The Ultimate Penguin Tour: Africa to Antarctica African & Emperor Penguins at the End of the World

This morning, you’ll leave Cape Town and take a road transfer southeast, following the famous Whale Coast. November is the end of whale season, so keep an eye out for southern rights in the shallows.

At the coastal town of Gansbaai, you’ll hop aboard a boat to see some (maybe all!) of the Marine Big Five: whales, sharks, dolphins, seals, and our favourite birds in their element – little African penguins might look ungainly on land, but out in the ocean, they’re smooth, swift hunters. If you’re very, very lucky, you might see the iconic great white shark – once commonly seen here, these apex predators have made themselves scarce due to a couple of hungry orcas patrolling the waters.

Back on land, take a leisurely lunch at Madré’s country kitchen in nearby Stanford, after which there’s time for a stroll around this lovely little town.

Check in at Coot Club, a gorgeous lagoon-based resort. You’ll be here for three nights. Spend the rest of the day chilling. Dinner is a classic South African braai (barbecue), and there’s an option for stargazing with an astronomer tonight, should you feel like it.

Take it easy this morning: have a relaxed brekkie, maybe do a spot of kayaking on the lagoon. At 11am, you’ll drive back to Gansbaai and pop into the African Penguin & Seabird Sanctuary to see how they’re protecting the critically endangered penguins. Betty’s Bay is just around the coast and home to an African penguin colony, which you can visit before heading back to Coot Club for lunch and an afternoon at leisure.

As much as we love penguins (have we mentioned?), today we’ll take a little break from our mini pals. Coot Club is within a stone’s throw of the Hemel en Aarde wine valley – known for its pinot noir and chardonnay – so it would be criminal not to allow a day for wine quaffing and a long lunch with vineyard views.

After a leisurely breakfast, you’ll check out from Coot Club in the late morning and transfer back to Cape Town. Your home for tonight is The Silo, an extraordinary hotel at the top of a restored grain silo. The lower half of the building contains the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Spend the afternoon wandering through the museum or exploring the art-festooned hotel. If you’re up for it, we can organise a backstage tour of the penguin exhibit at the nearby Two Oceans Aquarium. Otherwise, you can just relax.

Antarctica runs on its own schedule, and the weather gods answer to no one. Which means you may find yourself with a bonus day in what we'd humbly argue is the most beautiful city on earth. Hike Lion's Head at sunrise, take the cable car up Table Mountain, swim in the icy Atlantic, drive the dramatic Cape Peninsula, or do your very important due diligence at one of the winelands' finest farms. An extra night in Cape Town is a rather delightfully convenient inconvenience.

Still here? Excellent. Cape Town has a way of making delays feel suspiciously like rewards. If yesterday was mountains and ocean, today might be the V&A Waterfront, a long lunch in the Bo-Kaap, or simply finding a clifftop somewhere and watching the Atlantic do its thing over a bottle of Chenin. Next stop, Antarctica!

It’s time for part two of your adventure. In an Airbus A330 or A340, you’ll take off for your 5.5-hour journey south, touching down on a runway carved out of the ice – just the first of many extraordinary experiences to come. You’ll be staying at either Whichaway Camp or Echo Base, both of which have a cluster of heated en-suite pods with hot running water.

Today’s a day for exploring your awesome surroundings. You can take a glacier hike with a guide, or – if you fancy something more nerve-jangling – try your hand at ice climbing or abseiling. In the evening, there’s a talk to get you prepped and excited for tomorrow’s big adventure…

After a 2.5-hour flight and a PistenBully snow groomer ride, you’ll arrive at the Atka Bay emperor penguin colony. Thousands of penguins are gathered on the ice as their cute little chicks start to take their first steps. Spend a while watching these amazing birds at a respectful distance. A reminder that hardly anyone gets to see emperor penguins in the wild, so soak it all up! Back at camp, celebrate with a cocktail chilled with 10,000-year-old Antarctic ice.

Another adventure awaits! The magical blue ice tunnels require a bit of effort to reach, but it’s well worth it. The two-hour hike across icefields is an amazing experience in itself. The tunnels are the result of thousands of years of wind and meltwater erosion, carving the ice into these unreal underground channels.

This might be your only chance to climb a nunatak – an exposed tip of a mountain that rises above the ice sheet. Guided by someone who knows what they’re doing (few!), you’ll reach the summit from which you can look out across the surrounding icefields. A (literally) breathtaking spot.

After one last breakfast in Antarctica, you’ll be driven to the airstrip. While you wait for your flight back to Cape Town, check out Wolf’s Fang Ice Bar – literally a bar carved out of the ice, complete with very cool ice sculptures inside. Sip a cold one before boarding to toast the end of an incredible trip.