We offer tailor made side-tours and day-trips in and around South Africa! We will customize all side-, day-trips to fit your needs, please contact us with your requirements. We will create your itinerary for you. Send us an e-mail at: marcel@marvelafrica.co.za (Outfitter) or salome@marvelafrica.co.za (Hostess) and we will gladly assist you!
Below is a list of day trips & side tours we offer:
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to ride on the back of an African Elephant. You meet the herd in the early morning or late afternoon and learn just how to get onto the back of an Elephant and move to it’s rhythm as they walk through the bush.
Elephants needs to feed for many hours a day, so just because you are on top, this doesn’t stop them from pulling down branches and grabbing a trunk full of grass as they walk. They are the largest creatures in the African jungle so other animals that you may come across will give way to you.
After walking for about an hour, the Elephants will return you to the Elephant boma.
Game drives are designed to take you close to our wildlife. This gives you an opportunity to view wild animals in their natural habitat as they go about their daily activities. Game drives are done during the day or night time.




The Pilanesberg National Park is located in North West Province in South Africa, west of Pretoria. The park borders with the entertainment complex Sun City. Pilanesberg Game Reserve is home to the Big 5 and offers a variety of activities.
Here are our top-ten things to do when visiting the Pilanesberg:
- Guided Safari - all the lodges and resorts in the Pilanesberg offer morning and afternoon guided game drives. In the morning the guide brings coffee and rusks and in the afternoon there are cool drinks and beer/wine for sun-downers, depending on which lodge you are staying at.
- Self-Drive Safari - we prefer self-drive as you get to decide when you go, which route you take and how long you stay at a sighting.
- Guided Bush Walk - most of the lodges offer guided bush walks. These are really exciting as they provide you with a whole new outlook on nature. You could come face-to-face with a rhino or buffalo, but these walks are more about the smaller things that you would miss when driving around the park.
- Self-Guided Camp Walk - Manyane lodge has a huge enclosed area where zebras, tsessebe, ostriches, wildebeest, impala and warthog roam freely. You don't need to book and maps are available at the information centre. We love this walk as you get to experience closeness with the animals. In summer you should take a hat, comfortable walking boots, a flask with water and a camera of course!
- Picnic on the Hills - there are five picnic spots located throughout the park. Three of them are great as you are high-up on hills and you have magnificent views of the plains or lake below. The one is Fish Eagle picnic spot overlooking Mankwe dam and the other two are located on Baile Drive. All the picnic spots have braai (barbeque) facilities, water, shade, toilets and are fenced.
- Sit at Bird Hides - there are seven hides distributed through the park. To us the Pilanesberg is all about sitting at these bird hides instead of driving around the park for hours. You can get some great photos if you visit these hides at the right time of day - the hides that face west have good photographic lighting in the mornings (Rathlogo and Mankwe) and the hides that face east are great in the afternoons (Mankwe, Ruighoek and Malatse). All the hides are safely fenced and have toilets.
- Hot Air Balloon - this is another great adventure! The balloon takes off from Mankwe Dam before the sun rises and then you spend an hour floating above the Pilanesberg. This is a great opportunity to photograph Africa's 'super-seven' (the big-5 plus cheetah and wild dogs) from the air - and when you land the table is set for a lovely champagne breakfast in the veld!
- Sun City - this famous resort forms part of the Pilanesberg crater complex and it has everything in terms of entertainment, from restaurants, the valley of waves water park, a cinema, health spa, golf course, live shows, casino, various sports from tennis to quad-biking and of course daily guided game drives into the Pilanesberg game reserve.
- Walk-in aviary - there is one at the Manyane complex and another one at Sun City. This is a great opportunity for you to photograph bird species, such as kingfishers, without needing a long lens.