Day 1

Overnight flight from London Heathrow to Cape Town with British Airways

Day 2

Upon arrival in Cape Town collect your car and drive to Franschhoek, for an overnight stay at Maison Chablis Guest House on a Bed and Breakfast basis. Visit the lovely Babylonstoren, one of the best preserved werfs (farm yards) in the Cape Dutch tradition and the farm has been meticulously restored and now houses a fruit and vegetable garden of beauty and diversity, unique accommodation, fine food and a sense of wellbeing. Stroll out onto the farm of 200 hectares and see fruit being picked in the orchards or vines being pruned – depending on the season. They can enjoy a guided walk in the remarkable fruit and vegetable garden or enjoy a meal in the superb Babel restaurant, where the produce is always very fresh and very organic. A spa and gym offer a retreat, there is also a dam for leisurely boating, and many award-winning wine estates are within close proximity. The Babylonstoren garden is at the heart of the farm. It was inspired by the Company Gardens of the Cape, where for centuries ships would replenish with sweet water, vegetables and fruit at the halfway station between Europe and Asia. Spanning eight acres, it is formal in structure. Every one of over 300 varieties of plants in the garden is edible and it is grown as biologically as is possible, with fruit and veg harvested year round for use in the restaurant. The garden is divided into fifteen clusters spanning vegetable areas, berries, bees, indigenous plants, ducks and chickens and includes a prickly pear maze. Gravity feeds water into waterways from stream into the garden as it was done for 300 years.

Day 3

Drive to Hermanus on the magnificent Garden route for a three night stay at 138 Marine Guesthouse on a bed and breakfast basis.

Day 4

Full day visit to Grootbos Nature Reserve including lunch, nature trail and coastal drive. Grootbos Nature Reserve is overlooking Walker Bay, this hillside reserve allows guests to experience the Cape's floral kingdom and fascinating bird, mammal and marine life.

Day 6

Drive to Cape Town visit Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens enroute, overnight Four Rosemead. This beautiful, secluded garden is set between mountain and sea, in the heart of the Cape fynbos region and encompasses 10 hectares of cultivated fynbos garden and 190.5 hectares of pristine natural fynbos Situated in the centre of the coastal fynbos where the flora is at its richest, the garden encompasses mountain slopes with their wind-clipped heathlands, deep gorges with relict forests, flats and marshes with restios, sedges and bulbs, as well as dunes adjacent to the beach with their specialised salt-adapted plants. The garden is renowned for its waterfalls and amber pools. The main fynbos families (proteas, ericas and restios) are present as well as other important families such as irises, daisies and orchids. The garden boasts Disa uniflora in its natural habitat (flowering from mid-December to end of January) as well as the national flower, the king protea (Protea cynaroides). A contemporary Cape classic within an historic building which has been classified as a provincial monument - each of its eight rooms offers magnificent views of Table Mountain, Table Bay or Signal Hill. Four Rosemead is situated on the slopes of Cape Town’s magnificent mountain the guesthouse is nestled in its own landscape gardens, and provides an ideal retreat after a hard day’s sightseeing.

Day 7

Visit Kirsten bosch Botanical Gardens before your overnight flight back to the UK. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden 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. Kirstenbosch grows only indigenous South African plants. The estate covers 528 hectares and supports a diverse fynbos flora and natural forest. The cultivated garden (36 hectares) displays collections of South African plants, particularly those from the winter rainfall region of the country. It was founded in 1913.

Day 8

Early morning arrival in the UK.