shedo

pls i need help to choose a good and reasonable price hotel in capetown. and is it wise 4 me to rent a car. pls tell me the do's and don,t during my stay.

capetownfolk

Hi Shedo - you need to give us more information - when are you coming, any idea where you want to be, who are you - eg family with 2 teenage children, older couple?
How long are you staying? If you link up withsome good tours - hope selwyn will post - youm,aynot need a car, but if you wantto explore our peninsula then you will
Give us some guidelines to work from
Glad you are coming here

shedo

thanks capetownfolk. there are 5 of us(all adult).we plan to visit this nov for 5-6 days. Since this is our first time we really need a good info from the locals. we want to see table mtain, rueben island and wineyards. i've browse the web but still can't decide.

capetownfolk

With 5 people, I am assuming you would need 3 rooms, 2 rooms for 2 people and 1 on their own?
November is heading into our high season and its a most wonderful month weather wise.
Hotels can go from very expensive at the Waterfront - careful when you look at prices as our hotels quite often say price per PERSON per night and not per room as in Europe and America.
There is the City Lodge at the entrance to the Waterfront which is cheaper - and nice
www.citylodge.co.za

You can also look at guest houses - my favourite site for local accom is www.wheretostay.co.za - use the map search facility so you can see where you are

You can also look at renting a house - quite a popular option over here
www.capetownvillas.co.uk
This company is based in Cape Town and they are very good - friends of ours have used them many times.

Right, once you have sorted out your accomodation you then need to make a list of the things you want to do
Robben Island can be done as a day trip with the afternoon and evening spent at the waterfront
A day doing a tour of the peninsula to include Cape Point, Bouders Beach and Chapmans peak drive would be good
A day going out on the wine routes of Stellenbosch and Franschoek is another option
Also a township tour
Kirstenbosch gardens?
A morning at the Beach - maybe Clifton 4th or Camps Bay
What are your interests? Theatre?

To try to help you get started - let me give you an example. We are 5 and are going to spend 5 weeks in SE Asia, so I posted a question very similar to yours on Fodors and the help I got was vague because my question was too vague. I then went off to www.tripadvisor.com and you would put cape Town in the search box. You can also do the same on Fodors.
Then you get loads and loads of info and start making a list. Reading other peoples trip reports gives you a really good idea as to how to plan your days.

You can hire a car, but as there are 5 of you, it might be an idea to book a private vehicle with a driver who will take you everywhere - you can look at about R1800 ($250) for a day. So youwould work onabout $50/ person.At least then you are not carrying yours bags around, getting lost etc. There are various companies that offer this - I don't know of any personally, but I could try to find out for you if you like.
I am sure you would be able to negotiate a custom made 5 day package with them for a better rate as you would not be driving for 5 full days

I hope this is of a little help
Please try to read some trip reports. Also I would imagine if you buy the Fodors book for South Africa, they will give you itineraries for 3,4,5 days etc as I do use this as a start when we travel
Good luck and enjoy the planning. Once you sort out your accomodation, the rest will be fine

shedo

thanks again capetownfolk, esp. hotel charges per person.i'll try to browse the recommended website.