Multigenerational Family Journeys · 10 nights
The Sabi Sand Estate
The leopard is the reason people come to the Sabi Sand. The villa is the reason three generations can all be there for it.
At a glance
- Nights
- 10
- Party
- 4–6 guests
- Countries
- South Africa
- From
- Price on application
- Best season
- Year-round
This is the Sabi Sand with a house of your own. Your family takes one of the three villas at Cheetah Plains: four suites, a private chef, a butler, a spa therapist, and a guide and tracker who drive nobody but you in a silent electric vehicle. Cheetah Plains lets each villa whole, to one party of up to eight, with its own vehicle, guide and team. Nobody else sits at your table or in your vehicle, so the day runs to your family's clock rather than the lodge's. Over the festive season, 20 December to 4 January, a villa takes a minimum of six guests.
We start with two nights in Cape Town at the Mount Nelson, fly you to the bush in one aircraft, and finish with a night at The Saxon before your flight home. If the grandparents want a later start and the children want the dawn drive, ask for a second vehicle and the villa sends both out.
Highlights
- One Cheetah Plains villa to yourselves, with your own chef, butler, guide and tracker
- Electric game vehicle, so the approach to a sighting is close to silent
- Junior Rangers, spoor casting and campfire stories for the children
- Sommelier-led tasting in the villa's wine cellar for the adults
- Helicopter over the Cape Peninsula and lunch at Babel, Babylonstoren
- One King Air 350 for every flight, Cape Town to the bush strip and on to Johannesburg
The places
Where this journey takes you
South Africa
Cape Town
Table Mountain over the city, the Atlantic on one side and Cape Point at the tip of the peninsula.
Cape Town · Cheetah Plains, Sabi Sand · Johannesburg
The route
- Day 1–2
Cape Town, Belmond Mount Nelson
Adjoining rooms on the garden side. Day one: private helicopter over the Twelve Apostles, Chapman's Peak and Cape Point. Day two: private vehicle to Babylonstoren for the garden walk and lunch at Babel.
- Day 3
Cape Town to the Sabi Sand
One King Air 350 from Cape Town International to the Arathusa airstrip. The pilot makes a low pass to clear the strip. Your guide meets the aircraft with the villa's vehicle.
- Day 4–8
Cheetah Plains
Morning and afternoon drives timed to suit the family. The chef cooks to each person, from plain food for the youngest to the full tasting menu. Junior Rangers on two mornings. A walk with the tracker for the adults. Dinner in the villa boma most nights.
- Day 9
The family drive
All of you in one vehicle for a long morning. The guide and tracker spend it on the best sighting of the week, then stop for breakfast in the bush.
- Day 10
Johannesburg, The Saxon
The King Air flies you from Arathusa to Johannesburg. A last night at The Saxon and dinner at Grei.
- Day 11
Departure
Transfer to OR Tambo for your international flight.
Flown by turboprop and helicopter. How we choose the aircraft
How each generation spends the days
Grandparents
A later, shorter morning drive, game from the villa deck at midday, a spa treatment in the suite, dinner at their own pace.
Parents
The full dawn and evening drives, a guided walk with the tracker, the cellar tasting before the boma.
Children
Junior Rangers with the guide, casting a lion track in plaster, the pool by day and stories at the fire after dark.
The boma is set beside the villa on the last night, one table, the fire lit, the guide eating with you. He has turned the table to face the waterhole because the buffalo have been coming down after dark all week. They arrive while the main course is served. The children stop talking first. Nobody gets up. The chef waits in the kitchen until the herd has drunk and gone.
Where you stay
The lodges
Included
- All private flights in one King Air 350: Cape Town to Arathusa, Arathusa to Johannesburg
- 2 nights Belmond Mount Nelson, adjoining rooms
- 7 nights in one Cheetah Plains villa for your family alone, with chef, butler, guide, tracker and spa therapist
- 1 night The Saxon, Johannesburg
- All meals at Cheetah Plains, cooked for every age and diet
- Two private game drives a day; a second vehicle and guide on request
- Junior Rangers, spoor casting and babysitting for the youngest
- Peninsula helicopter flight and Babylonstoren lunch
- All ground transfers by private vehicle
- Pre-departure delivery package and post-journey coffee table book
Price on application. Every family is different, so we price each journey on the number of guests and the ages of the children. Excludes international flights.
Treat this journey as a starting point. Your Journey Architect will change the pace, swap a lodge, add a round or take one out.
Download this itinerary (PDF)Day by day, the lodges, the courses and the aircraft, to share or forward.
Begin your journey
Your aircraft
is waiting.
In confidencePrivate line +27 83 647 7997