Capetown/Garden Route Itinerary
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1
Capetown/Garden Route Itinerary
There is more that we want to see and do but not enough time to do it all in Capetown and The Garden Route. We are a family of 4 (kids 14 and 12) with five full days this August. If you are familiar with the areas, can you tell me if the itinerary below is realistic?
Plans are:
Day 1
Table Mountain
Acquarium
Bo Kaap
Day 2
Penninsula Drive
Day 3
Gordon's Bay to Hermanus
Day 4
Hermanus to Wilderness
Day 5
Cango, Swartberg Pass, Prince Albert, Back to Capetown (6am flight Capetown to Maun on Day 6)
Thanks
Debbi
Plans are:
Day 1
Table Mountain
Acquarium
Bo Kaap
Day 2
Penninsula Drive
Day 3
Gordon's Bay to Hermanus
Day 4
Hermanus to Wilderness
Day 5
Cango, Swartberg Pass, Prince Albert, Back to Capetown (6am flight Capetown to Maun on Day 6)
Thanks
Debbi
#2
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,499
Hi
I did the Garden Route with my wife a few years back and I regret that I didn't have more time to spend there because it turned out to be a lot of driving (I think that we spent about 4 days on the road from Cape Town to PE). Cape Town is a great city and it "deserves" more than 1 day of exploring in my opinion. Well, I have posted a couple of trip reports and some pictures from my trips to Cape Town on my personal homepage gardkarlsen.com
Maybe you can find some useful information there. Have a great trip
Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway
I did the Garden Route with my wife a few years back and I regret that I didn't have more time to spend there because it turned out to be a lot of driving (I think that we spent about 4 days on the road from Cape Town to PE). Cape Town is a great city and it "deserves" more than 1 day of exploring in my opinion. Well, I have posted a couple of trip reports and some pictures from my trips to Cape Town on my personal homepage gardkarlsen.com
Maybe you can find some useful information there. Have a great tripRegards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,097
dmilner,
Ouch! Hate to tell you this but your itinerary is imho not attainable and also not too practical.
Day 1
Table Mountain
Acquarium
Bo Kaap
CAN BE DONE
Day 2
Peninsula Drive
CAN BE DONE
Day 3
Gordon's Bay to Hermanus
CAN BE DONE
Day 4
Hermanus to Wilderness
CAN BE DONE
Day 5
Cango, Swartberg Pass, Prince Albert, Back to Capetown (6am flight Capetown to Maun on Day 6)
TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE
If you only have 5 days available to you I strongly suggest that you either visit Cape Town + Hermanus or only the Garden Route. To even think of trying to do all distance wise is just not feasible. I appreciate your wanting to see as much as possible but you also have to be practical about what you want to do and you are trying to squeeze miles to much into your 5 days available to you.
My suggestion to you would be to stay in the Cape Town region and with emphasis placed on your children may I suggest that you do the following:
Day 1
-----
Table Mountain
Aquarium
Trip to Seal Island by boat
Visit the World of Birds in Hout Bay.
Day 2
-----
Peninsula Drive
On this journey visit the Scratchpatch in Simonstown.
Visit the working harbour of Fish Hoek.
Visit the penguin colony.
Day 3
-----
Gordons Bay to Hermanus to see the whales. This will take a full day to do.
Day 4
-----
The Cape Winelands - Please please dont think that the Cape Winelands is only about wine. There is much for your whole family to do without even having to visit a winefarm such as:
Visit the Butterfly Farm in Simondium.
Have fun at a chocolate factory in Franschhoek.
Visit and pat the cheetahs at the Cheetah Foundation near Stellenbosch
Watch how wine barrels are made in Stellenbosch at a brandy distributor.
Day 5
-----
Enjoy any of the following children based events as well as some of the above that you might not make in each of your days in the city.
Have fun at the Barnyard restaurant which is tailor made for children who can enjoy playing with farm animals in the restaurant surroundings
Visit and undertake the challenge of finding your ways through a real maze of trees in Green Point.
