“Epic motorcycle tour through 4 countries”
23 Day Victoria Falls Guided Motorcycle Tour in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia
Pretoria - Springbok - Citrusdal - Franschhoek - Cape Town, South Africa; Central Tuli Block - Nata - Okavango - Gweta - Maun - Ghanzi, Botswana; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; Windhoek - Swakopmund - Rehobooth - Fish River Canyon, Namibia
Guided Motorcycle Tour in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana
On this adventure, you will enjoy incredible wildlife safaris in Chobe, cruise down the mighty Zambezi River, explore the Okavango Delta by Mokorokoro (African canoe), view the amazing Victoria Falls, climb the enormous sand dunes of Swakopmund and ride around the third largest Canyon in the world (Fish River Canyon). The tour ends on a high note with a triumphant ride down to Cape Winelands and riding beautiful coastal roads all the way into Cape Town. Along the way, you will meet some of the friendly locals along the way. Get ready for the two-wheel time of your life!
Key information
- Terrain: 90% tar, 10% good gravel
- Bike: rental bike (BMW models)
- Mileage: Approximately 5,329 kilometers / 3,311 miles
- Daily rides: 200 - 540 kilometers / 124 - 336 miles
- Riding gear: available to rent: helmets, jackets, gloves
- Meals: 22 breakfasts, 14 lunches, 20 dinners
Highlights
- Starts in Pretoria and ends in Cape Town
- Experience helicopter flight over the Victoria Falls
- Head to Chobe National Park and enjoy a boat cruise on the Chobe River
- Enjoy the Okavango River, a paradise of flooded plains and swamps, teeming with wildlife
- Swap to 4-wheel drive safari vehicle and enjoy game reserve for a half-day safari
- Ride to Etosha National Park, this park is based around a large salt pan
- Ride to Africa’s largest canyon, The Fish River Canyon
- 22 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Intermediate
21 days with instruction
Airport transfer included:
O. R. Tambo International Airport
Accommodation
You will stay at 3 - 4-star accommodations during the tour. Every night you will stay in a room with an ensuite bathroom. You can choose to share with your partner or another rider on the tour. Otherwise, you can opt to get your own room throughout the tour.
All accommodations have been handpicked by Sama Tours. They only use high-standard accommodation in good locations. They love African lodges, boutique hotels, and BnBs, or places that have a good atmosphere, exceptional staff, and all the modern amenities.
Examples of hotels on the tour:
Chobe Safari Lodge
This lodge is a major highlight of the tour. Enjoy your stay in the luxuriously appointed thatch rondavel (cottage). Walk down to the restaurant and bar on the wooden deck and enjoy a drink while watching hippos and other wildlife in the water down below.
Mokuti Lodge
Uninterrupted views and gardens that interact with the living spaces create an inviting, friendly, comfortable, and relaxing atmosphere, which sets the tone for your stay at Mokuti Etosha.
Canyon Lodge
An oasis surrounded by breathtaking desert landscapes you will find this unique lodge where your rooms are built into the giant boulders. There is a welcoming pool, bar, and restaurant and a highlight is their bar located up in the boulders overlooking the lodge for the best sunsets in Africa.
President Hotel, Cape Town
This is a beautiful fresh and sunny hotel with incredible ocean views. It has a great central location in Sea Point, within walking distance from the promenade, and a quick taxi ride to the VA Waterfront. The Hop on Hop off Cape Town City Sightseeing bus leaves from just across the road.
Please note that while the above hotels are the first choices, Sama Tours may not get available rooms on the dates you need. In this case, Sama Tours sources hotels next door or nearby that are of the same high standard and quality or better.
Program
Day 1: Arrive in South Africa (0 - 50 kilometers / 0 - 31 miles)
Welcome to South Africa. You will be met at the Johannesburg International Airport by a Sama representative who will transfer you to your Pretoria Lodge, where you can relax and unwind after your long flight.
For those of you arriving early, there are lots of optional activities in and around Pretoria, for example, you can do a city tour, Lion and Rhino Park tour, Soweto Tour, or enjoy a massage at an African spa. Your hotel is within walking distance of shops, restaurants, and cocktail bars.
Day 2: Day tour of Pretoria and Big 5 safari by motorcycle (75 kilometers / 47 miles)
- Highlights: Day tour of Pretoria, big 5 safari by motorcycle
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner
This morning, they will hand over your motorcycle to you and sign all the paperwork. After that is complete, you will have a tour briefing and then the fun begins.
You start off by taking a tour of the Voortrekker monument to learn some history about South Africa. This is followed by lunch in a small township just north of Pretoria to experience all the vibrant colors, sounds, and tastes of Africa.
