A Weekend in Cape Town (& Photos)
 

We had a wonderful weekend in Cape Town (October 2009) prior to going on safari. I wanted to post our itinerary to share what we did in a short stay in this beautiful city. I did the planning for the weekend for myself & two friends – and the weather cooperated. This was a first visit to Cape Town for all.

THURSDAY (Night): Arrival from USA

FRIDAY: Robben Island/Table Mountain/Hop-on-Hop-Off Bus Red Line

Beautiful morning! We got a taxi & proceeded to the V&A waterfront with our pre-ordered tickets for the 9AM ROBBEN ISLAND ferry & tour. The bus tour that is included in the package takes the group around the island and into the former prison. We were fortunate that a former prisoner happened to be visiting & spoke to us about his experience on the island. (Animals spotted: Cape fur seal, many birds, sacred ibis & penguin.)
Ferry ride back to V&A and we jumped in a taxi to the lower Cable Car station. After about an hour in line, we were up on TABLE MOUNTAIN. Lunch at the cafeteria - sat at a picnic table overlooking all of Cape Town. We walked the circuit to take in the 360’ views – you could see all of Cape Town, Robben Island and the whole peninsula down to Cape Point. (Animals spotted: a dassie!)
Rode the cable car down & picked up the HOP ON HOP OFF double-decker bus tour for a city overview (Red Line); saw the coastal suburbs, city bowl, castle, V&A Waterfront & FIFA stadium.
We walked around Greenmarket Square then headed to V&A Waterfront for dinner at Quay Four. Sat outside at the harbor at sunset.

SATURDAY: Peninsula Day: Cape Point/Penguins/ConstantiaUitsig/Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden

Hired a private guide named Charlie Ratcliffe ([email protected]). Who is highly recommended on this forum & I’ll join the bandwagon! (Special thanks to ekscrunchy for sharing Charlie’s info!) He picked us up for an all day Peninsula Tour. Drove us down the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope while sharing information on the flora, fauna & history. He was a perfect guide for us. He was prepared, professional, flexible and great company. Felt like a (very knowledgeable) friend was taking us around.

When we reached the parking lot near the old lighthouse, he had us walk the trail from the old lighthouse over to the Point – it was stunning! Easily worth 20 hours on a plane to be here! Such dramatic, natural beauty.
At the end of the trail, we took our photo at the famous sign marking the most southwestern point of Africa.
Back in the car to visit to the African Penguin colony at Simon’s Town.
Drove to Constantia Winelands and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Constantia Uitsig. We sat outside… ahh, what a lovely day we are having! (Since we weren't going to be able to visit the Stellenbosch/Franschhoek winelands on this trip - this was a delightful 'solution'.)
Our final stop was Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We walked off our delicious lunch through the hills of these Gardens. Great to see so many ‘Capetonians’ enjoing their Saturday here. My favorites were the king protea and pincushion fynbos.
(Animals spotted: bontebok, eland, baboon, ostrich, helmeted guineafowl, cape cormorant, storm petrel, gannet - so many birds wish I kept a list.)
Back to B&B to clean up before meeting friends for dinner at the Bascule Bar in Cape Grace Hotel.

SUNDAY: Great White Sharks & Southern Right Whales
Early AM van pickup to go to Gansbaii for great white shark diving. I wasn’t sure if being caged bait was for me – but ended up donning the wetsuit & jumping right in. So glad I did! It was thrilling to see the Great Whites. Our van driver stopped at Hermanus to let us see the Southern Right Whales just off the shore and to see the paragliders (?) taking off from the hillside along the highway. Returned around 5pm to Cape Town. Lost the soggy clothes had a hot shower and walked over to Kloof Street for pizza. We packed our bags for tomorrow’s departure.

MONDAY: An early morning transfer to the airport to start our safari.

Here are my photos: http://southernafricatrip2009.shutterfly.com
(Go to CAPE TOWN Album)
And I have a video from the Shark Excursion at the bottom of the page, too.

As you can see, we left many areas of this city unexplored. Leaving room for future visits – I hope;). It was a great start to our Southern Africa adventure. We went on to Chobe NP in Botswana, Vic Falls & Hwange NP, Zimbabwe.

Hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. I would be pleased to describe any experience in more detail.

Thanks to all on this forum for continuing to share your experiences

Thank you for posting.

Never get tired of seeing South Africa.
You saw a lot in a weekend !

Looks like you had fantastic weather. I'm reliving my trip through your pics. Will you be reporting on the rest of your trip?

My first comment was gonig to be the weather also. You really accomplished a lot in your days in Cape Town. Thanks for the account, which will be helpful for others.

