Multigenerational Family Journeys · 10 nights
The Thornybush Dynasty
The rhino walks out of the mopane at first light and the youngest in the vehicle forgets to breathe.
At a glance
- Nights
- 10
- Party
- 4–6 guests
- Countries
- South Africa
- From
- Price on application
- Best season
- Year-round
Waterside House is the smaller of the two private houses at Royal Malewane, and it suits a family of four to six. It is a house on the river, let to one party only, with four suites for up to eight guests and its own chef, host, guide and tracker. There are two twin Aloe Rooms that children take to straight away, and the two-bedroom Baobab Suite for the grandparents, with plunge pools and a deck that looks over the water.
Thornybush is flat and its roads are well kept, which matters more than people expect when a grandparent's back sets the pace. Royal Malewane's guides also work with black rhino, which you rarely see in the Greater Kruger. We put that morning on the plan for the whole family together.
Highlights
- Waterside House to yourselves, with a private chef, host, guide and tracker
- Black rhino tracking with the Royal Malewane guides
- Royal Malewane spa, or treatments in the house for anyone who would rather not move
- Robben Island by chartered boat with a historian, from The Silo
- A private bush breakfast in the Thornybush
- Last dinner at Grei in The Saxon, 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 · Royal Malewane Waterside House, Thornybush · Johannesburg
The route
- Day 1–2
Cape Town, The Silo Hotel
Adjoining rooms above the Zeitz MOCAA. Day one: chartered boat to Robben Island with a historian who lets each of you go at your own pace. Day two: helicopter over the Peninsula for the energetic, a road trip to Klein Constantia for the grandparents. The family meets at the rooftop pool in the late afternoon.
- Day 3
Cape Town to Thornybush
One King Air 350 or Pilatus PC-12 from Cape Town to Hoedspruit, with our ground team helping with boarding. Your guide drives you to Waterside House for lunch on the deck.
- Day 4–7
Royal Malewane, Waterside House
Drives leave when your family is ready. With a second vehicle, the grandparents go at 07:00 and the parents at dawn. One morning is set aside for black rhino, the whole family in one vehicle. One afternoon at the Royal Malewane spa.
- Day 8
The bush breakfast
Your guide sets breakfast in a clearing on the reserve and talks you through Thornybush's rhino protection work. A slow drive home.
- Day 9–10
Johannesburg, The Saxon
The aircraft flies you from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg. Two nights at The Saxon, with the last 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 07:00 drive instead of 05:30, the deck over the river in the heat of the day, an afternoon at the spa.
Parents
The full dawn drive with the tracker, a walk in the reserve, wine with the host before dinner.
Children
Twin beds in the Aloe Rooms, junior ranger mornings with the guide, the plunge pool, and the rhino.
The guide has been on the radio with the rhino monitors since before dawn. A female is moving north towards water, and the vehicle waits well back on the track with the engine off. She comes out of the mopane in the first light, huge and unhurried, and stops to test the air. The youngest is sitting on a grandparent's lap. Neither of them moves until she has crossed the track and gone.
Where you stay
The lodges
Included
- All private flights in one aircraft: Cape Town to Hoedspruit, Hoedspruit to Johannesburg
- 2 nights The Silo Hotel, adjoining rooms
- 6 nights Waterside House for your family alone, with chef, host, guide and tracker
- 2 nights The Saxon, Johannesburg, with dinner at Grei
- All meals and drinks at Royal Malewane
- All game drives and walks; a second vehicle and guide on request
- Spa access at Royal Malewane, with in-house treatments if preferred
- Robben Island by chartered boat, Peninsula helicopter flight, Klein Constantia visit
- 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.
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