Suggestions for Cape Town Private Tours
 

We'll be concluding our 3 week Egypt / Safari honeymoon with 3.5 days / 3 nights in Cape Town. We'd like to do a private tour of Cape Point , a tour of the winelands, and transfers to/from the airport.

Does anyone have good suggestions for good companies or independant tour guides we should contact?

Thanks!

This past September we used Wayne from Take2 Tours for almost exactly what you're looking for. We really liked him and had a great trip, even though it was a rainy day. Wayne also had some terrific restaurant recommendations.

http://www.take2tours.co.za

Have a wonderful honeymoon!

One of our regular posters here on Fodor's is a tour guide in Cape Town, Selwyn Davidowitz, of "I Love Cape Town." In 2007, he received an award for being one of the top tour guides in the world. You might contact him.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding and honeymoon destination.

Selwyn would be a good choice. I used Wayne of Take2 also.

I've included a link to my report. Right after the itinerary, I write about Take2 and what a great job Wayne did.

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...-n-luangwa.cfm

I highly recommend Glenn Christie at Vineland Ventures in Cape Town. We used her for two tours: one daylong tour of Cape Point and Cape Town environs, the other a tour of the Winelands. She's licensed, experienced, and knows her food and wine. (We lunched in the Winelands at a lovely al fresco place with excellent food that we would never have found in our own.) We saw perhaps 8 wineries of vastly different sorts, both in winemaking styles and architecture/landscape. She's not cheap, but I can't remember how much we paid. But that was when the rand was 7 to the dollar, and now it's 10! You won't believe how cheap everything seems.

Please, please do yourself a favor and contact Charlie Ratcliffe to inquire about his private tours; in all of my years of travel I do not think I have ever enjoyed the services of a guide more than I enjoyed my time with him during one week in the city. He is a local with a large new van/car. Funny, kind, informative--I cannot say enough good things about Charlie.

You can contact him directly:

[email protected]

or through the excellent agency I used to plan my SA/Bots/Vic Falls trip in 2007:

http://www.southerndestinations.com/

I just got back from Cape Town and used Nature Uncut tours for my 3 days there. I had a private tour of Table Mountain, Cape Point and Boulders Beach the first day. Had tours of Robben Island and the townships set up for me the second day (both of these areas have specialized tour guides) and met up with my tour guide for a third day in the winelands. Everything was catered to what I was interested in seeing and we even got to go to smaller wineries at my request as I didn't want to bring home wine I could buy at home. It was the owner that toured me around and she was fantastic. Very knowledgable about the area and great personality. I would highly suggest looking into them.

You didn't say when you were traveling, but I wouldn't wait long to book with someone. Almost everyone mentioned above (didn't try Wayne) was already booked 6+ months in advance of our trip last August. Those who were already booked generally recommended someone else, but the "second stringers" were unknowns.

In the end we went with Vineyard Ventures, but Glenn wouldn't commit in advance as to whether she would do the tours herself...she didn't. The other guide from her staff was fine but not outstanding -- she kept sending messages that she would meet up with us along the way, but never did. No real complaints but not quite the personalized attention I was expecting...