Your safari itinerary looks great too.

Thanks for posting. Loved your photographs - brought back lovely memories of times in SA, Chobe & Vic Falls.

Thanks for such nice comments - it was such a great trip! Glad it brought back :) memories.

I am working on a brief trip report on the safari portion & will post it.

I am mostly a lurker on this site & recognize your ‘names’. I want you to know that I enjoy reading your trip reports and comments (& photos) on so many wonderful places on our planet!

I just returned on the 27th from So Africa where I spent the weekend of Dec 18-21 in Cape Town. Your itinerary covered the Big 6 sights and is similar to the one we experienced, but we added a day to drive to Stellenbosch to try some of the wines. We stopped at Boschendal Winery, one of the oldest, for a tasting, and enjoyed a simply georgous day outside. We had a lovely lunch at a new winery with a stunning view at Tokara Winery. Our last stop was at Kleine Zalze winery, where we watched a wedding in the gardens while tasting more wine. On another day we had a super lunch at the River Cafe at Constantia Ustig with the best champagne I have ever tasted. We never had a bad meal.
A tip: I was able to use my American Air frequent flyer miles to book a Priority Club Hotel (Holiday Inn Express) in Cape Town Centre. It was very comfortable and the included breakfast buffet was most generous.

You did as much as one could and it wprked out greatly!

A lunch at the River Café is always on out itinerary when visiting Cape Town. Good you both - incl. Bonnie - were pleased as well.

Did one of you try the "Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake" :-)?

Looking forward to read the safari installment.

Welcome back!

SV ((@))

Thanks for sharing m_bran, we have been to Cape Town a number of times and always enjoy it. May I ask the name of the Guest House you stayed in and how you liked it?

Hi Bwino,

We stayed at Welgelegen Guest House, in the Gardens neighborhood. (Near Kloof & Camp). This was my first and only lodging experience in Cape Town so I cannot compare. I did enjoy staying here & would recommend it. It was clean & quiet. The staff was great. They confirmed all our flights, made sure I got my AM coffee fix when I was leaving prior to the official breakfast time, ordered taxis for us, you name it & they were happy to help. My favorite part of the stay – was sitting on the front porch or in the common areas. It was fun to sit & chat with fellow travelers and here their stories. Hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. (Just glad I don’t have to pronounce it for you☺)

Cape Town-heaven on earth!!!

Spassvogel -

Sorry I didn't reply earlier -- and really sorry to report that I did NOT try the Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake.

Oh well, I'll add it to the long list of reasons to return to Cape Town!

Thank you:)

m_bran,

what operator did you use for the shark diving? we're planning a trip and there are so many different operators i have no idea which one to go with. how did you decide and would you recommend them?

thanks!

Hi jayv,

Hope you give it a try. It was thrilling to see Great Whites in their natural habitat (& through the bars of a steel cage, of course).

Here is the info on the company:

Chris & Monique Fallows
Apex Shark Expeditions
[email protected]
www.apexpredators.com

I can recommend them highly & hope they will take good care of you. They were recommended to me by several sources - primarily by my Cape Town guide.

Since GW sharks follow their food supply, their location changes seasonally.

The Fallows will let you know where the best viewing will be during your visit.

My visit was in October which meant the GW sharks were in Gansbaai (2.5 hrs from Cape Town) & so Monique made arrangements for me with their partner, Marine Dynamics, in Gansbaai for no extra cost.

Hope this is helpful & enjoy your trip!

Hi m_bran-

I saw your pictures and enjoy your iten. I'm actually planning my first trip and would love some advice. How did you go about making your travel plans?

Hi tchaiket1,

Thank you for the nice compliment.

We worked with Africa Adventure Company for the hotel in Cape Town and safari portion of the trip. They have a great website as a starting place for your research.

We started there - but they designed a customized trip for our little group - given our ‘must sees’ and a great Wilderness Safari lodge special which fit our budget.

After difficulties with AAC regarding planning the Cape Town sightseeing portion, I made the arrangements for sightseeing in Cape Town (& Vic Falls) myself. This worked out for the best and was very simple to do. (I highly recommend our guide, Charlie Ratcliffe!)

As for a contact at AAC – Louise Steynberg was a great help to us

Hope this much is helpful – Any further questions, ask away…

Hi m_bran,

Thanks for your reply. We did actually end up going with Marine Dynamics, and they were great. What I really liked about them is that they do data collection on each trip and the money they make from these tours gets funneled back into their research into great whites.

I highly recommend them and great white shark viewing!