ROVOS RAIL
PRETORIA · CAPE TOWN · VICTORIA FALLS · DAR ES SALAAM · THE PRIDE OF AFRICA
The train widely held to be the finest in the world. Mahogany and brass, observation cars, suites with private bathrooms, and a dining car where dinner is a formal affair every evening of the journey.
Built and operated by the Vos family from Pretoria since 1989. The country crossed slowly, the way it was meant to be seen.
JOURNEY
THE GRAND TRAVERSE — BY RAIL
Rovos operates eleven routes between Pretoria, Cape Town, Victoria Falls, Walvis Bay on the Namibian coast, and Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean. Three nights, fourteen nights, sixteen nights — depending on how much of the continent you want to see.
The shortest journey, three nights between Pretoria and Cape Town, crosses the Karoo at first light and arrives at Table Mountain on the morning of the fourth day. The longest, sixteen nights from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam, runs across the African continent — Karoo, Madikwe, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania — with off-train days for Victoria Falls and the Selous game reserve.
All meals are on board. All drinks are included. The wine list is one of the finest moving cellars in the world.
ON BOARD
36 Suites
Seventy-two guests at most. Three suite categories, the largest of which is over sixteen square metres with a Victorian bath and full-height windows on both sides of the carriage. Observation lounges at the rear of the train. A library and an open-sided viewing platform.
No televisions. No mobile signal for long stretches. The dress code is observed — jacket and tie for dinner, smart for the day. Themed dinner evenings on the longer journeys: 1920s Elegance, Africa Night, Safari Chic.
The kind of week in which the journey itself is the destination.