Afterward, you enjoy a guided motorcycle ride through a Big 5 nature reserve. Rhinos, giraffes, impala, and wildebeest can all be spotted from your motorcycle. Tonight, you have a welcome dinner in an African Boma. Welcome to Africa!
Day 3: Pretoria to Tuli Block, Botswana (340 kilometers / 211 miles)
- Highlights: African lodge on the banks of the Limpopo River
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Today, you leave Pretoria and make your way northwards through the wild province of Limpopo to the Botswana border. The more north you travel in South Africa, the wilder the landscape becomes. After border procedures, you make your way to your lodge in the Tuli Block, your home for the night, based on the Limpopo River (full of crocodiles and hippos).
Tonight, you have dinner in the beautiful boma and if you are lucky, some local African kids will come to dance for you. Fall asleep listening to the great sounds of the African night - lions roaring in the distance.
Day 4: Tuli Block to Nata (452 kilometers / 281 miles)
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
After an early start, you make your way through Botswana towards Nata, close to the Nata Bird Sanctuary. Nata is on the outskirts of the Makgadigadi Pans, the largest salt complex in the world. You will notice that Botswana is a country situated almost entirely in the Kalahari Desert. Arrive at your oasis of hotel in the early afternoon and enjoy a refreshing swim and ice cold beer.
Day 5: Nata to Chobe (330 kilometers / 205 miles)
- Highlights: Riding Botswana’s wildlife corridor
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
The next morning after a healthy breakfast, you make your way to Kasane right on the Chobe River. Along the way, you ride through a wildlife corridor. Botswana is a truly wild country, there are no fences and you often see elephants right on the side of the road on this leg of the trip. You will arrive in Kasane in the early afternoon.
Day 6: Chobe to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (80 kilometers / 50 miles)
- Highlights: Victoria Falls helicopter flight
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
After an early morning Big 5 safari into Chobe National Park, you make your way to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. You will arrive in the early afternoon. This waterfall is not the highest or the widest in the world, but it is the largest sheet of falling water, and the sheer volume of falling water will blow you away.
During your stay, Sama Tours has included a helicopter flight over the falls. They call this "the flight of angels". Seeing Victoria Falls from the air is the best angle to truly appreciate its magnificence
Day 7: Rest day at Victoria Falls
- Highlights: Victoria Falls
- Meals: breakfast, dinner
You have the whole day free to enjoy all the activities that Victoria Falls has on offer. You may wish to do a guided tour of the falls, canoe down the Zambezi River, visit an elephant sanctuary, bungee jump, or enjoy adrenaline-fueled river rafting. There are also tours available where you can swim either above or below the tumbling waters of the falls! Otherwise, you may wish to just grab a drink at the pool, book a spa treatment, and just relax on the beautiful hotel grounds.
Day 8: Victoria Falls to Chobe National Park (80 kilometers / 50 miles)
- Highlights: Big 5 Safari by boat in Chobe National Park
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Today you make your way into Botswana. You will have a nice relaxed morning at the Falls and arrive back at Chobe National Park around lunch time. This is a river paradise and the only place in Africa where you can do a Big 5 safari by boat!
After lunch, you enjoy a boat cruise on the Chobe River. Enjoy floating downstream while hundreds of elephants come down to the water’s edge to drink water, play in the mud, and have a swim, a truly an amazing sight and a photographers dream!
Day 9: Chobe to Gweta (420 kilometers / 261 miles)
- Highlights: Overnight trip on the Salt Pans, meeting Meerkats
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Today, you get back on the bikes and enjoy a relaxing ride through Botswana as you make your way to Planet Baobab, located on the northern side of the Makgadigadi Pans. You swap 2 wheels for 4 and hop onto Quad bikes, riding out onto the Salt Pans to camp under the stars. Please note quad biking is subject to availability and camping is optional.
This afternoon, you will meet some of the Kalahari’s most fascinating inhabitants, the meerkats. Due to an ongoing habituation program, it’s possible for guests to get up close and personal with these captivating creatures. Enjoy breathtaking views of sparkling salt that extends as far as the eye can see. Sleeping here is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. However, if you would prefer not to camp, they will book you into a 4-star accommodation back at the lodge.
Day 10: Gweta to Maun (210 kilometers / 130 miles)
- Highlights: Maun - the gateway to the Okavango Delta
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Wake up to a beautiful sunrise out in the wilderness and enjoy a cup of piping hot coffee. Then jump on the Quad bikes to enjoy exploring more of the Salt Pans. Open the throttle, close your eyes and travel, knowing there is nothing to crash into until you fall off the edge of the earth. On return to Planet Baobab, you will enjoy a scrumptious breakfast, and then suit up and carry on your motorcycle ride to Maun, the gateway to the Okavango Delta.
