nightxsky

My friend and I are traveling to Cape Town in Mid-September from the U.S. and are looking for travel help! I have never been outside the U.S. except to the Caribbean, so this is my first big trip and I want to make the best of it.

We have planned for caged shark diving (the focus of our trip) and I've made a note to visit Tabletop, but am looking for suggestions on safari options, as well as other points of interest.

We will have five nights there. We like to be active (ages 29 and 32). Our budget isn't spectacular, but we want to pack as much in as we can, of course!

Also, is there a convenient way to get around the area? Not sure what the transportation is like there.

ekscrunchy

http://www.fodors.com/world/africa-a...ica/cape-town/

nightxsky

Yes, I've read all that. Was looking for some suggestions and recommendations from the users here.

kellyee21

Hello,

Can you please clarify the length of your trip? Do you only have 5 nights for the whole trip (in that case you do not have time to do a safari in addition to Cape Town) or is the 5 days only for Cape Town and you have how many other days to devote to a safari ?

Odin

Cape Town is not the best place if you want a safari & you only have 5 nights, depending of course if 5 nights includes the whole stay.

A convenient way to get around is to rent a car. It is inexpensive and many tourists do this but if you haven't travelled much outside the US you might find that option a bit daunting. If you don't rent a car, you'll be limited to taxis, organised tours, private driver (which is a good option too) etc.

I'm an advanced open water diver but caged shark diving has never appealed. I understand Gansbaai is the place to go for that which is quite far from CPT. The sea in ZA is very very cold so if you have your own wetsuit for the Caribbean, it will not be adequate for ZA. Have done snorkelling with seals and scuba diving with sharks in Simons Town which is not far from CPT.

nightxsky

It's actually six nights, I missed a night in there, but that is the duration of our entire trip, yes. I know it's not an ideal length to add a safari, but I've heard there are some locations close to CT that do a day trip for a safari. Am I wrong on that? I'm restricted with travel time due to the nature of my job, so I just want to make the most of our time there.

nightxsky

Also, yes, Gansbaais where we are going for the shark diving and the company has arranged the transfer for where we are staying to the boat.

ekscrunchy

I suggest doing a search for the many trip reports here about CapeTown. There are also reports from people who have dived with the sharks, but not in CapeTown.

Google search for reserves near CapeTown:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...+near+capetown

kellyee21

It seems you have already decided on a shark dive company but I wanted to say you can also shark dive off of Simons Town which is much closer. I have gone twice with ASEC and highly recommend them. It is the only place I had found while doing my research that uses scuba, all the rest I found were using breath-hold which I wasn't at all interested in as I am not very good at that. ASEC is also specialized in small group tours, only 12 max on the boat and only 2 in the cage at a time. Someone on this forum wrote up an extensive report about them so if you do some searching you may find it (I think it was Lynn).

Here is their website for more info:

http://www.ultimate-animals.com/

When shark diving, you should also try and do this as soon as possible to allow for cancelations and rescheduling (does happen rather often due to weather).

I have never done a safari in the Western Cape as it never sounded very interesting compared to Kruger, Eastern Cape or KZN so maybe someone else will chime in there.

nightxsky

I know Western Cape is limited with safari options, especially when compared to Kruger. I just figure it's something I should try to do while I'm there since it's taken me almost 30 years to finally travel abroad and I'm unsure when I'll next be able to.

Thanks for the shark diving recommendation, I'm going to look into them! I'm not great with the breath hold method either, but I did find one company that goes out of Gansbaii that has the oxygen tubes from the surface down into the cage.

Kay2

I can recommend Cape Peninsula Trip with Daytrippers. Usual small group in van with usual stops, but with a short bicycle ride in the national park. I would have liked longer with the penguins and a longer bike ride. The tour overall was a bit rushed except the delay waiting for people shopping after the seal boat, the lunch break, and the stop at the Cape Point sign. But, with a group tour you don't have the flexibility to adjust to your tastes.


Cape Team Tours was fabulous and I would recommend them for group or private tours.

I would have been OK driving on the left, but I was solo and worry about getting distracted by the scenery.

In the city, the hop-on hop-off bus was quite handy.

willit

Public transport is PAtchy at best (depending on where you are staying), and I would highly recommend hiring a car, at least for part of the time. This will allow you to explore far further afield, and at leisure.

Table Mountain should be visited as soon as possible if clear, because you might not get another chance (it is often covered with a "tablecloth" for days in a row. Climbing the mountain is a good alternative to the cable car (you could climb up, and cablecar down) , but you would probably want to do so as part of a group.

Otherwise the standard drive out via Seapoint, 12 Apostles, Landudno, Hout Bay, Chapmans peak etc trip down to Cape Point and come back via Simonstown, Fish Hook, Kalk bay etc is always worth doing as a slow daytrip with plenty of stops.

I really like doing wine routes - if only for the scenery - the areas around Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franshoek are all worth doing - pick one or two vineyards and stop for sampleing/lunch (even if you don't drink, many do things like teas, and produce olives/cheeses etc.