The Cape & Africa Discovered is an owner-operated boutique travel company located in South Africa.
On offer is bespoke itinerary planning with full personalised destination management services to South Africa, other Southern and East Africa countries as well as the Indian Ocean Islands.
An experienced professional destination manager takes all the worry and hassle out of your trip with creative and thoughtful personalised planning, accommodation suggestions and bookings, appropriate transport options, accredited and knowledgable fun guides, and will even take care of dinner reservations and activity management to best suit your itineray.
We value our association and connections with a vast and reliable network of service and accommodation providers who, like us, will go the extra mile for their clients.
Our dedicated destination managers are passionate about all things Africa.
Located on the rugged West Coast of South Africa, with the iconic outline of Table Mountain visible from our doorstep, we are intimately familiar with the top sites to see as well as the 'hidden' gems typically known only to locals, as well as the best accommodation options available for your specific requirements.
Our aim is to create an itinerary and tour that perfectly suits your values, interests, timelines and budgets.
- We do not offer 'one size fits all' services. -
We offer unique itineraries with personalised destination management to experience iconic Southern and East Africa.
Tailor-made Safaris & Tours for Discerning Travellers
We specialise in tailor-made, high quality African safaris and tours for discerning travellers to countries in Southern and East Africa.
You may be going on safari to Africa for the first time and not know where to start, in which case we will spend as long as it takes to design an itinerary to suit your wishes.
Or, if you are an experienced safari traveller looking for something different, we can advise you on new discoveries we have made through our own extensive travels. Even if you only have a preliminary idea, we are very happy to talk to you at the earliest stage of planning.
Our online Planning Questionnaire is a document that has been specifically developed and designed to aid us in determining what your specific safari and tour needs would be. We will use this as the basis to design your custom itinerary.
From beach to bush, we tailor our tour and safari options to suit your requirements.
Our Services include, but are not limited to:
- Personalised Itineraries
- Destination Management
- Accommodation
- Wine & Culinary Tours & Experiences
- Guided Private Day Tours
- Guided Private Overland Safaris
- Wool & Fibre Tours
Get in touch with us today to start planning your own, hassle-free, door-to-door African Journey of Discovery!
Personalised Itineraries & Professional Destination Management
How do you know which safari is right for you? Which game lodges are the best suited for your needs? Where do you get the best game viewing experience and where do you see the most animals?
Is a private or group safari required? East Africa or Southern Africa? Which game reserve to visit, and where?
A combination of different safari experiences in different countries or locations? A luxury itinerary with premier camps and lodges or camping out in the bush with mobile tents? Perhaps on a river boat and a luxury train?
When is the best time to travel? How do I prepare? And what about malaria?
There is no one correct answer as every location is unique with its own special highlights and deserves equal attention.
This is where our passionate team of destination and travel managers, and years of experience, set us apart.
We specialise in creating tailor-made itineraries that often combine visits to more than one country or location on the African continent, at your pace, and within your budget and timeframe.
An experienced and professional destination specialist will respond to your enquiry and will be your personal travel and destination adviser and manager - your Personal Travel Butler one might say!
Bespoke, Inspirational, Authentic, Unforgettable Africa
We offer inspired tailor-made safaris and tours to:
- South Africa
- Botswana
- Zimbabwe
- Zambia
- Namibia
- Kenya
- Mozambique
- Madagascar
- Tanzania
- Zanzibar.
We are specialists in combining visits to more than one country or location on the African continent if preferred, at your pace and within your budget and timeframe.
Africa has been a sought after continent by so many, from the pioneers who have gone before us to the modern explorers of today. Whether you are traveling romantics, a multi-generational family, or an adventure seeker wanting to experience the beauty and facets of ever changing landscapes, and to enjoy the many cultures and wildlife Africa has to offer along the way, Africa has something for everyone.
We love assisting our guests with the perfect custom itinerary and managing that custom plan for their safari in Africa, and above all, we love hearing about their travel experiences with us!
Paying attention to every detail, wonderful varied accommodations, spectacular local cuisine. A few statements we endorse after our wonderful trip to Namibia and South Africa organised by Melinda Woodhead of The Cape & Africa Discovered . Our guide was very knowledgeable and met our every need. Our hotel rooms were glorious, food deliciously prepared (paying special attention to my husband who is gluten free).
Every excursion was a fine adventure, from sampling delicious wines from around the Cape, to the beauty of the wild animals roaming the vast countryside of Namibia. We always felt safe and extremely well taken care of."