Day 11: Okavango Delta Trip
- Highlights: Mokoro boat trip in the Delta
- Meals: breakfast, dinner
It is time to explore the waterways of the beautiful Okavango Delta. You start the day with a 4 x4 drive to the poler station where you meet the guides. You then get into traditional dug out canoes and spend the day exploring the waterways of the delta, moving quietly through shallow water, being pushed by the boatman using a long pole. You will then enjoy a scrumptious lunch out in the bush. There will also be optional guided walk to explore the area. You will return to Maun in the late afternoon.
Day 12: Maun to Ghanzi (285 kilometers / 177 miles)
- Highlights: Wild Botswana
- Meals: breakfast and dinner
After a rest day exploring the wild waterways of the Delta, you ride further into Botswana, where you spend the night at a safari lodge. Enjoy a refreshing dip in the pool and an ice-cold beer.
Day 13: Ghanzi to Windhoek, Namibia (527 kilometers / 327 miles)
- Highlights: Capital of Namibia
- Meals: breakfast and dinner
Today, you make your way into Namibia and to its beautiful capital of Windhoek. Namibia is home to one of the oldest deserts in the world and is the most sparsely populated country in Africa. You will spend the night in Windhoek where you will enjoy German heritage. Tonight, you go out to enjoy a meal at the Famous Joes Beerhouse, who specializes in cooking wild game meat including Springbok or Gemsbok steaks.
Day 14: Windhoek to Swakopmund (360 kilometers / 224 miles)
- Highlights: Golden sand dunes of Namibia
- Meals: breakfast and lunch
After a delicious breakfast, you make your way west through Namibia, watching in amazement as semi-arid desert, becomes fully arid desert and then transforms into full-blown sand dunes towering into the horizon. In the early afternoon, you arrive at Swakopmund on the Skeleton Coast, famous for its great waves, beautiful sand dunes, and German hospitality - your home for the next two nights.
Day 15: Rest day Swakopmund (0 - 50 kilometers / 0 - 31 miles)
- Highlights: Skeleton Coast, quad biking in the sand dunes
- Meals: breakfast
Swakopmund is based at the tip of the world-famous Skeleton Coast and is the adventure capital of Namibia. This afternoon, you take a ride to the famous Dune 45 where you swap your motorcycles for quad bikes and enjoy a roller coaster ride through the incredible sand dunes of the Namib Desert.
You will have the rest of the day free to relax or take part in any of the other optional activities on offer - ride to see a shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast, kayak with seals in Walvis Bay, or visit the Flamingo lagoon. If you are looking for more of a relaxing time, then you can enjoy the beach just meters from the hotel, or explore the wonderful German culture of the town. Tonight, you enjoy amazing seafood.
Day 16: Swakopmund to Rehobooth (480 kilometers / 298 miles)
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Riding down through Namibia, you make your way back towards Windhoek and then down South to Rehobooth. Tonight’s accommodation is at a lovely country lodge situated on the Tropic of Capricorn.
Day 17: Rehobooth to Fish River Canyon (540 kilometers / 336 miles)
- Highlights: Fish River Canyon
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Making your way down south, you ride on beautiful hard-packed gravel roads that will take you into the heart of the Gondwana Canyon Nature Reserve. Look out for Quiver trees, Sprinkbok, Gemsbok, Hartebeest, Ostrich and Mountain Zebra.
In the late afternoon, the mountains light up to a blazing red as you arrive at the famous Canyon Lodge. This whole resort is built in between rocky boulders, an oasis in the middle of the hostile desert. Welcome to the wild west!
Day 18: Fish River Canyon rest day (0 - 70 kilometers / 0 - 43 miles)
- Highlights: Ride to see 3rd largest canyon on Earth
- Meals: breakfast, dinner
Today, you enjoy a rest day in the Canyon National Park - an incredible landscape to explore. This morning, you will take a ride to the Canyon view site. This is the 3rd largest canyon in the world (160 kilometers long) and the views will take your breath away! Back at the lodge, enjoy the beautiful rock pool and sundowner drinks up on the hill amongst the boulders. Optional activities include walks, 4×4 drives and horse rides through this magical landscape.
Day 19: Fish River Canyon to Springbok (350 kilometers / 217 miles)
- Highlights: Magical Namaqualand, Star Gazing
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Time to head back into South Africa. You make your way through Namaqualand - an area made famous by its wild flowers that bloom into a whirlwind of color during the springtime each year! Springbok is known for its peace and tranquility. Tonight, you will be staying at a lodge where you are guaranteed to “Find the magic in Namaqualand….”
Because Springbok is literally in the middle of nowhere, the stargazing is phenomenal, so relax and enjoy the constellations!
