One Week Only
 

Hi! We are flying into Capetown for one week and two days in February. Obviously, we'd like to get the most out of this trip. Does anyone have any recommendations of a great safari for 3 to 4 days and any other tips about what to see in Cape Town itself?

Xuliette,

Unfortunately there is nowhere near to Cape Town where you can do a full blooded safari. There are a couple of places that you can visit where you will see animals but a big safari is 500Km away and it does not seem as if you have the time to do this. Anyway in Febraury the weather in Cape Town is soooo good that you wont want to leave the city to go a safari.

In terms of what to do here is a believe it or not a SHORT LIST:

Do a Cape Peninsula Tour.
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Depending on your interests while doing this tour visit the following places:

Rhodes Memorial
Kirstenbosch Gardens
The Josephine Mill
Newlands rugby ground
Newlands cricket ground
Groot Constantia Winefarm
Klein Constantia Winefarm
Travel the scenic train ride from Muizenberg to Simonstown.
Walk the boardwalk from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay
The Rhodes Museum
The bric and brac route in Kalk Bay
The Toy museum in Simonstown
Just Nuisance's grave in Simonstown
The Penguin colony at Boulders Beach
The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve
Cape Point and The Cape of Good Hope
The ostrich farm just outside the Cape of Good hope entrance.
The wonderful statue carvings outside Scarborough
Misty Cliffs
The incredible views from Slangkop
Silvermine nature reserve
Travel across Chapmans Peak (The awesome drive reopens next week - at last HURRAH!)
The Hout Bay harbour
Lichtenstein mountain castle in Hout Bay
The spectacular views from the Mount Rhodes estate
Llandudno and the whole Atlantic seaboard.
Camps Bay beach
Camps Bay Beach
and Camps Bay beach
In February this is a must do event!

Camps Bay nightlife
The Sea Point Beachfront
The V&A Waterfront

The above are just some of the events that you would have choices of on a Cape Peninsula tour or on other days while in Cape Town

You should also visit the Cape Winelands and in this regard the events are just to numerous to mention and I would have to answer this in a personalised way as I would have to take individual interests into account when doing so as there simply is too much to want to list. Obviously visiting a winefarm or 2 or 3 or 4.... :) is an essential must do event and in February particularly so as it will be the harvest period on the farms and that means they will be bustling with activity.

Then one should also not forget about obvious events such as ascending Table Mountain, driving up Signal Hill, and visiting Robben Island.

Whoever said that their wasn't much to do in Cape Town. :)

If you or anybody wants any further help simply write to me and I can assure you I will do whatever I can to help without any obligation on your behalf.

Selwyn Davidowitz
Very proudly part of the wonderful ((r)) nation of South Africa

I saw a TV documentary on Shamwari Reserve in the Eastern Cape area. Whilst it's still not the same as visiting larger parks to the East and North of South Africa it does allow you to see the "Big 5" and seemed to me that it could be an interesting option for a couple of nights on a trip where "a full blooded safari" (to quote Selwyn) sn't possible.

That said, Selwyn probably has much more accurate information on this reserve as I've only seen it on TV!

Selwyn (and others!),
There is obviously a LOT to see and do in Cape Town, but what would you suggest for a 10 day trip to S.A. in September? Would 3 days in Cape Town (with one full day of wineries), 5 days in the bush, then another 2 days in Johannesburg be appropriate? We love to experience food, wine and animals, but don't want to sacrifice the Cape Town experience.

Just wanted to say I'm glad Selwyn, I'm glad you're still here. You have always been a terrific resource to us and it is true, there is no obligation.

Clematis,

Thank ou for the kind words. Rest assured I will always endeavour to be here to help. Right now Netscape keeps me alive on Fodors :) in that it seems to be able to get my postings back to the board.
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Kavey,

Shamwari is a good experience BUT it is one of the biggest rip offs when it comes to game reserves. The prices that Shamwari charges are totally ludicrous. Furthermore when you do a day trip to Shamwari they take you on an African experience trying to show you the tribal customs and ways of my fellow Black South Africans. As you probably know I am heavilly involved in upliftment programmes in Kayamandi which is the black township next to Stellenbosch and I detest what I call zoo tours. The experience at Shawari is clsoe to this type of tour and a shameful one imho purely because of the way that the whole event is set up. If anyone ever goes to Shamwari give this part of the journey a very wide berth.

Instead of Shamwari you would do much better money wise by visiting the following game parks in the region

Lalibela Game park
http://www.lalibela.co.za/

Schotia Game farm - http://www.schotia.com/

and of course Addo Game park itself http://www.addoelephantpark.co.za/

Closer to Cape Town I also believe that Botliersjkop is a great game farm to visit. http://www.botlierskop.co.za/

Pity about this all is that the closest game park to Cape Town amongst these 4 is Botlierskop which is about 400Km away, however the drive is a fabulous one and anybody travelling down the Garden Route should visit this venue.

All of these 4 game farms represent excellent value for money and other than seeing leopard you will enjoy seeing the rest of the Big 5 and many other animals.

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hlphilips2

I would alter my itinerary if I were you by doing 4 days on safari 3 days on the Garden Route and 3 days in Cape Town. Traci and Local_John are going to shoot me for saying this but I would leave Johannesbutg out completely if I were you especially with only having 10 days to travel in.

If you feel that what I have suggested is too much travelling then I would do a 5 days safari and 5 days in Cape Town incorporating the Winelands too. With this plan you will travel very qualitatively and will simply have to return to our shores at a later stage to see the rest of our great country. :)

Selwyn Davidowitz
Very proudly part of the wonderful ((r)) nation of South Africa

You know, I was going to ask a question myself adding on to this thread, but instead I'm going to do a search on Garden Route and Selwyn to see if I can get an answer to the question I was going to ask. Now, if I can find that blasted Fodors pin to wear, everyone will know what a good Fodors/world citizen I am :)

Thanks Selwyn, I knew you'd have the lowdown on Shamwari and other top solutions!

Selwyn, thank you so much for the feedback, and for being allowed to "eavesdrop" on your insight into Shamwari.

We might be visiting folks in both CT and J'burg, therefore a few mandatory days in each would be necessary. But it certainly seems we can limit our time. We're still in phase one of planning so I'll keep up the research.