Our tour which took us to Drakensburg Mountains and down the east cape meant we spent a lot of time in the bus and covered a lot of kms but this is the only way to see stuff. It was excellent and accommodation was excellent. This was topped off with Walter being a knowledgeable and very personable guide. He made the trip more memorable.

I booked a day tour to Aquila Nature Reserve through Viator with this tour operator: Cullinan Guided Journeys. Overall, the day tour was excellent! I had an incredible day, and the tour was excellent value for all of the inclusions. Hotel pick-up and drop-off were seamless and on time. Communication from the head office was timely and professional. The day's itinerary was perfectly timed! After pick-up from my hotel at 08H50, we continued to pick up the remaining guests. Then, we were on our way. The drive to the Nature Reserve takes approximately 2.5-3 hours, traffic dependent. The tour guide stopped about halfway so we could all use the toilet and grab some cold drinks. Upon arrival (~11:50am) at the main lodge at the Nature Reserve (the departing area for the game drive), we were welcomed with your choice of a chilled glass of sparkling white/rose or a glass of juice for those who prefer nonalcoholic beverages. We were given out registration slips and proceeded to do a quick 2 minute check-in at the reception desk (the staff check and photocopy your provided ID). The buffet lunch was timed perfectly for our arrival - already set out. The included buffet lunch exceeded expectations! There were many hot and cold dishes to choose from, for example, beef kebab, chicken schnitzel, grilled fish, rice, yams, potatoes, fresh cut vegetables, fresh cut fruits, dinner rolls, a large platter of cheeses, fresh salads and an assortment of desserts. It was delicious and great fuel for the upcoming safari. Drinks could be purchased from the bar. We were given about one hour to eat lunch, which was a perfect amount of time! Lunch ended at 12:50pm, and we then set off on our 2.5-3 hour game drive, which was fantastic! We saw rhinos, elephants, zebras, giraffes, lions, ostriches, wildebeest, antelope, springbok etc. The game driver/guide had a keen eye and was eager to help us get beautiful photos. Also, he was full of information about the wildlife we saw! About 3/4 through our game drive, we made a quick 20 minute stop at one of the camps in the park, where we were offered more sparkling wine and free bottles of water. This was also a good opportunity to stretch your legs and use the toilet again. We returned back to the lodge to collect our vehicle at around 4pm for the drive back to Cape Town! I had a terrific day, and was extremely pleased with how the tour went. The tour operator has executed an excellent itinerary for a very reasonable cost, and overall, I was very satisfied. I recommend this company and this day tour in particular. It was definitely a highlight for me during my stay in Cape Town!

Travelling solo is not a piece of cake for a girl. Cullinan Guided Journeys made my dream came true. My first tour was the Cape Peninsula Tour - Full Day which was mind-blowing, the Tour guide Marius is exceptional (accompanied with a driver), he knows all the history of Cape Town, funny enough to keep you entertained and kind enough to take your pictures if you are travelling solo or even for couples. The tour guide offered us the dessert at the restaurant which was pre-booked. This gesture wins my heart. It was exactly what i was looking for. My second tour was the Winelands Day Tour - Full Day which was also great, but at the end of the day you fell a bit dizzy with all this wine. The tour guide was himself the driver, which was a bit of risky as he was explaining and driving at the same time, it was a bit less of fun compared to the first day. But i can say i enjoyed it tho. My third tour was city tour - this one i was a bit uncomfortable as i was the only girl with 2 other man. The tour guide was humble and explained a bit about the city hall, museum etc, but i felt quite unsafe. I have prebooked my tickets for Half Day Morning Table Mountain - after which the guide will end his tour. You will have to find your way back to your hotel/accommodation from the Table mountain. Tips: If you are not a fan of wines and winelands, do not opt of this option. Try the safari instead. Do not bring huge sum of cash. Always be on time, because the tour van came on the time that it was schedule for me. Do not be late, as it can create frustration or delays in the trip. p.s I just wished my other tours would have been same fun as the first one.

