A Southern Africa tour with G Adventures: Dunes, Deltas & Falls
When deciding where to go for my big trip in 2023, I decided that I would love to finally visit the Southern Hemisphere. I had a few different places in mind, but settled on visiting Southern Africa as there were so many places there on my bucket list. The main things I wanted to see were Victoria Falls and Namibia, and so while planning I came across a variety of tours that would visit these locations. Usually, I like to be quite independent while I travel and to do everything myself. However, I don’t drive, and so it seemed that if I wanted to explore Namibia independently I would need to hire a car. That wasn’t an option for me, so I decided a group tour would be the best choice. I ended up choosing a Southern Africa tour with G Adventures called Dunes, Deltas & Falls as it included all the things I wanted to see.
There are two options for this trip: you could start at Victoria Falls and end in Cape Town or do it in reverse. I figured it would be easier to get home from Cape Town, so chose the Southbound tour. The tour I did could also be split into two parts: one that was from Victoria Falls to Windhoek, and a second that went from Windhoek to Cape Town. This means that if you don’t have time for the full tour, you could pick the section that looks most interesting. That being said, I absolutely adored both halves of the tour and can’t imagine only doing half of it. This part of the tour was also half of an even longer tour that includes Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. Nobody in my group was doing the whole trip, but it’s definitely possible. However, you change guides at Victoria Falls and will also likely end up with a new group of people, so that’s something important to keep in mind.
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored in any way. It was paid for fully by myself and all opinions are my own. I wanted to share my experiences to help others make decisions about whether it is worth booking or not. I chose to book thanks to others sharing their experiences and so am now sharing mine to help even more travellers.
Who are G Adventures?
G Adventures are one of the big names in group travel. After my experience, I would definitely travel with them again as I really respected how they organised the tour. They hire local guides and try and give back to the communities they visit. As part of our tour, we had several “G for Good” moments where you directly benefit the local community that you are in. On the Southern Africa tour with G Adventures, you stop off at a women’s collective in Namibia called Penduka. This organisation trains women from marginalised communities to teach them how to produce items that they can sell to support themselves. They women are also encouraged to then teach these skills to others in their community and share the knowledge.
Accommodation
As this was a camping trip, the majority of the accommodation was in tents. These are provided by G Adventures, along with sleeping mats. On the first day they teach you how to assemble them, and how to pack them away too.
Sometimes, when we were in cities, we stayed in hostels. This happened in Swakopmund and Cape Town. In Windhoek there were fixed tents, but they had actual beds and electricity in them so I didn’t feel like I was camping.
If you’re a solo traveller, then you’ll need to share a tent. On the first night, they asked us to pair up with another traveller of the same gender to share with. I got very lucky as after Windhoek our numbers were odd and so I got a tent to myself. The tents are big enough to comfortably fit two people plus luggage.
At several of the campsites, there was the option to upgrade to a room for an extra cost. I chose to always stay in the tent, but quite a few people chose to upgrade.
The campsites we stayed at were usually quite basic. They all had facilities such as toilets and showers (warm water not guaranteed) and an area for cooking. Because we were camping, it meant we could stay in stunning locations like Spitzkoppe. One night was spent wild camping on the Okavango Delta, which was one of the highlights of the trip.
I was really happy with the accommodation on this trip, as I enjoy camping, and the tents were great. It did get quite cold a couple nights so I ended up buying a blanket. Sleeping bags aren’t provided, so make sure to bring a good one with you. I’d also recommend bringing a travel pillow, although you can also just use a packing cube with a pillowcase if you want to save space.
Transport
One of the reasons I chose this tour was because I can’t drive. Many of the sites we visited are not accessible by public transport and we crossed several international borders.
This meant, unlike most of their other tours, we had a dedicated vehicle that we used for the whole trip. It’s called the Lando and it’s used on most of G Adventures Africa trips. It’s a large coach that has been adapted to perfectly suit the terrain.
Guides
On the tour, your main guide will be your CEO, standing for Chief Experience Officer. On our tour, we also had our driver who would also share interesting information. We sometimes had other guides on individual experiences, but your CEO will stay with you the entire time. Usually the CEOs are local guides – our guide was from Zimbabwe and lived in South Africa. I really appreciate that they try and hire local tour leaders when possible as it makes it much more authentic. It also means that they will be able to give you information about the countries that you might not find in guidebooks.