Day 20: Springbok to Citrusdal (400 kilometers / 249 miles)
- Highlights: Hot Water Springs, Riding the Northern Cape
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Today, you make your way through the Northern Cape to the lush green farm valleys of Citrusdal. Tonight, you sleep at a famous hot water spring resort situated on a citrus farm. Relax your “motorcycle riding muscles” in one of the hot water pools or mineral baths on the property that are filled by hot water springs with a temperature of 43 degrees Celsius. Bliss!
Day 21: Citrusdal to Franschoek (220 kilometers / 137 miles)
- Highlights: Bainskloof Pass, Cape Winelands
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
After a relaxing evening at the Baths Resort, you make your way to the famous Cape Winelands. Along the way, you will ride over the breathtaking Bainskloof pass. This afternoon, you enjoy a wine tasting and other culinary delights in the beautiful French town of Franschoek, surrounded by mountains and vineyards.
Day 22: Cape Winelands - Cape Point - Cape Town (180 kilometers / 112 miles)
- Highlights: Cape Point, Chapmans Peak, Simons Town, Coastal Roads, Signal Hill
- Meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Today you make your way to Cape Town, South Africa's Mother City. Today is the highlight of the trip as there are beautiful coastal views with twisting roads cut into the sea cliffs virtually all the way. You visit the old Navy town (Simonstown) and Bettys Bay to see African penguins living it up on the beach.
After that, you make your way to Cape Point to see the spectacular Cape Peninsula. Next up, you ride the famous Chapman's Peak drive past False Bay and then head over Signal Hill into Cape Town, where you celebrate the end of an amazing tour at one of Cape Town’s best restaurants. What a ride!
Day 23: End of tour
- Meals: breakfast
Sadly your tour of South Africa has come to an end. Sama Tours guarantees that you will take home loads of awesome photographs and fond memories of South Africa and the warm people you have met. Transfers will be arranged to the airport.
Bikes available for this tour:
- BMW F750GS: The F 750 GS is easy to handle and masters even rough terrain admirably
- BMW F800GS
- BMW F850GS: The F 850 GS is ready for everything that may come its way. In particular on alternating terrain, it offers you safety and comfort with a variety of features – and plenty of riding enjoyment
- BMW F900GS
- BMW R1250GS: Fast curve changes, gravel shooting up, endless tours: With the R 1250 GS, you decide what your adventure will look like. Its continuously optimized technology and extensive equipment will take you safely, dynamically, and comfortably over any route
- BMW R1300GS
Skill level required for this tour: Intermediate
Intermediate:
- Can ride for 3-4 hours
- Average riding experience
- Little assistance required
- Comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- Average experience with unsurfaced roads
- Steep ascents and descents
This tour is suitable for riders who have experience touring on two wheels. 90% of this tour takes place on good tarmac roads, and 10% takes place on good hardpacked gravel roads. If you are not comfortable on the gravel, Sama Tours can plan alternate tar routes for you. Sama Tours recommends being bike-fit. However, rest days are scheduled regularly.
Location
During this tour, you will visit various amazing places in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
Food
Enjoy 22 breakfasts, 14 lunches, and 20 dinners. Bottled water and snacks are also included.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Snacks
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
If you have special dietary requirements it's a good idea to communicate it to the organiser when making a reservation
What's included
- 21 days motorcycle rental
- 22 nights accommodation in 3-4 star lodgings and 1 bonus night accommodation in Pretoria
- Tour guide on a motorcycle
- Back up vehicle
- 22 breakfasts, 14 lunches, 20 dinners
- Bottled water and snacks
- Big 5 safari by motorcycle in Dinokeng
- Madgadigadi pan sunset drive
- Big 5 safari by boat in Chobe Park
- Big 5 land safari in Chobe National Park
- Mokoro (African canoe) trip on the Okavango River
- Victoria Falls helicopter flight
- Quad bike / ATV tour in the Namib Desert
- Cape Point tour
- Detailed guide book and map of Southern Africa, Sama T-shirt
- Free shuttle service from Johannesburg International Airport and to Cape Town International Airport
What's not included
- Petrol and toll fees (budget 5,900 ZAR per motorcycle)
- Visas and cross-border fees (budget approximately 80 USD per person)
- International and local flights
- Items of a personal nature
- All items not mentioned in "tour includes"
- All meals other than those specified in "tour includes"
- All entrance fees other than those specified
- Drinks
- Optional activities
How to get there
Recommended Airports
JNB
O. R. Tambo International Airport
42 km
Transfer included
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB). Enjoy the free shuttle service from Johannesburg International Airport and to Cape Town International Airport.
Airport: O. R. Tambo International Airport
Airport transfer included: O. R. Tambo International Airport
No additional charges. You can request this in the next step.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 14% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 30 days before arrival.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through Tripaneer.com. All major credit cards supported.
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