The Aquila Game Reserve Safari wildlife My first time in CT and driver was very helpful and knowledgeable person about tours and animals.

On March 6 I and 78 of my my fellow cruise ship passengers had the absolute highlight of our 111 day World Cruise. We left USA thinking we would be going through the Red Sea and Suez Canal and were diverted to Africa. After 6 weeks of grumbling and feeling like we had missed out on the highlight of our cruise and being forced to go around Africa --- we now feel happy for the diversion. Our experience on March 6 was absolutely the most amazing day of our cruise. We were met by Tyrone and others at the Cruise Terminal and effortlessly sent along to our buses. We thought we were going to go see the animals, not knowing the BEST part of the trip would be our ride to and from the Aquila Safari! We had 2 buses and I was with Charlie (driver) and Mark (guide). (My co-coordinator was in the other bus and shares with me that THEY had the best driver and guide but I wasn’t there and can’t expand on that). Mark talked for 5 hours straight, giving us history, pointing out the scenery, but by far and away the best part was how he shared his personal life story and experiences. As a group of white mostly Americans apartheid was just a word and we were sad when Nelson Mandela went to jail and happy when he was released. WE HAD NO IDEA! Hearing Mark’s story of trying to make a difference from the time he was a young school child setting fires and running from the police to his life as he got older was life changing for us. We saw a lady with a boy who looked at me with a huge smile. I smiled back thinking he looked like my 7 year old grandson. Back on the bus after our quick stop Mark shared they were heading back to Zimbabwe because she had lost her job and they had no money to live on plus they were expected to send money back home. We heard a story of poverty that I can’t even comprehend. The story brought me to tears and I wanted to turn the bus around so we could all empty our pockets giving this family all of our money. Mark said there are many such stories and someone else would come along to help. I hope so. I will never forget that boy’s smile and the story Mark shared with us about life in Zimbabwe. Writing this has brought the tears back to my eyes. I want to find that family and help them. We passed the tenements and the country’s free housing projects and even the houses which are so close together there is almost no yard (which I had never seen). Each neighborhood brought more stories and filled us with love for the African people who still have joy and celebrate a paycheck like it is a major holiday. The day before we had eaten steak for dinner on the ship and I threw away most of mine because it was hard to chew. I will never do that again because Mark has penetrated my mind with a culture of African people who eat every single part of the animal, down to the eyeballs and teeth and the joy of getting to eat the cheek as they roast the entire head and eat it. Mark didn’t tell stories, he opened up and shared his life. We were there. We lived his life. It was vibrant, it was real, it was amazing. Seriously someone should get him on a you tube channel telling stories about Africa as all of us Americans would be spell bound with his speaking. One funny thing was how he talked about Cape Town’s “Little Miami” and how wonderful it is. Our Miami in the US is called “Little Havana” because it is a very black town and most people have escaped from Cuba to live there. A couple of us kept wanting to know about going shopping the next day and Mark kept saying no, no, no - use the next day to discover the wonders of Cape Town and more about our city. He is so proud of Cape Town and his country and has such insights as to the good and bad of apartheid and how the government is run and more. I can’t repeat everything, as this was 5 hours of driving, with Mark speaking nonstop and Charlie adding his thoughts sometimes. Unbelievable! So yes, they were great at guiding our group, treating us special, getting us on and off the buses, but that wasn’t the highlight. And yes, we went to the Safari and had a really good lunch and bought the local beers for $2 US. And yes, we saw the Big 5 and more animals. We absolutely loved the SAFARI itself, feeling it was all we were hoping for. The big male lion sleeping, the female lions - the rhinos - the hippos - the giraffes and zebras everywhere — That is all true. We loved it. BUT - that is NOT what made our trip amazing. It was Mark and Charlie, who will forever feel like family to me because we grew so close over those 5 hours as they opened their hearts and stories to us. So thank you. If you want to make this a decent length and publish it as a review you have my permission. And if you do please add how wonderful the office was to work with and how comfortable our buses were. Oh, and how excited we were to buy all we could at the convenience stores we stopped at each way. But NOTHING could ever match the heart changing mind opening experience Mark left each of us with. And so we got on the buses at 8am totally different people than we got OFF the buses at 6pm. Thank you so much for that Mark. Ps- I have copied many of the people on the tour in case anyone wants to email you directly to thank you for our unbelievable day! Debbie Russ