Visit the hands on, directed at children, science museum at Canal Walk
Go down to the Cape Town Waterfront. This is also a place where the children can have much fun. The Telkom exploratorium is a treat children event.
Please note that when you do all of the above you automatically cover all else that there is to see in Cape Town scenery wise due to the roads that you will travel on.
Oh I could go on and on about Cape Town for children and families so rest assured 5 days wll keep you and your family VERY OCCUPIED in Cape Town on its own.
The exact same type of suggestions could be made for the Garden Route however at this stage I will stick to the Cape Town possibilities as distances will be closer and I have also found that children enjoy Cape Town a lot more than the Garden Route when we tour through the individual areas.
OK dmilner need I say more as to why I suggest you ONLY stay in the Cape Town or Garden Route region.
Very proudly part of the wonderful
nation of South Africa
Ouch! Hate to tell you this but your itinerary is imho not attainable and also not too practical.
Day 1
Table Mountain
Acquarium
Bo Kaap
CAN BE DONE
Day 2
Peninsula Drive
CAN BE DONE
Day 3
Gordon's Bay to Hermanus
CAN BE DONE
Day 4
Hermanus to Wilderness
CAN BE DONE
Day 5
Cango, Swartberg Pass, Prince Albert, Back to Capetown (6am flight Capetown to Maun on Day 6)
TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE
If you only have 5 days available to you I strongly suggest that you either visit Cape Town + Hermanus or only the Garden Route. To even think of trying to do all distance wise is just not feasible. I appreciate your wanting to see as much as possible but you also have to be practical about what you want to do and you are trying to squeeze miles to much into your 5 days available to you.
My suggestion to you would be to stay in the Cape Town region and with emphasis placed on your children may I suggest that you do the following:
Day 1
-----
Table Mountain
Aquarium
Trip to Seal Island by boat
Visit the World of Birds in Hout Bay.
Day 2
-----
Peninsula Drive
On this journey visit the Scratchpatch in Simonstown.
Visit the working harbour of Fish Hoek.
Visit the penguin colony.
Day 3
-----
Gordons Bay to Hermanus to see the whales. This will take a full day to do.
Day 4
-----
The Cape Winelands - Please please dont think that the Cape Winelands is only about wine. There is much for your whole family to do without even having to visit a winefarm such as:
Visit the Butterfly Farm in Simondium.
Have fun at a chocolate factory in Franschhoek.
Visit and pat the cheetahs at the Cheetah Foundation near Stellenbosch
Watch how wine barrels are made in Stellenbosch at a brandy distributor.
Day 5
-----
Enjoy any of the following children based events as well as some of the above that you might not make in each of your days in the city.
Have fun at the Barnyard restaurant which is tailor made for children who can enjoy playing with farm animals in the restaurant surroundings
Visit and undertake the challenge of finding your ways through a real maze of trees in Green Point.
Visit the hands on, directed at children, science museum at Canal Walk
Go down to the Cape Town Waterfront. This is also a place where the children can have much fun. The Telkom exploratorium is a treat children event.
Please note that when you do all of the above you automatically cover all else that there is to see in Cape Town scenery wise due to the roads that you will travel on.
Oh I could go on and on about Cape Town for children and families so rest assured 5 days wll keep you and your family VERY OCCUPIED in Cape Town on its own.
The exact same type of suggestions could be made for the Garden Route however at this stage I will stick to the Cape Town possibilities as distances will be closer and I have also found that children enjoy Cape Town a lot more than the Garden Route when we tour through the individual areas.
OK dmilner need I say more as to why I suggest you ONLY stay in the Cape Town or Garden Route region.
Very proudly part of the wonderful
nation of South Africa
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,657
You know, I took a picture of the entrance to that Maze -- The World's Third Largest Maze -- because I thought it was cute and kind of funny. Now I'm mad at myself for not going IN! Of course that may have set me on a quest to do the Second Largest, and then THE Largest mazes....
