Ranked, with the working shown
The best train tours in South Africa
27 hotel-based trips in South Africa had enough verified data to score; hostel and self-guided rail-pass trips are not ranked here. The ranking below is fully mechanical; here is exactly how it works:
- Eligibility: only hotel-based tours are ranked. Trips built around hostels or self-arranged accommodation are left out, since these guides recommend hotel-inclusive tours for the general traveller.
- Rail share (35%): the percent of the trip actually on trains, from the itinerary.
- Value (20%): price per day against the other hotel-based trips on this page (cheaper per day scores higher).
- Data completeness (25%): full day-by-day itinerary, imagery, inclusions, and verified price.
- Departure breadth (20%): how many months the operator publishes departures for.
Eleven-night luxury train journey from Pretoria to Victoria Falls through Southern Africa
- Rail share
- 65
- Value
- 52
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 100
17 days · from $12,729 ($749/day)
Nine-day London round trip: Cape Town exploration, then luxury Rovos Rail to Pretoria
- Rail share
- 22
- Value
- 100
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 100
9 days · from $4,823 ($536/day)
Nine-day luxury rail journey from London to Cape Town on the Blue Train
- Rail share
- 40
- Value
- 93
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 75
9 days · from $4,957 ($551/day)
Luxury train journey through four African countries from Victoria Falls to Pretoria
- Rail share
- 70
- Value
- 59
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 38
16 days · from $11,613 ($726/day)
Nineteen-day escorted tour across South Africa by luxury train and coach from London
- Rail share
- 63
- Value
- 59
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 38
19 days · from $13,801 ($726/day)
Nine-day luxury rail journey from Cape Town to Pretoria aboard the Blue Train.
- Rail share
- 22
- Value
- 93
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 75
9 days · from $4,957 ($551/day)
Escorted South Africa tour with 2 nights on the Blue Train
- Rail share
- 23
- Value
- 89
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 75
13 days · from $7,771 ($598/day)
16-day rail journey Cape Town to Windhoek on African Explorer train
- Rail share
- 55
- Value
- 41
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 63
16 days · from $13,263 ($829/day)
Luxury train from Windhoek through Namibia's wildlife and deserts to Cape Town
- Rail share
- 65
- Value
- 37
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 25
14 days · from $12,297 ($878/day)
17-day Rovos Rail journey across South Africa, Mozambique, Eswatini and Zimbabwe
- Rail share
- 71
- Value
- 48
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
17 days · from $12,857 ($756/day)