Our recent trip to Cape Town was a once in a life time adventure. Access to flights made it a bit tricky for us to get there, but we knew it was somewhere we needed to visit while living in Africa; no matter how inconvenient the connections were. After all, not every vacation offers you the opportunity to hang with lions, swim with penguins, and ride a train through vineyards.
Read on to find out about my favourite parts of our trip to Cape Town and surrounding area.
Table Mountain
If you’re in Cape Town you literally can’t miss Table Mountain…it’s the giant mountain overlooking the city that has a flat top like a table, and it’s one of the natural wonders of the world. On a clear day, the views from the top can’t be beat. If you’re ambitious, you can hike up. But if you have little travellers with you, like us, you can take the gondola up. It’s also possible to get a one way ticket on the gondola and walk down, which is what we did. The walk down only took ten minutes, with kids. (Which later led me to believe that they absolutely could have climbed it.)
When you’re at the top, be sure to take some time to walk around, explore, and again, if you’re with kids, have an ice cream.
Wine Tram
Franschhoek is a cute little town in the wine region that I would definitely recommend visiting. We stayed for a few nights and found it to be a great home base. There are lots of wonderful places to eat, TONS of wineries to visit, and there’s a big market set up in town on Saturdays where you’ll be sure to get all your souvenirs covered. (There’s also a smaller market during the week, but the Saturday one is much larger.)
My favourite part of our time in this area was the Winetram. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a tram that brings you between wineries, taking the worry out of finding each place, and allowing you to enjoy the wine tasting without worrying about having to drive after. There are different routes to choose, each highlighting various wineries, many with restaurants, some with entertainment for kids, and all perfect for quenching your thirst for the wines of the region.
V&A Water Front
Depending where in the world you are coming from, you may, or may not have this on a list of your favourite places. For us, coming from Congo, it was wonderful. The waterfront is a modern area, full of shopping and restaurants which gave us full appreciation of being in the first world. We shopped, strolled, dined and then went back again to do it all over again.
Luxury Hotel
This again was a bit of a ‘we live in Congo’ treat. We decided we wanted some luxury for a couple days to make up for the daily aspects of our regular life in Congo that aren’t so luxurious. We found the perfect fit at The Twelve Apostles Hotel, where the adults were greeted at the door with Champagne, and the kids with made-to-order milkshakes. We spoiled ourselves with delicious meals, high tea, and the kids LOVED that there was even a movie theatre in the hotel. It had all the amenities you’d expect at a big resort, while having the classiness of a luxury boutique hotel. It was worth the splurge.
Boulder Beach
Could this be my favourite place on earth? Possibly!
I couldn’t get over how many penguins there were. And they were absolutely everywhere! There’s a boardwalk where you can view the penguins from afar, but there’s also beach access, where we were, that allowed you to hang with the penguins, swim, and of course, take penguin selfies. For us, a once in a lifetime experience!
Safari
Research which area you’d like to do your safari in before you head to South Africa. There are many options, it mainly depends how far you want to drive form Cape Town. It’s also good to note that many places offer shuttles from Cape Town to the reserves, but you can actually rent a car for a week for the same price as it would cost to shuttle your family.
Seeing safari animals was something we wanted to do in South Africa, but it wasn’t the sole purpose for our trip, since we actually live in Africa and went on safari in Namibia last year at this time(One of the upsides to being in Congo). Having said that, it definitely feels like a must-do in the area, and there were no regrets on the safari day.
Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope was my husband’s choice because he’s a walking encyclopedia. According 
to the built in audio guide that is ‘Canadian Expat Dad’; Cape Point is historically significant because it was the last point of contact for European explorers/sailors heading to India for spices(I’m paraphrasing… but surely I’m close). My knowledgeable husband also informed me that there is a common misconception of this being the southern most point of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet. But in fact, that’s not true. Cape Point is close, but that actually happens nearby, at Cape Agulhas. Nonetheless, Cape Point has beautiful views and you will see tons of baboons running along, across, and sat down in the middle of the road on your drive there. Luckily it was pretty, and it was quite busy, so I can assure you it’s visited by many others, not just history buffs.
Giraffe House
We were driving back from the wine region towards Cape Town, and “The Giraffe House” popped up on our GPS. It sounded interesting, so I quickly looked it up on my phone and decided we’d pull off the highway and check it out. It was a small place, but the kids loved it. As we walked in the kids were each given a bucket of food to feed to the various animals that were on the grounds, but mostly my kids were interested in the zebras and giraffes. The zebras were off in the distance a bit, so we didn’t get a chance to get very close to them, but the giraffes gave us all the attention we wanted.
—That’s our trip to the Cape Town area in a nut shell. We did other things like the Botanical Garden’s, Chimpanzee Refuge, visiting beaches and neighbouring towns, as well as lots of eating and drinking. But if I had to give you the highlight reel of our trip, those are my idea of the ‘must-sees’.
One Last Travel Tip:
Pop into a cell phone store and grab a SIM card and small data package for your phone. It’s not very expensive and it makes travelling MUCH more convenient. (Our Congo phones don’t allow for roaming). For us travelling with kids, it made it simple to split up for things like kids’ bathroom breaks or shopping, then easily meet up again later. Also it was perfect for googling and using the GPS while driving. It’s how we stumbled upon the Giraffe House, the Chimpanzee Reserve and a couple really cool restaurants.