Our Durban cruise ship shore excursions are designed to offer you the very best possible experience while visiting Durban; from discovering the traditions and culture of the local Zulu and Indian people to experiencing local cuisines and tastes. Here is your guide to Durban shore excursions for the 2024/2025 season.
Durban is one of those destinations that will leave you wishing you had much more time to explore and experience everything that Durban has to offer.
Thanks to an amazing 2023/2024 cruise ship season, we have fine tuned our new cruise ship shore excursions to be even better; we’re now offering an opportunity not only to experience the culture and the wildlife, but we’re now offering local food tastings to give you a more authentic experience.
To ensure you have the best possible experience, all our shore excursions will be limited in size to just 16 people – so don’t wait in booking!
On top of that, we have long been a part of and contributed to our local Community Tourism Organisation to ensure that all the tours we host benefit the local people as much as possible. So by booking directly with us, it means local micro-businesses benefit directly – just another good reason to explore Durban on a shore excursion.
The Quick Links
- Durban City Shore Excursion with Food Tasting
- Zulu Cultural Shore Excursion
- Wildlife and Zulu Cultural Shore Excursion
Durban Cruise Ship Shore Excursions
For the 2024/2025 season we have decided to limit the number of Durban shore excursion day trips to just 3 options. We don’t want to overwhelm you with too many choices and we want you to have the very best experience when visiting Durban on a cruise ship.
Option 1: Durban City Tour with Food Tasting
This is a tour I’m actually quite proud of and very much looking forward to doing. It’s the standard all day city tour but to make it extra special, we’ll be combining a little food tasting and history while we go around the city of Durban.
Some of the foods being tasted will be samoosas, vetkoek, some mini bunny chows, melktert and koeksisters.
For those that worry about hygiene, hand on heart, I guarantee there is less chance of falling sick in Durban because of the food than onboard the cruise ship!
We still walk through the bustling traditional Zulu and Indian markets, visit the historic city centre etc. We also visit the rarest tree in the world as well as a few other exotics in the botanical gardens.
We also cruise the Golden Mile and time permitting, they may even be an opportunity to dip your toes into the Indian Ocean.
Head on over to the booking page for more information about the shore excursion.
Option 2: Zulu cultural experience with a braai!
I don’t know that there is anything more South Africa, than a good ol’ braai! For those that don’t know, a braai is a barbecue.
On this Durban shore excursion you’ll get to do some very cool and exciting things. First off, you’ll get to drive through the beautiful landscape, the aptly named Valley of a 1000 Hills.
Next up you’ll get to enjoy a guided tour on an actual rural Zulu village. This is not one of those contrived tourist destinations, this is an actual Zulu village with people going about their daily lives here. Nothing will give you the insights into the people of Durban like this visit will.
Next up is the braai – we’re so serious about this that we have shows and competitions about braaiing, books, local celebrities get in on the act, it’s practically a cult here!
Finally it’s off to PheZulu for a 30 minute Zulu dance show which is 100% geared towards tourists but you’d kick yourself if you never got there.
I’m pleased about this tour simply because it features the local Zulu people which make up half the population of Durban and you’ll get to enjoy a lekker braai! Visit the tour page and get the details and book your spot.
Option 3: Combined Zulu culture and wildlife excursion
Most visitors to Durban come for the wildlife, no surprise there since you can throw a stone in almost any direction and hit a game reserve! And that’s why I have included a combined Zulu culture and wildlife shore excursion.
The first stop is Tala Game Reserve. It’s popular spot with the locals since it’s not so big it takes you days to get around and there is a great deal of game roaming about. Here you’ll get to spot some wildlife including some birding and you guide will even assist in identifying trees (it’s popular these days).
Next up is a visit to the Valley of a 1000 Hills; you’ll get to enjoy lunch at one our local favourite spots in the area with amazing views of the aptly named “1000 Hills”.
After a hearty lunch it’s time to head on over to PheZulu for the cultural portion of the shore excursion. Of course throughout the day your guide will be sharing info about the Zulu and the history.
Now to make this day extra special, we’ll be ensuring you get to try local treats such at melktert, rusks, biltong, koeksister and more – afterall, the food is delicious and you can learn a lot of a people from their food alone!
Read up on the tour page for more info and to book.
Some General FAQ
I am limiting each group size to 16 people, I think it’ll make for a more intimate excursion.
This depends on the ship’s posted arrival time. Keeping the group small allows for flexibility for the day.
If you are vegetarian, let us know and we’ll make a plan to accommodate you.
There is nothing weird or iffy about the foods we’ll serve, 1000’s of tourists enjoy the food, you will as well!
There is pretty much no chance of that happening, we always ensure we are back at ship an hour before the departure time.
We will do our very best. Let us know when you book so we can make the necessary arrangements.
You are protected by South Africa law called the Consumer Protection Act that states that provided the tour is cancelled with not less than 24 hours notice, you will get your deposit back less a reasonable admin fee which in our case is 15%.
Other Questions?
If you have a question you don’t see answered here, please just send me an email and I’ll be happy to answer.