So another travel thread. Booked just under two weeks $930 return (!) in February to Cape Town with 2 other friends, and don't really want to just stay for the two weeks in just Cape Town. Safety is always a concern, so before making any plans at all, I'd like to get an opinion on that.
Advice on the following from CP:
- help on things to see, do, and potentially other places to visit.
- which district should we stay aside from District 9? .
- bars/clubs
- Johannesberg (safe or not?)
- safaris
- how much money to bring for activities?
Cage diving with great white's
Table Mountain
Cape of Good Hope
Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned
Krueger National Park for Wildlife tour
Wine tour - Stellenbosch (I'm told this is the party tour) or Franschhoek (I did this one; very scenic and some what refined)
If you have time, or you book a safari tour, find one that goes into Zimbabwe/Zambia to see the Zambezi river and Victoria Falls
I found Johannesberg to be scary
Last edited by Canada 02; 01-22-2015 at 07:07 PM.
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Just to get it out of the way. No. Johannesburg is not safe. Not at all. Do not go there unless you absolutely have to. It's a dump. Nearby Pretoria is dull. Government town.
Cape Town is an absolutely fantastic city, at least it was in 1996.
Things you have to do.
Get up table mountain. But don't leave a specific day for it as sometimes the top is covered by cloud. Actually that's a half day.
Definitely get out to Robben Island. If it's the only thing you do, do that.
We stayed in a hostel out by Green Point. When we partied at Victoria and Albert Waterfront we walked. Downtown we took taxis. I wouldn't consider it safe but never felt threatened either. Nothing like Joburg.
Stellenbosch is a daytrip option if you like your wines.
You can get bus hops along the garden route stopping at different places enroute. We arrived in Port Elizabeth and took about 2 weeks to get to Cape Town.
Safaris, you're closest decent one is probably Kruger. One thing I do regret about not doing there is going up the east coast and snorkelling with the whale sharks. Head down the Cape of Good Hope (do that anyway as a day trip) and you'll be able to stop and swim with jackass penguins plus you'll have all the baboons to last you a lifetime.
Never did it, but Great White Shark watching/diving is an option.
Pies. Best frickin pies on the planet.
Cost I couldn't tell you as it was 20 years since I was there.
You won't have the time but go back and do Zambezi/Vic Falls and (I'm repeating myself here) but if you are going to do a safari once in your life go to the Okavango Delta and do a foot/camping one.
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I have never been but I recall that crazy crime/rape survey controversy a while back.
EDIT:
Yeah, this thing. Even more crazy that the 28% of men having raped a woman or girl is the likely fact that people would likely be under reporting/admitting their own crimes. Probably (a third or more) of all men having been a rapist. Fracking crazy.
I have never been, but I have a co-worker from Cape Town and she pretty much echos what everyone says here. It's a great city according to her, but Johannesburg not so good.
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loved Capetown. One of my favorite spots I have ever been.
Taxi rather than walk
Table Mountain is awesome
see if you can get to a drum bar.
Joberg is a huge city without an economy to support it. Getting mugged at certain spots is not a possibility, it is certain. Not a lot to do in Joberg so don't plan on spending a huge amount of time there. Pretoria is much nicer.
Kruger is awesome. Spend the money to go with a guided group.
Shark Cage Diving: I had every intention of doing that when I was there, but spoke to some locals who said that it is having a devastating effect on the shark population. When a big shark is found, the fishermen learn very quickly and will go out to the same spots, find the big sharks and kill them after the tourists leave. I decided against doing it. But to each their own.
i'm told that you could jet ski and have a good time on the beach area, but never did it myself.
I had an awesome steak dinner at a fancy restaurant on the harbour. The dinner including a bottle of wine was under $15.00. Point being that the currency exchange is pretty good and the South Africans know how to grow, age, and cook meat. Best country in the world for it.
Ostrich is a red meat and the steaks come from the thigh of the animal. It's a surprise to look at due to its shape.
People are pretty friendly and when i was there it seemed so many young people were looking to leave. Lots of questions about Canada and opportunities.
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My wife did her practicum over in Cape Town for 3 months, and after she was completed, I flew over and we toured for 3 weeks before coming home. Just a few things to add to what Canada02 said (a lot of what I was going to post, he already made mention of).
- We were there a few months before the World Cup came to town (actually during the W.C. draw), so it might have been a little different than normal. There was word that a lot of the homeless were already being trucked out to rural locations to get them away from the city. But a beautiful city, really is, and full of great people.
- Like any city, there are dangers if you get into the wrong areas. I can't say I personally felt uber comfortable after dark, but a lot of that I think was my mindset going over there too.
- We stayed in and around Camps Bay and Hout Bay. Camps Bay which is a fabulous district, where it is more than safe. Lots of shopping, bars/restraunts, and the beach is right across the street. We rented a bedroom suite (can't remember costs, but was more than reasonable), which included usage of their pool and breakfast each morning.
