My Thoughts After 2 TBA Escapes Trips (South Africa Review)
Group trips are a great way to travel even if you have no one to go with. I travel with my husband 95% of the time, but he can’t always get away. I don’t like to travel truly solo very much, so group trips fill a great gap – I get to see more of the world and meet new travel friends. Even better, I don’t have to worry about logistics! In November 2025, I went to South Africa with TBA Escapes. It was a fantastic trip and my 2nd time traveling with TBA Escapes (I went on their Galápagos tour in 2024). If you’re looking at their itinerary and are trying to figure out if it’s for you, you’re in the right place.
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What is TBA Escapes?
TBA Escapes is a tour company started by Kiersten (Kiki) Rich. Their focus is women-only, bespoke, luxury tours primarily to destinations that are more challenging for women to travel to solo. South Africa was their first-ever tour location. However, they’ve expanded to run tours in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Kenya, Peru, the Galápagos, and the Maldives as well.
Some trips sell out the day they are announced (return travelers get first dips on sign ups). Group sizes vary by trip, but the South Africa one is limited to 12 spots. The South Africa trip has became their flagship trip (thanks in part to the woman who runs TBA Escapes – Caity – being South African) and they run between 2 and 4 trips there each year.
Who typically goes on these trips?
While the trip is officially open to women 18 years and older, I’ve found on both my TBA Escapes trips that the main demographic is women in their 30s and 40s. Being 27/28 on my trips, I was among the youngest participants, but I never felt excluded because of my age. On the other end, there are older women who come as well.
Most attendees come solo, but some come with friends, family, or people they met on a previous group trip. My roommate for South Africa was a girl I met on the Galápagos trip! Most women are from the United States, but my trips included women from Canada and the UK as well.
Regardless of age or background, everyone who comes on these trips is warm, open, and welcoming. It’s very easy to make friends on a TBA Escapes trip!
The Itinerary
The South Africa trip itinerary is 8 days/9 nights. Of course you can never see all of a country in that time, but this tour hits a lot of highlights: from the colorful and historic Bo Kaap neighborhood and climbing Lion’s Head mountain in Cape Town to a safari and drinking your way through the Winelands. You can check out the full itinerary here.
My favorite parts of the trip were visiting the African penguins at Boulder’s Beach and going on my first-ever safari. My least favorite part was probably the Winelands but that’s because I personally don’t drink much (it’s still a beautiful area to explore even if you don’t drink).
The logistics of getting from point A to point B were always handled seamlessly. From the time we landed to the time we headed back to the airport, we had a private driver for our group. I never had to worry about anything.
The only activity I wish I’d opted out of was e-biking in Cape Town. This was the first time TBA Escapes had done e-bikes (usually it has been tandem bicycles) and we went later in the day than normal. Between bikes that were too big for most of us and crowded sidewalks, it was a bit of a disaster and half of us gave up halfway through. I hope next time they’ll have women’s bikes for everyone (mine was a men’s Large and I’m 5’4”) and helmets available!
All activities on TBA Escapes trips are optional, but I recommend joining in on as much as possible to get the best experience.
The Accommodations
We stayed at 3 different properties throughout our trip. On this trip, there was no option to have your own room – everyone had to have a roommate. At each property, our rooms had been pre-assigned by our host, Caity, which I appreciated. It took out the anxiety of a mad-dash to try to claim a room when we arrived.
Private Villa in Cape Town
The first 4 nights of our trip were spent at a beautiful private villa not far from Bakoven Beach in Cape Town. This was not the usual villa that TBA Escapes uses for their South Africa trip. We received an email about a month before our trip that the normal villa was undergoing renovations and that we’d be staying elsewhere. I appreciated the communication, but there was nothing to worry about because the new villa was beautiful.
Every room had views over the ocean and Lion’s Head Mountain. There was a pool and a large living room for everyone to gather. We had a few meals at the villa (thanks to our incredible private chef) and it was the perfect vibe.
