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South Africa for about 30 dayser
This is our 2nd trip to SA. We are both 75 yo and traveling with two younger friends from HI. We began our trip in Boston on Oct 9 and met up with P/L in Atlanta for our Delta non-stop flight to Johannesburg. 14.5 hours latEver we arrived. Luckily we both had an empty seat between us— ours by request, theirs by a broken seat. We stayed the first night near JNB at a Protea Marriott business hotel. Adequate. Free shuttle. Next day we flew Mango Airlines to Capetown— 2+ hours. We were met by a rep from the Capetown Taj Hotel where we stayed 4 nights. We had exec club rooms which incl the one way airport transfer. Our rooms were on floor 2 in heritage rooms, only steps from the lounge. Large hi ceiling rooms with modernized bath rooms and walk in showers. Bed was king and comfortable. Nicely appointed rooms, excellent central location— free shuttle within central district and to table met and waterfront, hourly. Taxis/Ubers very cheap— we used taxis. Drinks in the lounge nite one followed by an excellent Indian dinner in the hotel in the opulent Bombay Brassiere. Yum. Good sleep. |
Ttt |
Well, don't stop there, we want to hear more! I am thinking about going to SA within the next year or so. I can't wait to go on another safari, and with SA, we could combine wine tasting and some city life. Looking forward to the rest of the trip report. Have fun and tell your long suffering wife and P & L hi! Oh, and post some pics if you can.
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So much to do in and around Cape Town. Can't wait to hear what you guys got up to.
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Originally Posted by rhkkmk
(Post 17002471)
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Leisure day tomorrow, hope to type |
Enjoy your day. I look forward to your report but don't spend the day writing. Go out, drink some wine, relax and have fun.
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So the Indian food was delicious and the room beautiful.
Great sleep. FRIDAY Breakfast in the club, excellent eggs Benedict with the freshest hollandaise. |
The day was spent mostly on the hop on hop off buses. We did both routes, starting and finishing on Long street, where we also stopped for lunch at Tiger Milk Bar...Yummy sandwiches— reasonable. We stayed on the bus the whole time.
Capetown is a beautiful city— mountains, sea, mostly low rise buildings, clean, and safe if you pay attention— pick pockets are everywhere, because of the minority poverty. We returned to the Taj to rest a bit and enjoy wine, drinks and “canapees”. P ordered vodka. Response, “we have none”... WHAT.. 5* hotel is out of vodka??? This was our first problem with the Taj with several more to come... My response???? You got it....GM please. The duty manager appeared— I knew her... She found some for P. Dinner that nite was a reservation at Reverie Social Table in the Observatory section of the city. Area is “up and coming”. We took a taxi there. Storefront location. Large oval table with 18 chairs. Immediately we were offered a glass of a light white wine and shown through to an open aire back room. Introductions were made as newcomers arrived, free flow wine. |
We were invited to take a seat at the large table, and told that we were welcome to change seats at any time— only one couple did. Our fellow dinners hailed from: USA, Italy, Brazil, Scotland (Ireland), India, Thailand (5). Conversations like the wine, was bountiful.
THE MEAL WAS 5 courses, each with a free flow wine pairing (red and whites), all from the same SA vineyard— changes frequently. Courses: fish cakes with kale chips yellow-tale with bacalao chips on top, orange flavored, accompanied with raw and sautéed broccoli and cauliflower salad, topped with roasted nuts quail two ways— southern fried leg and rolled and stuffed breast roasted cheese coarse with pineapple strata, home made chips and blue cheese mousse chocolate bomb with raspberry sorbet Interesting courses, some fab, some OK. Tons of very good wine, free flow— only one person abused this. cost: 1840 ZAR, plus optional tip (400 in my case)= $124. plus $27 per couple time: 7:30-11:30 Same taxi came for us. Great day and evening |
SATURDAY
Breakfast in main dining room, dirty tablecloths (5*?) and threadbare. Quiet AM, then taxi to V&A waterfront. Delicious lunch quay side at Life Grand Cafe under a large umbrella overlooking the working harbor. Girls walked the largest of the malls. K had her glasses fixed. Picked up our Toyota Forerunner SUV at Hertz on Loop St. $900 for 10 days. Perfect for the 4 of us with tons of luggage. Diesel. Left car with doorman (free parking). Club for a beverage, then downtime in our beautiful large heritage rooms. Drinks in club— no shortage of vodka. Taxi to Osteria Tarantino. Tiny restaurant in a neighborhood— a bit hard to find, but was it worth it.!!!!! Reservations essential...serves lunch and dinner, same menu. Family run. Limited menu on chalk boards. Our foods: antipasto veal capaccio veal saltimbocca veal and mushroom 4 P’s. : pasta, pomodoro, parmeasan, prochutto tiramisu panacotta chocolate salami cigar 2 bottles of white Simply excellent and great service 1025 ZAR per couple. $ 69. Taxi back to hotel. Next problem: I only had a 100zar, driver had no change (5*) may I remind you. After 10 minutes 2. 50’s were found. Gave driver a 50. For my list for GM... Beddie-bye |
Sounds - and I’m sure, tastes, wonderful. |
Sounds like you are having a great time despite the problems at the hotel. Waiting for more...
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Personal update: There are frequent brown outs here. This AM I fell in our garage. A knee cut and an elbow cut. The nurse, K, patched me up. My medium rare steak tonight helped for sure—- iron.
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Is anyone reading along? Otherwise I will stop
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Meal at Bombay Brassiere |
Time to hit the road— a long drive along the coast to the seaside town of Knysna. 5-6 hour drive. SUV was perfect— just fit our luggage, but comfy for us.
