How to plan a trip to South Africa with kids

Meet Debbie, a homeschooling mum who plans active holidays for her family – they love getting outdoors, exploring local areas and meeting the locals.

In this video, Debbie shares where they stayed, what they did, the companies they booked trips with, where they ate, and top tips for staying safe.

Check out Debbie’s comprehensive website where she shares detailed blogs and itineraries for all of their family trips:

https://www.anadventurouseducation.com/

Debbie kindly shared a summary of her trip and our video is packed full of recommendations of where to go and estimated budgets for accomodation, trips and food.

What to do in South Africa

Here’s a brief summary of Debbie’s trip:

What to do in Knysna

“Initially, we were based in Knysna on the Garden Route and stayed on Thesen Island so we could kayak from the house.Frohere, we did several day trips out:

Hand in Trunk experience at Elephant Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay (brush down, feed and walk hand in trunk with the elephants – beautiful experience & the elephants felt very cared for)
Canyoning (called Kloofing in SA) in Plettenberg Bay
Storms River (Tsitsikamma Mountain Reserve) – kayak and lilo up Storms River
Mossel Bay: Point of Human Origins Tour (looking at discoveries made in the Pinnacle Point Caves) and then a sunset safari at Botlierskop Game Reserve (this was fantastic and a MUCH cheaper option than staying at the reserve. In Knysna, we spent some time up at the beautiful East Head (East Head Café has excellent food, although the food everywhere in SA was exceptional); the boys played golf (much cheaper than in the UK), and Rosie and I hiked in Garden of Eden reserve.

What to do in Hermanus

Our second location was in Hermanus overlooking the ocean, which was stunning (there was even a solitary penguin living in the rocks outside our villa!). Here we did:

Fat Biking tour through the dunes in Gansbaai was one of those unexpected highlights. It was such fun riding down the dunes, and you could see the baby whales playing in the bay!
Horse riding on the beach in Gansbaai.
On our way to our third location, we popped up to Spier in Stellenbosch for a lovely meal and wine tasting.