My room was huge and allowed my roommate and I plenty of space to spread out. The bathroom was my favorite of the trip! The one downside to our room was that it did get hot at night. We had a fan, but no AC, and we were asked to keep our sliding doors closed and locked at night.
Speaking of safety, I was a little nervous about that coming to Cape Town, but I felt very safe at this villa. It was in a safe neighborhood, had barbed wire/high fences like most houses in Cape Town and private security on call. We had no issues whatsoever.
Gondwana Private Game Reserve
This was the coolest property of the trip. We stayed at Gondwana Private Game Reserve and were split across 3 different villas. The villas were not in the fenced-off part of the reserve. They were in the open, meaning the wild animals had the ability to roam right up if they wished. This meant that we were not allowed to walk outside our villas and had to be picked up by the staff and driven from place to place. Our villa was 100 feet from the spa and even then, we had to be driven as a precaution. It was so cool looking out our window to spot some animals!
My villa was the only one of the three that had a pool, but it was cold and rainy during our stay, so we didn’t end up using it.
The biggest downside was definitely the bathroom. While it was huge and lovely, there was zero privacy. It would be totally fine if you were traveling with your partner, but with anyone else, it was awkward. My roommate and I just took turns sitting in the living room while the other person showered.
Because we were at a safari lodge, we ate all our meals on the property. The food at the on-site restaurant was delicious, but it did take a really long time to get through our meals, even though we’d pre-ordered. Some girls chose to forgo dessert to get back to their villa and sleep because it took so long!
Boschendal Wine Estate
This was my least favorite of the 3 places we stayed, for a few reasons. At Boschendal, we were spread out into multiple cottages. The cottage I was in had 4 bedrooms, but only 2 of them had showers in the bathroom – the other 2 had tubs with no option for a shower. We ended up using other people’s bathrooms to shower. My room also had no lock, no hairdryer, and no safe (but everyone else’s rooms had them). The rooms were pretty small and it was hard to comfortably walk with our suitcases open. The beds also had to be touching thanks to immovable nightstands on either side.
The cottage did have air conditioning units on the wall which were greatly appreciated in the warm weather and worked extremely well. The location of the cottage was also in a beautiful area and just a minute away from the pool, fire pit, and garden.
The Staff
I have nothing but love and praise for the TBA Escapes staff. Caity, our host, is the head of TBA Escapes and leads most of the tours herself. She hosted both my Galápagos and South Africa trips and is so fun and easy to talk to while also being so good at her job of managing a dozen girls for a week.
Every TBA Escapes trip has a local guide in addition to the host. For this trip, our guide was Victoria, and she was bubbly and extremely down to earth. She could easily go from talking about the history and impact of apartheid in South Africa to chasing after a bird and trying to identify it. Her energy was truly infectious and everyone adored her.
There are more than 2 people that went into making the week so seamless. We also had a private chef in Cape Town, drivers taking us from place to place, etc. They’ve all been hand-chosen by Caity and did a fantastic job. Our luggage was always placed into our rooms for us, our guide pre-ordered our food at most of the restaurants to save time with a big group, and they were able to field any and every question and concern we had.
Communication
TBA Escapes has fantastic communication, both ahead of and during the trip. After booking, you get access to a personal trip portal. Here you can upload documents (passport info, flight details, travel insurance, etc) and fill out a preferences questionnaire so they can do their best to pair you with a roommate you’ll get along with. If you’re traveling with friends or family, you can also request a specific person to be your roommate. There’s also a detailed packing list in the portal to make it easy to plan.
One difference between the Galápagos trip and South Africa was that for South Africa, we were sent a list of all the activities and filled out a form ahead of time to tell them which ones we wanted to participate in. This was especially important for the non-included activities: the massage and horseback riding. During the trip, there was still the option to back out of most things or join at the last minute.
