Spend the morning exploring the over 400 specialty stores at Canal Walk Shopping Centre. With movies, restaurants and general entertainment, this unguided tour affords you the opportunity to wonder around this unique shopping centre and explore the shops at leisure. You will be dropped off at the Visitors Centre, where your coach will wait for you until 13:30 for departure back to the Arabella Sheraton.

Sunday, 3 June

A unique way to orientate yourself with the city. Professional, well-informed tour guides will entertain you as you learn more about the history of Cape Town. The two-hour trip includes the inner city sights before making its way up the Table Mountain Cable way. You will be given the opportunity to travel up the cable car (ticket cost not included in your tour cost as this is weather dependant) and view the city from the top of the mountain. From there, the tour backs down to the beaches of Camps Bay and Clifton on its way to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The 10:00 tour will end off in the V&A Waterfront where lunch will be enjoyed in one of the very popular restaurants. The tour departing at 13:00 begin with lunch in the Waterfront after which time they will go on their tour, departing the Waterfront at 14:00.

Thursday, 7 June

Enjoy a guided tour of Groote Schuur, previously the official residence of the country's leaders.  This famous home was built and designed by Sir Herbert Baker for Cecil John Rhodes on the slopes of Devil's Peak.  The house and its interior remain almost exclusively as they were in Rhodes' day.  This tour will also include a drive through some of Cape Town's exclusive suburbs such as Bishopscourt and Constantia.  After tea, a short bus ride takes you to the magnificent floodlit memorial to Cecil John Rhodes, the Rhodes Memorial, which stands on the slopes of Devil's Peak, on the northern flank of Table Mountain.  It was built in 1912 on the very place where Rhodes used to sit and contemplate his future.

Thursday, 7 June

One of the most significant and symbolically charged pieces of land in South Africa, Robben Island guards the entrance to Table Bay.  The name hails from the Dutch word for seals, "robbe".  The island was once home to Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned there along with other political prisoners.  Now a living museum, the island and its ghosts are visited voluntarily.  As a place of history, education and insight into South Africa's past, this is an essential excursion.  The return boat trip (half an hour each way) to this World Heritage Site and a guided tour around the museum by an ex-inmate is an experience never to miss.  Enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of Cape Town's best restaurants, Theo's, along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Thursday, 7 June

The first vineyards at the Cape were planted in 1655.  Since then, the Cape has grown to be a major player on the global wine scene.  The Stellenbosch Wine Route was founded in 1971, making it the oldest wine route in South Africa.  Visits include a stop at KWV, South Africa's leading exporter of premium products of the vine, where you'll be treated to an extraordinary experience.  The KWV Wine Emporium is the perfect place to discover wines and brandies, including Cathedral Cellar, Roodeberg, Perold, and Imoya.  Guides with an in-depth knowledge will host you on a journey through the world of wine and brandy as you tour the KWV cellar complex, one of the world's largest, including the awesome Cathedral Cellar.  From here we will travel to the towns of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.  Lunch will be enjoyed at the Haute Cabriere Cellar Restaurant, with a food and wine pairing.  The cellar-style restaurant is built into the hill overlooking the beautiful Franschhoek Valley.  A final stop will be made at the Blauuwklippen Estate for wine tasting before heading back to the city.

ACCOMPANYING PERSONS PROGRAMME:

Monday, 4 June

Enjoy a fully guided stroll of Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, with Christien Malan, who together with her team is very knowledgeable in the field of fauna and flaura. Kirstenbosch is world-renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The estate covers 528 hectares and specializes in indigenous South African plants and supports a diverse fynbos flora and natural forest. A number of trails lead through natural forest and fynbos surrounding the developed garden and include the following themed areas; Peninsula garden which displays some of the 2500 plant species found on the Cape Peninsula, Fragrance garden which features plants with interesting textures and scents, and the medicinal garden where you will find out about the many medicinal uses of South African plants.

Tuesday, 5 June

Retrace 350 years of dramatic history. Specially trained tourist guides will bring to life the challenges facing the early Dutch settlers, the pain of slavery, the Cape as a colony, the tragedy of apartheid, and the joy and triumph of our new "Rainbow Nation". This tour takes in historical sights like the Grand Parade, and slavery sites like the Slave Lodge and Slave Tree. At the Parliament Buildings and District Six Museum you will hear about apartheid and get to understand the effects of racism and discrimination on the lives of ordinary South Africans. In Government Avenue near St. George's Cathedral, tour guides will tell you about our three Nobel Peace Prize-winners; Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk, enjoy tea and refreshments in the Company Gardens after which you will be shown the building where the apartheid laws were passed and where they were later repealed after De Klerk's dramatic speech at the opening of Parliament in February 1990. In Greenmarket Square and St. George's Mall, you will feel the energy and pulse of the new South Africa. To round off the tour, you will be taken to the Gold of Africa Museum. Enjoy a leisurely lunch before heading back to your hotel.

Wednesday, 6 June

Winding through the City, you will travel along the eastern seaboard traveling through Sea Point, Camps Bay enroute to Hout Bay where you will enjoy a boat cruise to Seal Island, home to 1000's of Cape Fur Seals. From Hout Bay, we travel along Chapman's Peak Drive, which cuts into the mountain walls and winds along near vertical cliffs. There are plenty of viewpoints so ensure you have your camera. The views are majestic and ever changing. From Chapman's Peak drive we head for Cape Point. Cape Point is a landmark at the end of the Cape Peninsula located in the Good Hope Section of the Table Mountain National Park. From its rugged, rocky outcrops and sheer cliffs, to the fynbos covered plains, Cape Point holds much in store for its visitors. A full day of discovery will reward you with spectacular views, fine food, remarkable encounters with nature, spellbinding history and memories to treasure forever. Lunch will be enjoyed in the Naval Town of Simon's Town, before heading to the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony, where over 3000 of these birds are living. Penguins can be viewed up close as they frolic in the water and waddle on land. In a survey done by the BBC, Boulders Beach was rated one of the five best beaches to visit before you die.

All departures are from the Arabella Sheraton Hotel.