DO NOT BOOK the round trip to Aquila with game drive offered by this provider: they changed the time of pick-up without any confirmation from my side. I had to do a very expensive phone call to check where the driver was on the morning, only to be told that they left already! I wasted one hour waiting plus 10£ for the call. They also refused to give me a refund, even if I didn’t do the activity. Do not choose this provider and save yourself some money!

Our travel consultant arranged a half day tour of Cape Town for us with Cullinan Guided Journeys. It started off with a little mix up. One driver picked us up at our hotel and went to the next hotel to pick up another couple. When we arrived, he realized he had picked up the wrong tour group. We had to get out of the van and wait for the correct guide to pick us up. Once that was sorted out however, it was a nice day. We NEVER do tours like this, so we were pretty apprehensive. We were lucky and only one other couple joined us, so it was a little less “touristy.” We went to a lot of places, and our guide gave us options as to what we wanted to see. We visited Kirstenbosch Gardens, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Boulders Bay and the penguin colony, False Bay, Simon’s Town, Hout Bay, and Chapman Peak. We got lunch near Boulders Bay and were able to site outside and relax. I recommend Cullinan, but just double check the right guide picks you up!

Our agent had booked our two full day tours with Cullinan Guided tours and we are so pleased they did. Both guides were very informative and made our trips very interesting and hassle free. Small groups made it more personal and we got to meet and chat with everyone. Highly recommended group.

Great tour service! Guides were friendly and knowledgeable, especially Armoy and Liz. They are precious to your company, so do whatever to keep them!

We spent a very pleasant afternoon visiting the constantia winelands. Our first stop was Buitenverwachting Wine Estate where we were originally offered a seat at tables out the front, but our attentive tour guide, Armoy, recommended sitting out the back, in a lovely, shaded corner of the courtyard. We ordered a Harvest platter to enjoy with the wine tasting. It was a delicious selection of local produce - cheese, bread, salami, peppadew chutney and pate, chocolate brownie, etc. The wines we tried were also quite impressive. Unfortunately the lady who served us was quite distracted and the tasting took a lot longer than it should have. Fortunately Armoy was extremely flexible and never made us feel as though we had to rush. We even purchased some of the chutney and sun dried tomato, feta and olive tapenade from the deli. Then we continued on to Groot Constantia Wine Estate. We began with a tour of the storage barrels and a history lesson on the winery. This was followed by another pleasant wine tasting experience. Once again, Armoy allowed us time to enjoy the tasting and even explore the manor house and surrounds. Armoy was a fantastic guide. He was very knowledgeable of the local area, and history. He was very patient and gave us opportunities to photos, as well as suggesting places to eat and visit. Armoy made the afternoon a very memorable experience.

We did a couple of tours with Cullinans, including the half day Capetown city tour and the full day trip to Cape Point. Both of the guides were friendly, knowledgeable and accommodated individual interests as much as possible, depending on the size of the group. Both very pleasant experiences

A nice tour of the Cape Peninsula, however very rushed, quite exhausting and uncomfortable. If you can, consider a self-drive tour especially if the tour van is full and bring your own drinks as not even a bottle of water is offered on board for the entire day. As a proud South African citizen, the lengthy political narration was somewhat unnecessary too. Communication from tour operator was somewhat strained too.