We highly recommend any trip to Southern Africa, under Mel's guidance, planning and management with The Cape & Africa Discovered.
A trip to be remembered! We will be back!
What an incredible experience our family had touring the Cape and Garden Route thanks to the extensive planning and thoughtfulness that Mel put into making this the trip if a lifetime!
I'm sure it wasn't easy to accommodate the diverse needs and requests of our family, but we are so grateful to Mel and it felt like she became part of our family during our time with her.
So a huge THANK YOU, Mel, for sharing your country with us and teaching us so much about the wildlife, geography, flora, and history as well as taking such good care of us along the way.
Your passion for South Africa and enthusiasm is contagious and we simply would not have been able to do a fraction of what we saw and experienced without you at the helm. I cannot imagine not returning to South Africa now and hope that upon returning our paths will cross again.
Melinda introduced me to her wonderful birth country in 2003 with an itinerary that could not be beat.
I still have dreams about the people, wildlife and vistas. Can't wait to go back and see more amazing sights and make memories that cannot ever fade!
Thank you so much Mel Woodhead and The Cape & Africa Discovered...what an awesome experience we had today on our West Coast Flower Tour!
You are a charming and knowledgeable hostess and guide! Thank you for all the interesting knowledge that you shared with us, the attention to detail, the wonderful eats and your fabulous company guiding us!
We had a wonderful experience and will not hesitate to highly recommend your service to all our friends, both local and international.
Truly a Five Star experience!
We loved the door-to-door personal service and the hand selected wine estates we visited; the day went by too quickly!
We really enjoyed our two days with you and despite the weather we left Cape Town feeling like we had seen a fair amount of the important sites.
Unfortunately the winds delayed our departure cruise from Cape Town until the following morning and in turn delayed our arrival in Walvis Bay, which meant we missed one of the two planned tours we had.
We did get to the sand dunes in Sandwich Harbour which was amazing with a good tour guide so all was not lost. The port of Port Elizabeth was also closed due to winds so we completely missed the Addo Elephant park. All other ports went as planned and we did get to a Zulu village and also saw a bit of Maputo
We loved our trip to South Africa and while it was originally a bucket list item we don’t want to tick it off the list as it deserves a repeat visit hopefully in a couple of years!"
If we are ever lucky enough to make it back to Southern Africa, we will definitely have Mel and company orchestrate our travel plans again.
A trip to South Africa warrants an enormous amount of research time and precise planning. Our family consists of my husband, our three children aged 12, 10 and 8 and myself. We are a very busy family, with lots of activities, and little time to spare for planning a trip of this magnitude.
Mel's extensive knowledge of her homeland allowed her to design us a highly customised itinerary, in a very short time frame. Mel also ensured that there was flexibility in her master plan, in anticipation that weather or personal needs might cause changes. Our trip started with a Safari experience, and ended with a tour of the West Coast region.
Mel did the planning for our entire trip, finding us a high quality Safari adventure that was less expensive that the Safari we had preliminary sourced by ourselves. She knew the recommended safari lodge would be ideal for our family and it exceeded all of our expectations.
Mel personally met us at the airport and her meticulous attention to detail carried through, as she brought drinks, snacks and blankets for the children. As we toured the West Coast of South Africa with Mel as our guide, she offered many tidbits of knowledge, including historical, geographical and environmental. Her love of South Africa and passion for its beauty and people shone through as she led us from one breathtaking scene and experience to another.
Her custom planning of activities tailored to our family's interests was very much appreciated. We are very interested in nature, wildlife and beaches, and Mel ensured that we covered as many sites as reasonably possible give our short stay and in consideration of the needs of the children.
Two weeks of tasting, sipping and savouring the wines of famed the Cape Winelands, all accommodations arranged, transportation, extra activities made for us, guided by a wine enthusiast and specialist.
We were introduced to hidden gems, went on cellar tours, met winemakers, made our own wine and learnt so much more about the South African wine industry than what we thought possible.
We could not get enough of South African wine, and loved the custom designed tour - we will be visiting again to explore more!
Thank you for everything!
Such great experiences, great value for money, great service!
It was fantastic not to have to be concerned about anything; we particularly loved the local connections Mel has - we feel as if we have experienced the full smorgasbord of unique activities and met the most wonderful people.
It has been 6 weeks of a second honeymoon with so much spoiling; it's going to be hard to go back to normal.