“Amazing, amazing, amazing!”
We had an amazing time on our honeymoon in South Africa and have Encompass Africa to thank for that. Thanda was an absolute standout memory and experience for us, so again thank you for your recommendation. We are already telling all our friends and family that they have to go someday, and have also mentioned Encompass Africa as having helped us organise everything. Each of our transfers was seamless, we had absolutely no issues with any of them, so thank you very much for making getting around the country easy and stress-free for us.
The variety of places we explored (Cape Town, Franschoek, Thanda and the Wetlands) was also great and a good balance. It was also nice that each place knew we were honeymooners, as each took pride in doing something special/cute for us (decoratively) or with an extra special bottle of something to celebrate with.
Your app was really useful – great that it didn’t need internet once we had downloaded it, so we often checked our itinerary when we had no wifi.
You were right about Cape Town and Uber, it’s much more affordable than taxis. We also decided to rent a car for three days so that we could see more and do more, which worked out well.
We had an amazing restaurant experience at The Pot Luck Club which we would recommend to foodies or just anyone wanting a real treat! And we found an amazing cafe called Jason’s Bakery. De Waterkant was a great location to stay in – no complaints here!
In Franschoek we loved our little studio at Le Chanteclair! Super-cute spot and the hosts Josephine and Roger were an absolute delight. Gorgeous spot. We also would highly recommend the Saturday markets in town – we spent all afternoon here the day we arrived and it had a great vibe, amazing food, art and drinks.
We went to the wineries on our second day only here, which made for a slightly more rushed day (trying to squeeze lots in), but instead of depending on the wine trams/buses which would have made our time at each winery an hour, we used a lovely tuk-tuk driver and told him to come back to collect us every half hour or 45 minutes so we could see more.
Babylonstoren is a must-see for anyone you send to the Winelands. Amazing, amazing, amazing!
“We cannot rave about the safari at Thanda enough.”
With the safari component at Thanda, where does one start? We loved it here. The people (staff) were amazing and heart-warming, the food was amazing, the boma / braai experience (we were there for five nights so we enjoyed two of them) was very memorable, the lodge was stunning, the game drives were awesome, and we were very lucky to have had a guide and tracker duo who really made it special. We had some amazing animal experiences (thanks to our guide and tracker) and we are truly thankful to you for sending us here! We cannot rave about it enough.
Then we went to Makakatana Bay. This place is beautiful in its own right, and much more of a small-scale family-oriented feel, especially because for two nights we were the only couple there. The staff were all wonderful (albeit most were very new to working at the lodge) and were very kind, warm, welcoming and attentive. The food was amazing (chef Nadia was great) and the honeymoon suite itself was beautiful.
Thank you again for all your help with organising our amazing honeymoon, Gen – and for doing so in such a tight timeline! We had such a good time.
Gen from Encompass Africa says:
“It was an absolute delight working with this lovely couple to create their honeymoon.”
View their itinerary
Gen’s suggestion for the Bryckis’ next African adventure:
“We know Michelle and Brodie love genuine experiences, friendly people and great food, so I’d be tempted to send them up to East Africa this time for the quintessential Serengeti or Masai Mara safari and Zanzibar Spice Island finale.”
Next stop Serengeti