Before leaving I met with the GM to express our views about the Taj, and the lack of 4* service. Stopped along the way in the town of Swellendam for lunch. Arrived in the late afternoon at our hotel— a converted power plant, called The Turbine Hotel. It is located on an island, called Thessan Island in the Knysna Estuary. Lux hotel. Tons of pumps, huge valves and machinery decorate the hotel. Ate in the hotel the first night. Good, but not fab. Fab service in hotel. Great sleep. |
Excellent breakfast, included.
Drove the far side of the Estuary, through hillside waterfront suburb to the end of the road at the fab East Head Cafe overlooking the craggy rocks and pounding surf. Fantastic lunch— no mussels or oysters available that day sadly. Returned to the hotel—- girls checked out some of the nice shops on the island. Dinner at a very busy Italian cafe— Mario’s. Very good. Breakfast at hotel. Lazed around. In the PM drove further down the coast to Pletenburg Bay. Had a res at the fab Emily Moon Restaurant overlooking a river meandering thru a reedy area. Candlelit dining room, fab food. Fillet for me, fish for girls, lamb shank for P. Delicious wines of course and decadent desserts. Dark drive back to Turbine. Good roads everywhere, btw. |
Bob, enjoying your report, but reading it makes me hungry!
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I’m reading along, and looking forward to Cape Town for the fourth time in December-January. Thank you for this trip report!
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Fish stew at Mabel joes https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...785f5d3a1.jpeg Wall board at label joes https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...42bb6d1e7.jpeg How you get rid of the shells |
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Flowers along the shore https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...373adb0ca.jpeg Hermanus shore line https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...fde5f2c96.jpeg Hermanus shore |
Enjoying the report and loving the photos! Are you going on safari at all?
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Travel day tomorrow— heading to wine country. Hope to bring this up to date soon.
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Interesting report, beautiful photos,love the restaurant reviews.
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Nice drive to Hermanus. Sadly no whales this year. 10 years ago they hugged the shore in Hermanus. Lunch along the way at Baleia wine Bistro. Very good.
Arrived at Hermanus, staying at Harbour House right in center of town with ocean across the street. We are in Le Paradis, a 4 unit bldg with 4 2 bedroom, 2 bath units. Tri-level including the garage underneath with direct entrance into unit. Very large open floor plan on main floor—-kitchen, dishwasher, washer/dryer (3 hour cycle), dining table for 8, 2 sofas, comfy chairs, 2 outdoor patios, lawn, small pool, wood bbq— all very very nice. Dinner first nite at Burgundy on the Square across the road— good. Fabulous dinner the next night at La Pentola, overlooking sea. Menu: steaks—fillets, very tender chicken, San Torini fish— hake snails wrapped in bacon—fab Beaumont Chenin Blanc. Wine. +++ Castle light beer flambe strawberry and ice cream flammed at table with booze. Danish ice cream dish Fabulous dinner— noisy |
Thank you for the write ups and pictures. Yeah, unfortunately the brown outs ( or load shedding as it's known in SA started) again last week - hopefully it doesn't effect your trip too much. Enjoy!
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Breakfast in rooms— banana bread with butter, coffee, cranberry juice, water.
P and girls went for a long walk around town. Lunch at back street pizza joint— excellent— Rossi’s. Quarto sections— ham, mushrooms, tomato, olives, artichokes—fab brown out for 4 hours. Lazy AM with walk for P and girls—shopping in nice shops. Lunch out of town at Kabeljoes in Kleinmond. Great ocean view.... Greek salad w/fries; seafood stew(loaded), mussels, shrimp curry-spicy, ice cream and Malva pudding, beer. 1/4 finals rugby match on tv— lots of cheering. Dinner again on edge of town in “new harbor” area. Very nice restaurant— Harbor Rock. menu: Lamb shank 2 oysters, not great steak soup- cauliflower and cumin dim sum silver fish— fab 24 pieces of sushi, good but not fab pavlova with fruits early to bed, exhausted from doing nothing... |
Notes about countryside:
beautiful rolling hills and mountains. large farms, grains, grapes, beautiful wild flowers, flowering bushes— yellow, purple, red, orange, white and lush green. some land is parched, some irrigated. Huge farming tracts of grass, wheat and other grains.. Beautiful landscape to drive through... Nearer to towns are huge “townships”, i.e. ghettos. Shacks, tin and wood roof huts—- horrible conditions, dangerous even for residents. Hotels and restaurants bus their help from many townships. We have encountered nothing but lovely people serving us, most from townships. Driving is very easy, roads are good and repairs are in evidence. Average MPH— 60-75. gas moderate to expensive. Off to breakfast in hotel’s dining room. |
Gas about $4.50 per gallon.
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Kabel Joes is the name
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Unit 5 we were in
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Seems no one has interest so I’m done writing...
sorry kathie and laurie |
Bob, please keep writing!
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I'm reading! Have you done anything other than eat and shop? Are you going on safari at all?
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Keep Writing!
I haven't followed Fodor's for a long while. I don't even check FB more than once a week. Other priorities have taken over as you know. But I as well as others I'm sure are enjoying your report.
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Laurie...he may write again. Next week we fly back to Jburg and drive up for a safari, and a few days of driving In Kreuger. This week is ocean and wine
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Rhkkmk, this thread now has 8.5k views, and that suggests people do have interest in your writing. That said, I would like to see more of what you are doing when you aren't sitting down for lunch and dinner. Please keep writing.
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I am sure LL is following your report so that makes it allll good. Hi Kathie Craig n Laurie! Linda, Karen and I have been shopping and buying lots of goodies as well as keeping Bob company on his eating forays ;) I will monitor this report and add if rhk allows haha. We are having a blast btw. Going to see the penguins tomorrow...they have similar movements while walking as rhk I hear. I will let you all know Aloha! |
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