Food allergies were taken extremely seriously. We could let them know of any dietary restrictions in the portal ahead of time. During the trip, the private chef knew all our allergies/restrictions and at restaurants, our guide and chef made sure to talk to the staff so no one was accidentally mis-served. I am gluten free and was a bit nervous about how that would go on this trip, but another girl happened to be Celiac and we were always well-fed without worry.
As the trip gets close, everyone is put into a WhatsApp group. This is used to get to know each other beforehand/ask packing questions and then communicate during and after the trip. Even 1.5 years later, my Galápagos trip still keeps in touch via WhatsApp!
Little Touches
TBA Escapes promotes their trips as bespoke and that’s more than a marketing term to them. You can tell they’ve put a lot of thought and effort into creating really special and unique moments. This reflects their creativity, attention to detail, and the relationships they’ve built with the local businesses they partner with.
Here are the most memorable only-on-a-TBA-trip moments:
- Custom TBA Escapes Lightroom presets and digital stickers are sent ahead of time. This means you can use them on all your photos!
- When we arrived at the villa in Cape Town, our rooms had goodie bags waiting for us.
- We had a beach dinner picnic that was at Bakoven Beach at sunset just for our group (this isn’t an activity you can simply book online!).
- When we went to Table Mountain, our host and guide brought a packed breakfast (thanks chef!) with some of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever eaten for us to enjoy with a view.
- We were able to do a photoshoot with the helicopter after our ride. This is not something the helicopter company typically allows.
- The Gondwana staff set up the most incredible sundowner on our last night there. It included multiple photo op spots and an immaculate spread of food and beverages.
Trip Costs
Here are the exact costs I spent on my trip. However, the sticker price of this trip has increased from $6295 to $6795.
- Tour cost: $6045 (after a $250 return traveler discount)
- Mandatory Travel Insurance: $197 (I purchased mine through World Nomads)
- Prepaid tips: $400 (I love that they have you pre-pay for tips so you don’t have to worry about it!)
- Massage at Gondwana: $60 + tip (this was optional and an extra cost)
- Horseback riding at Boschendal: $50 + tips (optional and an extra cost)
- Flights: $414 in taxes/fees (+ 145,000 points used to fly round trip in business class from London to Cape Town)
The one cost not included here were our tips for our host and guide. There was definitely some confusion among the group on whether we should tip them, if that was included with the prepaid tips, etc. Ultimately we all tipped them separately from that, either with cash or through Wise.
For the most part, alcohol was not included on the trip. There were a few exceptions: our welcome night DIY gin bar, champagne on arrival to Gondwana and sundowners on our game drives, wine tasting at Boschendal, and wine at our farewell dinner. Since I don’t drink much, I didn’t feel the need to purchase more.
We had time to shop on our trip and those costs weren’t included. I kept the shopping to a minimum, but other girls splurged on great pieces, including tanzanite jewelry.
TBA Escapes trips are definitely among the priciest group trips I’ve been on, but South Africa is the cheapest trip they offer. The lux experience really does shine through and I do feel like the trips are worth what I’ve paid for them.
Final Thoughts – Let Them Know I Sent You!
South Africa is a beautiful country and TBA Escapes really knows how to show it off. I really loved this trip and do plan to book more TBA Escapes trips in the future. Every trip is unique, but this trip is more alcohol heavy than the Galápagos one was. Part of that could just be the mix of people who came but also the focus of the activities – the Galápagos was all about the animals and South Africa included 2 days specifically in the Winelands. Be sure to thoroughly look through the itinerary and see if matches your vibe.
Since these trips are all-women, there are a lot more photo ops involved and always someone who knows how to get the best angle. I did find myself choosing outfits more carefully for this trip than most because I knew how many photos there’d be!
If this review helped you make the decision to go on a TBA Escapes trip (any of them, not just South Africa), please tell them I (Jackie Swayze) sent you! It would mean so much to me, and full disclosure, it does earn me a discount on future trips.
Be sure to save this post for future planning!
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