The CEO can definitely make or break a trip. We had a great CEO which made the trip so special; it wouldn’t have been the same without him! I’ve taken tours with many guides on my travels and I can definitely say that he was one of the best I’ve had the privilege of travelling with!
The Group
Along with the tour leaders, the group will play a huge role in how much you enjoy your trip. I adored all the activities I did, but it was made even better by having such a great group. I was really lucky that the entire group got on well, and we all had very similar approaches to travel. The tour I’d chosen was the 18-39 group, and I worried I might be one of the only older ones being in my 30s. But we really had a huge range of ages. Most of the group were travelling as pairs, with only a few solo travellers. However, most of the pairs weren’t couples but instead were siblings or friends. This meant it didn’t feel too couply and everybody was still engaging with each other.
I don’t really drink that much, and there were a few others that were the same as me. Due to the nature of the trip, there weren’t really any opportunities to go to bars and get really drunk which meant I didn’t have to worry about being stuck with a group that just wanted to drink all the time. Most people would buy a couple beers or ciders to drink in the evening while camping, but nobody went overboard as there wasn’t space in the Lando fridge for anybody to buy too much. If you are looking for a more chill, less alcohol-fuelled trip then this tour is definitely one that is a good choice for that.
The start and end locations
Start
The tour started in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls and we had one day to explore. I would definitely recommend coming several days early as there is so much to do here. I started on the Zambian side and crossed the border to Zimbabwe. Other activities I did before starting were white water rafting and a sunset cruise. If you start in Zambia, you also have the opportunity to go on a rhino walk. I personally preferred the falls from the Zambian side, but that will likely depend on the season as in the dry season they dry up a lot more than on the Zimbabwean side.
After meeting the group, several of us chose to visit the Zimbabwean side of Victoria Falls together the next day, then go to a Zimbabwean buffet restaurant in the evening after watching the sunset at a watering hole. The one day we had there is definitely not enough to see everything so I’d recommend coming at least 3-4 days earlier.
There is the option to do the tour in the other direction and end at Victoria Falls, however it required more layovers to get to Victoria Falls and so I wanted to get that out of the way at the start and then enjoy a much more direct flight back from Cape Town (which only needed one layover).
End
Our tour ended in Cape Town. We arrived the night before and had a final meal together. The last day of the tour is departure day, so there aren’t any activities planned: it’s simply the day that the tour ends. I chose to stay an extra couple days – I had a great time visiting boulders beach and I did a couple of free walking tours in Cape Town too. Some people were leaving straight away while others stayed on a bit longer, so we actually had a second goodbye meal the next night with those of us that were still left.
I think Cape Town was the perfect place to end the tour. It is very convenient for flights, but also means you can continue to further explore South Africa if you want. The hostel that we stayed at was also in a good location and I felt very safe there, which is good as I had the bad luck to be in South Africa during some strikes so it was more dangerous than usual.
Itinerary
You can never create a perfect itinerary as you’ll always wish you had more time at certain places, or that you included more. That being said, this itinerary was fantastic! I felt the amount of time we got at each place was really good and I never felt rushed or that we’d stayed for too long. There wasn’t anywhere that I thought shouldn’t have been included and all the places we did visit were lovely.
Of course, I would happily have had more time at some places – but it would have been to do the exact same activities that we’d already done. We spent two nights at Etosha National Park and I would have loved a third night just for more opportunities to see animals – I could easily have spent an entire day sitting at the watering hole. Another day at Swakopmund would also have been nice because there were so many optional activities that we could do, and it was so hard to choose between them. Still, that just gives me a good reason to go back and do the tour again in a few years because even though I’ve been to everywhere already, I’d happily go back to every single place we visited.
Botswana
In Botswana the highlight was wild camping in the Okavango Delta, but before that we had a great start to the trip at Chobe National Park. One of the campsites in Botswana is full of baobab trees that was a great location to camp, and another campsite is located in the Kalahari desert where you have the opportunity to do a walk with the San people to learn more about their way of life.