Very well organised trip from everyone involved. Misha communicated promptly about the first of our tours, the Cape Town centre and Table Mountain, and Super our AMAZING guide collected us as arranged. We were fortunate to have the tour to ourselves as tourism had not fully picked up from COVID. Super was extremely knowledgable about all of South Africa providing excellent commentary the whole trip. He guided us up Table Mountain giving us insights into the history of the Mountain and the Cape as a whole. To ensure we saw everything on Super’s itinerary he took additional time to show us all the points of interest from his stories and historical explanations, he was truly fantastic. On the back of this amazing tour we immediately decided to book the Peninsula Tour,and this once again did not disappoint. Amazing views during the drive past Camps Bay and Llandudno Beach before driving up and seeing the fantastic views of Chapmans Peak. The drive and Super’s fascinating commentary continued as we made our way to the Table Mountain National Park where we embarked upon our adventure with wildlife towards False Bay before heading to Cape Point and the infamous Cape of Good Hope. We got the chance to go and look around these amazing point of navigational importance and history, amazing spots for Photos. After this we continued to Simons Town and Boulders Beach for an amazing lunch specifically organised by Super, before braving the icy penguin occupied waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Upon leaving here we continued around the coast again being educated by Super’s amazing knowledge of the whole Cape. We were offered a complimentary visit to an exclusive garden venue for the best afternoon tea in Cape Town, however we were too full from lunch to participate. Both trips really made our time in Cape Town educational and memorable and thoroughly enjoyable and we can praise Super enough for providing us with this unique and unequalled experience. Highly recommend.

My wife and I were in Cape Town celebrating a milestone anniversary from the United States. We generally are not tour people. We enjoy exploring on our own. However, this 3-day tour of the City, Winelands, and Cape Pointe was part of a package and honestly we were looking forward to this part of our holiday the least. My expectations though were far exceeded. Our driver is called Super and he lived up to every bit of it. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and really helped my wife and I settle in to the city. He introduced us to people and his wife even made us banana bread. Overall, this tour portion of our holiday really helped to set the tone for us to have a better understanding of the people, the history, the food, and the geographical area. By the end, I consider Super a friend more than a city guide. I would absolutely recommend Cullinan and specifically Super as your guide. Even if you're like us and don't usually do tours, set aside a few days for this.

Working together, our tour guide Craig (left) and driver David (right) provided 20 people from 6 countries with an absolutely great, first-rate 4,000 kilometer tour of South Africa - starting in Johannesburg and ending in Cape Town. It’s still hard to believe how smoothly everything went - thanks to their professionalism and our friendly fellow passengers. There were many wonderful moments, but my highlights included a tour of Soweto, Nelson Mandela’s home, and the Apartheid Museum; leopards in Kruger National Park, rhinos in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, and every hippopotamus; the journey up to the highest point in the Drakenburg Mountains; Crawford’s Beach Resort with its view of the Indian Ocean; Premier Hotels & Resorts in Knysna; African Penguins at Boulders Bay, and gorgeous Capetown with its iconic Tabletop, Lion’s Head, Robbens Island and surrounding vineyards. Have I mentioned the country’s complicated and inspiring history, scenic grandeur, incredibly kind people, magnificent animals and delicious wines? I plan to visit again soon. Craig is an outstanding tour guide who makes the complex work of being a guide appear effortless. Craig’s long experience, management skills and tireless work behind the scenes or in full view of his passengers smoothed the way for all our arrivals and departures over the course of long days on the road that were even longer for him. There was nothing he didn’t do to make the trip enjoyable for all of us. Listening to Craig talk about South Africa during our two-week journey also made the bus trip much more interesting for me. At appropriate moments during the day Craig informed the group about our location or an upcoming experience. His discussions ranged from socio-economic and political history to comments on the incredible natural beauty of South Africa’s landscape, plants and animals. Craig conveys a love for his country that’s heartwarming, as well as inspiring. Whether on superhighways, city streets or mountain roads, David drove so well, we barely felt the road and arrived at all of our destinations safely and on schedule. In addition to his driving skill, David always had a smile and kind word for all his passengers. Long before the end of the trip, we all knew it would be hard to say our good-byes. One fellow traveler even wrote a song and sang her thanks to Craig and David! The rest of us were left with a final smile, hand-shake and hug for these two wonderful people who made our Cullinan Tour memorable and enjoyable.