), culminating at O Hare (ORD), Chicago. END OF SERVICES. Itinerary, times and events subject to change 6