Namibia
Once we got to Namibia we camped at several fantastic locations like Spitzkoppe and the Waterberg Plateau. These locations are fantastic for hiking, but you don’t need to hike them to enjoy the beautiful views.
We then spent a couple nights in Swakopmund where we had an entire free day to ourselves to choose one of the many different tours available. I chose the one to Sandwich Harbour which was stunning, while others did things like sandboarding, hot air balloon rides and a desert tour.
The highlight for me in Namibia was visiting Sossusvlei which was absolutely stunning. The trees at Deadvlei were fascinating to see and just everywhere you looked it was beautiful.
Our final stop in Namibia was Fish River Canyon where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset before spending one final night.
South Africa
Our first stop in South Africa was almost immediately after crossing the border. We stayed at a campsite beside the river and then got the chance to kayak along Orange River.
After that, we headed south to Cederberg where we camped for the final time. Here there was the opportunity to do a wine tasting. I’m not a huge fan of wine, but the sparkling one was really good.
Finally we made it to Cape Town as our final stop and it was a treat to finally sleep in a bed again!
Food
Most G Adventures tours I looked at didn’t include food, as it gives you the opportunity to try the local food. As we were camping though, there weren’t exactly lots of restaurants nearby. This meant that almost all our meals were included.
Our CEO and driver would cook meals every night, and we were split into groups to help. What you get will depend on your tour leaders and what they can cook, but I can be quite picky and I enjoyed every meal we had.
If you have dietary restrictions, don’t worry as they handled those really well. On my tour we had several vegetarians and several that were coeliac. They ended up having a special gluten free pan to make it easy to remember and would make sure to prepare plenty of vegetarian options.
Breakfast was a choice of cereals most days, although we did have pancakes a couple times too.
Is it worth it?
The biggest thing when booking a group tour is figuring out if it’s worth the price. Depending on your travel style, it could end up being significantly more expensive than travelling solo, and it’s important to know if it’s worth it.
I chose to book this tour because it simply wasn’t possible to visit all the places on the itinerary by myself, especially since some of the best spots were campsites. It would be possible to rent a car and drive to them, but then you would also need camping equipment. There are several international borders to cross too, and I imagine those might get complicated with a rental car. I personally don’t drive, so this wasn’t even an option for me. It’s also probably not the cheapest option either for solo travellers.
Another reason for booking the tour is that they do all the planning for you. As much as I love to plan trips, not having to plan anything for this was quite nice. I did still do some independent travel at the start and the end of the tour because I love to plan things, but knowing that they would take care of everything for 3 weeks was a nice change.
The People
As a solo traveller, my biggest worry when doing group tours is not getting on with the group and being forced to spend lots of time with people. I like having time to myself and I wasn’t sure how much of that I would get. Luckily, as this tour involves a lot of long travel days, most people don’t really socialise on the bus itself and tended to use that time to chill and read, listen to music, or even just nap.
In the evenings, if you wanted to socialise you could but quite a few of the campsites also offered opportunities to be alone too. At Etosha you could go sit at the Watering hole, and at Waterberg I sat in reception for a while using the WiFi while most of the group went on a hike.
The group can definitely make or break a trip, and I ended up with a fantastic group. This is the second group tour I’ve taken and both times I’ve had excellent groups, so hopefully that’s normal and not just me getting very lucky.
The tour leaders (CEOs) are of course one of the biggest highlights – you have a guide accompanying you for the entire tour who is able to answer all your questions and tell you about things you might not even have thought to ask. Ours had done this tour multiple times which meant they usually knew the answer, and if they didn’t then they would find it out to know for future tours. They add a massive value to the trip, as if you tried to do it independently and hire guides for each place then it would soon get very expensive.
Of course, you can’t guarantee that the people will be great on every trip but you know you’ll have something in common with everybody in the group as you all booked the same trip, and all wanted to come on a Southern Africa tour with G Adventures that involves a lot of camping and wildlife.
What is and isn’t included?
Included:
One of the biggest ways to decide if the tour is worth it is to look at what is actually included. This should help make decisions a lot better.
On this tour, accommodation was included for the entire trip. You can see on the website what type of accomodation it is. Food was also included for the majority of locations, except for when we were in places big enough to have a choice of restaurants.
