Tag: Africa

South Africa has always been on our bucket list so as soon as we saw a flight deal for $700 round trip on Virgin Atlantic, we booked it immediately!  Cape Town completely exceeded our expectations and is now our favorite place that we’ve traveled to.

Before we get started on the itinerary, here’s a *PRO TIP: South Africa use different outlets that are not a part of international converters- we bought ours on amazon.

Day ONE.

We started our trip in the city of Cape Town. we stayed at PepperClub Hotel & Spa for the first two nights.  The rooms were large, breakfast was great and location was superb! We were exhausted after our 23+ hour journey so we took a little nap then started the day!

Our first stop was brunch at Lola’s Cafe where we had an egg croissant on Long Street which contains lots of bars and two streets up was Bree Street where there are cuter cafes, restaurants and shops but a lot of them were closed because it was Sunday.  

Ross was already wearing his safari hat, nonstop.

For dinner we went to check out the V&A waterfront but we found the area to be very touristy and we were very glad we didn’t stay there.

For more food recommendations visit our what to eat in Cape Town page.

Day TWO.

We woke up around 6 AM to get the day started.  (Also because we were super jetlagged) After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to conquer Table Mountain.  The lift area was only about a 10-15 minute drive from our hotel, we parked at the lift area and walked around 20 minutes to the start of the hike.  The hike took about 2 and a half hours, make sure to bring plenty of water! The only thing keeping me going were these cute motivational quotes someone had written onto the rocks!  (You got this! etc.)

The views along the entire hike and once we reached the top were incredible, because as Miley Cyrus puts it: it’s about the climb.

After grabbing some celebratory beers, we took the cable car down (with a great view of Lion’s Head) and headed to lunch.

We also wanted to hike up Lion’s Head for Wally’s Cave but unfortunately that trail was closed due to a recent death.  Life is more important than doing it for the gram!!

We drove down to Houts Bay in search of fish and chips from Snoekies but we weren’t in the mood for fried fish and chips after our glorious hike.  We did drive by a restaurant with Africa’s Favorite . com written across the facade, which we thought was hilarious!

We ended up at Camps Bay, Ross found a great hidden gem called Cod Father.  The menu is freshly caught seafood and a conveyer belt sushi.

The drive down from Camps Bay to Hout Bay was gorgeous, we wanted to keep going to Chapman’s Peak Drive but saw there was a toll and we were planning on going down to Cape of Good Hope the next day so we headed back to town.

*PRO TIP: We found out the next day that if you just want to go to Chapman’s Peak and not go all the way through you don’t have to pay the toll

Before heading back to our hotel, we stopped by the Ellerman House for some drinks and because we love all Relaix & Chateau hotels.

 

For dinner we had Mama Africa with awesome live music but the food was ok.

Day THREE.

We started our day at the amazing buffet breakfast from PepperClub then stopped by Bo-Kaap (which was walking distance from our hotel).

Onwards to Cape of Good Hope!

The toll for Chapman’s Peak is only $3.26 and so worth it!

We took the scenic route through Noordhoek which has lots of horse farms and you can do a beach horse ride with a company called Dirty Boots.

Before getting to the entrance, we stopped by an Ostrich farm that had baboons across the road!

The entrance fee to Cape of Good Hope is pretty expensive, instead of charging by car the fee is $21/adult and $10.53/child.  There was also quite a long line to enter so try to go earlier in the day.

Once we were in the park, we stopped by the information center were there were pamphlets on many hikes you can do.  We wanted to do the Cape of Good Hope Scenic Walk but our legs were still too sore from Table Mountain.  We did climb up to the highest point at the Cape of Good Hope start of the walk and saw orcas in the water!

We drove over to the lighthouse but didn’t go up because we were hungry for lunch!

After we left Cape of Good Hope, we drove to Simon’s Town and ate at Lighthouse cafe.  It was sooo delicious and cute inside!

Time to find the penguins!  We ended up turning into the first penguin sign we saw which led us to the Institute for Maritime Technology where we saw about 40-50 penguins and it was free!  Unless you are SUPER into penguins, that was good enough for us.  For penguin lovers, you can drive a bit further to Boulder Beach where the entrance fee is $2.50/per person.

Before heading to our new hotel, I wanted to go to one last stop: St James Beach.  We ended up parking the car but it was really windy and there was a ton of traffic so we decided to skip it, here’s a photo of what could have been.

I’m glad we didn’t spend too much time there because our next hotel was AMAZING!  We stayed at the Cellars-Hohenort, another Relaix & Chateau hotel.  The hotel sits on 4 hectares of absolutely stunning gardens.  We wanted to go to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden but we were already staying on such beautiful gardens we decided to explore our 4 hectares. 

We had dinner on the property because the Cellars-Hohenort was a bit more remote than the last hotel and there were two amazing restaurants on the property.  The Conservatory and The Greenhouse, more details on our where to eat page.

Day FOUR.

Breakfast at the Cellars-Hohenort was also incredible, there was a mini bloody mary bar- so cute!

After breakfast, we set off to explore the Cape Winelands!  Check out our weekend in Cape Winelands post to continue reading.

Overall, we absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVED Cape Town.

What are your favorite things to do in Cape Town?  We would love to hear your feedback!

XOXO,

Nina & Ross