One of our absolute favorite destinations in the world
Cape Town, South Africa
We spent a total of three weeks in South Africa and if you want to read more about our time at safari in Kruger National Park click here.
Cape Town is one of our absolute favorite cities in the world. Amazing people, great food, very affordable and a place that we will come back to again.
Cape Town
Cape Town is a coastal city in South Africa and second most populated area after Johannesburg. There is no official capital in South Africa but Cape Town is the legislative capital with the National Parliament. Pretoria is the administrative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. The city is home to 3.7 million people and a true coming together of cultures, cuisines, and landscape.
Best time to go
October through April. Summer is December through March on this side of the globe, but the months leading up to and following it also boast mild weather and smaller crowds. The fall (April to June) is an ideal time to visit Cape Town to experience the wine harvest in the surrounding vineyards.
Where to stay
Cape Town is big and depends on what you are in the mood for. We split our time in the city between beautiful Camps Bay and the city center. Camps Bay is ten minutes south of the city with beautiful white sand beaches, amazing sunsets, and good restaurants. A lot of inventory on Airbnb that you can find your perfect home. Once in the city center, we stayed close to the water at Waterfront and De Waterkant. Gardens is also supposed to be great with authentic feeling and perfect for couples.
Where to eat
You can’t go wrong with the food in Cape Town and don’t think we had a bad meal during our vacation. Some highlights were:
- Test Kitchen – No 28 best restaurant in the world at very good prices. Book as soon as you know your dates and sign up for the waiting list if fully booked.
- Pot Luck Club – Same owner at Test Kitchen but still very good and not as fancy.
- Carne – Great meat restaurant that we loved!
- Giovanni’s – Buy a picknick basket and enjoy out by the water!
What to do
Below are a few detailed examples of day trips and activities. Besides that we would recommend:
- Visit Table Mountain. No need to book but check website before that it is open and avoid weekend if possible to minimize queuing.
- Great local markets and one of our favorites were Bay Harbour Market with art, food, and music.
- White shark diving two hours south of Cape Town.
- Paragliding over Cape Town.
- Helicopter tour over the city and coastline.
- Visit one of the townships. Use a guide.
- Summer concert in the botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch.
Drive through the beautiful Chapmans Peak.
- Visit Robben Island where Nelson Mandel was imprisoned.
- Shopping in V&A Waterfront area.
Stellenbosch
We went out to the wine district for those days and completely loved it. A 40-minute drive from Cape Town and you are in wine heaven with great wineries, beautiful landscape and food. We got recommended La Rochelle Tours and had Danielle guide us around and show us the best wineries. We stayed at Clouds Estate, had great lunch at Grand Provence and a great dinner at Tokara. The wineries that really stood out for us were Anthonij Rupert, Maison and Ernie Els (the former golf player).
Cape Peninsula
One day trip was to Cape Peninsula that is south of Cape Town and juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. On the southern end are Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope that you have to visit. On the way there we stopped at Boulders Beach and saw the colony of African penguins that have been there since the early 1980’s.
Garden Route
Another trip that could be nice is to drive along the Garden Route on the southern part of South Africa. The distance from Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east is just over 200km, yet the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife and outdoor activities is remarkable.
Our first stop was in Plettenberg where we stayed at Tsala Treetop Lodges that were treehouses. Unique in every sense and despite quite expensive it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. After that, we headed to Knysna where we spent three days at Head over Hills which was a bed and breakfast owned by a Swedish couple. Great food, beautiful beaches, and activities such as one of the highest bungee jumps in the world. The trip continued towards Cape Town with the stop in Stellenbosch as mentioned above.
Getting around
Uber is available throughout Cape Town to really cheap prices.
Final words
South Africa in general and Cape Town specifically is one of our favorite destinations. The combination is the city, landscape, people, good value and great food is really amazing. It is a slightly long flight from Europe and at least for us nothing non-stop unfortunately. If you haven’t been yet, we really recommend checking out Cape Town, Kruger Park and South Africa!
Cape Town
Google Maps
Plus
Amazing city
Food, culture & people
Weather & Landscape
Wine district
Minus
Long flight for most travelers