We will be in Cape Town for just a few days. My kids want to do the shark cage diving while the rest of our group wants to do the Peninsula tour. I believe the shark tour stops to see the penguins and seals along the way. Should I skip the Cape of Good Hope and accompany my kids to dive with the sharks? Or should we all do the Peninsula tour and skip the sharks all together? Thanks for your help!

cox2,

Doing all would be a tight call but you most certainly could do the shark dive and the peninsula journey down to Cape Point inclusive of a stopover at the penguin colony in one day. Factors that will play a role will be when you want to this as we have a longer daylight day in the Summer months thus giving you more time to do all. Another factor is that you would have to use a shark dive operator in Simonstown. In this regard I suggest that you put yourselves in the hands of Chris Fallows or Rob Lawrence and their staff at African Shark Eco Charters. (http://www.ultimate-animals.com/ ) This is in my opinion the best shark cage diving outfit in Cape Town. They know what they are doing and they are not reckless. Please note that the shark cage dive is a half day event with an early start in the morning ending off just on lunch time. If you are hiring a vehicle you can then complete the rest of the Peninsula tour thereafter. My suggestion would be that you make contact with Chris or Rob and let them guide you further with regard to this whole journey.

Hope the above helps and that you have a great stay in our wonderful city.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

To add to what Selwyn is saying, African Shark Eco-charters is one of only two companies that operate in the area where the sharks do dramatic breaches out of the water. If you do the early morning experience you can see the breaching/hunting behavior and then as they settle in you can cage dive. You can arrange pickup from Cape Town and likely have them do the tour of the penninsula as well. On their site they have an all day where you do the Cape Pennisula first and then come for the afternoon cage dive but then you will not likely see the sharks breaching.

Thank you very much for the info. This is most helpful. I will take your advice and try to do both.

African Shark Eco-charters is who I am using in about a week.

Remember that the key to choosing a good company is to look at the size of the boat or how many people they take per trip. The less people on the boat the more "underwater time you have.