All transport was included, this was primarily the Lando but it also included transportation to the Okavango Delta and game drives in Etosha.
Entrance to a lot of places was included, such as Etosha, Sossuvlei, and the entire Okavango Delta experience (other than tips for the local guides)
Not Included:
As anybody who has considered a tour will know, the optional extras can soon push the price up. What looks like a good deal might not cover most of the activities you want to do. Luckily, for this tour most key activities are already included. There are only a few things that aren’t.
Zimbabwe:
At Victoria Falls, no activities are included because there are simply so many that they give you the freedom to choose. At Chobe, the sunset cruise and morning game drive are both optional activities. These are the only things I felt should have been included in the cost because everybody wanted to do them, especially since it’s the very start of the tour. I can understand them being optional on the Northbound tour as by that point you might have already seen a lot of animals and not want to pay more. However, for the Southbound tour, it’s the first opportunity for most people to go on game drives.
Botswana:
Everything at the Okavango Delta was included, with the exception of an aerial flight over the Delta. Only a few people in our group chose to do this as it was very expensive, and so you don’t feel like you’re missing out. The rest of us went shopping and bought some souvenirs and more supplies for camping. This was where I bought a nice blanket to help stay warm at night. Tips for the local guides isn’t included, but our CEO let us know roughly how much would be an appropriate tip which we then presented directly to them.
Namibia:
At Etosha, the night drive was optional and could only be booked in person once we were there. This is also limited to certain numbers so when we arrived, there was only one spot the first night. I was lucky enough to get that spot, and then the next night everybody else got spots. There was also the option to book a game drive through the park rather than do the one included. Almost all of us chose to do the optional one via the park as our CEO explained that the ones through the park would communicate with each other if they spotted anything particularly rare.
Swakopmund was the main place where nothing was included because there were so many options available to us. We could book most activities through the hostel we stayed at, or book them online. There were so many options to choose from, and you could also choose to explore the city for free.
At Sossuvlei, we did have to pay for the jeep that took us to Deadvlei as the Lando isn’t allowed to drive there. This was very cheap and we were told in advance how much it would cost so we could be prepared. I can’t imagine anybody not wanting to visit it, so not quite sure why this isn’t included but it’s made clear that it’s an extra so it was fine.
South Africa:
Finally, in South Africa several activities like the kayaking on Orange River and Wine Tasting were optional. I appreciated the wine tasting being optional as I don’t drink, although I ended up doing it anyway as it was so cheap that I figured I might as well take part.
Other Costs:
Food was not included several nights. This was at Victoria Falls, Windhoek, Swakopmund and Cape Town. All places where there were multiple different choices for where to visit. At each place, we would sometimes go as a group or split into smaller ones. All the places we visited could handle splitting the bill – the way our group did it was get each person to pay for what they had ordered. That way it stayed fair for those who didn’t drink.
Another thing not included was alcohol – if you wanted to drink on the trip then you had to buy your own. Same with snacks – we had plenty of opportunities to stop at shops for this, as the CEO’s needed to stop to buy food to cook. Souvenirs are obviously not included, and you get plenty of opportunities to buy them throughout the trip.
The biggest thing not included is the tips for the CEOs, G Adventures provides a suggested amount per day but leave it up to you to decide how much you think they deserve. Our guides were fantastic so definitely deserved good tips. Make sure to bring cash in a currency they can use – as our tour ended in South Africa while the guides were from Zimbabwe, they were happy to receive both Rand or US Dollars. If in doubt, tip in the currency of the final location as that will be easiest to obtain.
Overall, all these additional costs were clearly communicated to us and most of the prices for the optional activities was also shown on the website before booking. This means you can calculate how much the extra will cost you to get a clearer idea for your budget.
Conculusion
For me, my Southern Africa Tour with G Adventures was an incredible experience and I loved every second of it. I would highly recommend it, and definitely hope to do the other half of the trip in the future. Indeed, I loved this tour so much I would happily do the entire tour again as the itinerary was that great. If you’re trying to decide whether it’s worth it or not, I can say that I thought it was excellent value for money.
Have you been on any group tours that you would recommend? What made them better than travelling independently? Let me know!
