braiiseason: You recommended McGregor near Robertson as another hidden jewel. Can you say more about that? I'm not sure where you mean.

Here is our updated itinerary at this point:

fly san diego to cape town (w/ 2-night sleep in London)

2 nights: cape winelands
3 nights: Paternoster (w/ day-trip to see wildflowers)
3 nights: Cederberg?
6 nights: Cape town (w/ day-trips to cape peninsula etc.)
6 nights: Overberg or Little Karoo or Garden route

Prince Albert. Fantastic town. Absolutely exquisite landscape. Drive from the coast (we found Wilderness to be gorgeous http://www.shiningwaters.co.za/ Amazing restaurants for such a little town! ) via George (you don't need to stop) to Oudtshoorn. If it is early in the day and the weather is great, you can drive the Swartberg Pass to Prince Albert. Otherwise, drive around the big mountain via de Rust and Meiringsport Pass. Still exquisite, but much easier driving. http://www.karoolodge.com/ We stayed here -- really lovely owners/managers, and George is a fantastic chef. Best meal in town.

uh-oh_busted: Thanks for your recommendations. I've been considering Prince Albert. The hard choice is that we need to eliminate either the Little Karoo, Overberg, or Garden Route, as otherwise we will be doing too much driving and not enough relaxing & experiencing. (updated itinerary is just above, if anyone is interested.)

Here's some links. Make sure you look at the photo's on the McGregor site under the 'About McGregor' tab, I think your husband will enjoy :0)

I have also added a link to a mineral forum, it has some great photo's of the area, I thought it might interest you both, excluding the crystals :0)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

http://www.mcgregorvillage.co.za/

http://www.mineral-forum.com/message...er=asc&start=0

Great tips, bookmarking