- Did lots of hiking of Table Mountain. Not sure about now, but was told when not hiking not to take any valuables with you as there was a problem with crime up there. Wasn't uncommon to encounter a group of kids with a gun that would take whatever you had. Didn't happen to us, but a heads up.
- Cape Town is such a huge, spread out city, we found renting a car worked great for us. So much to see and do, and a car allows you that opportunity.
- We did the wine tours, great white dive (which is a must, seen maybe 12-14 that day), did the bungee jump (www.faceadrenalin.com), watched a Springbok game at a pub with the locals which was pretty cool as the city basically shuts down for the game.
- Went down to the Cape of Good Hope, neat little half/full day trip if you do rent a car.
- Robben Island is a must too, pretty neat to see where Mandella was imprisoned. Its a half day tour, or at least the one we were on, and was enough to tour the island.
- As someone mentioned, the food is really well priced as are the drinks, and both are fantastic tasting.
- I can't remember where we did all of this, but we did an ostrich farm tour, stayed in a tree house out in a jungle, did a safari tour, seen some wales at a harbour town. All I know is we got as far east as Knysna. But if you have a week, its a pretty cool drive. Lots of great scenary - mountain ranges, rolling hill farm land, etc. Stayed at a lot of BnB's, which is a fantastic choice if that is what you choose to do.
- TAXIS - ONLY USE A SELECT FEW OF THE TRUSTED CAB COMPANIES. We talked to a couple of travellers that took a company outside of these, and were robbed and left on the side of the road. Talk to the locals or people within an establishment, they will help you with this.
Anyways, hope that helps, and I will post more as I remember
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Many thanks to everyone. I'm meeting with my friend this weekend and will look to bring up most of this. Really cool suggestions and advice so I appreciate every little drop of info. If anyone has anything to add, I'll gladly sponge it up. Thanks.
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Many thanks to everyone. I'm meeting with my friend this weekend and will look to bring up most of this. Really cool suggestions and advice so I appreciate every little drop of info. If anyone has anything to add, I'll gladly sponge it up. Thanks.
Reading my post again, I don't want to come off as a total negative Nancy.
I hope you have a good fun trip. Be safe!
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I found it had a totally different vibe than other cities in SA. J'burg is a poop hole.
Things to do in Cape Town:
Table mountain.
Water front, a sunset cruise is lovely.
ExpatFlames, do they still have that Cheetah place up near Stellenbosch? We went there and petted a cheetah, my wife loved it.
Walk or run. I would get up and go for walks/runs in the morning. Found some lovely restaurants and coffee shops/bakeries.
We went shark diving. I can't recall who we went with, my buddy that lived there set it up. The company does diving/conservation. The skipper that took us out was yelling at another captain for baiting the sharks. Oddly, it was our skippers first time out in 1 yr since a wave flipped his boat killing 1 or 2 US citizens.
We also went to this great Portuguese/Mozambique restaurant.
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Cape Town is awesome! Consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Rent a car and do a drive (stick shift only, and on the opposite side of the road) along the coast — then go wine tasting.
Definitely go to Robben Island — the tour guides are former prisoners, so the insight they provide is very interesting.
And as other have said, Joberg isn't kind of a dump. If you're stranded for a day though, the Apartheid Museum is incredible and well worth the visit while waiting for flights.
Many thanks to everyone. I'm meeting with my friend this weekend and will look to bring up most of this. Really cool suggestions and advice so I appreciate every little drop of info. If anyone has anything to add, I'll gladly sponge it up. Thanks.
If you're into good food, Cape Town has some incredible restaurants. The best part about it is the price, everything there is super cheap.
In Cape Town and along the garden route I'd stay in B&B's if I were you.
Not sure how much you want to spend on a Safari, but the wife and I stayed at this place and it was incredible: http://www.lionsands.com/ at the Narnia lodge.
If you go to Kynsna, definitely go to the elephant park. The wife and I paid a little extra and were able to ride the elephants while there was an African sunset, it was awesome.
When I was there Apartheid was over but you could definitely see that it was a very segregated society.
Now it's been pretty much a generation since the end of apartheid. Do you see much integration between whites and blacks?
Yes, tons. There is a growing middle class (both blacks and whites) and there is a lot of integration. In fact, at first glance, you wouldn't even know apartheid took place. However, as you scratch the surface, there definitely still lie racial tensions. Townships still house the majority of the poor though and the working class of the country.
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Cape Town is awesome! Consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Rent a car and do a drive (stick shift only, and on the opposite side of the road) along the coast — then go wine tasting.
Definitely go to Robben Island — the tour guides are former prisoners, so the insight they provide is very interesting.
And as other have said, Joberg isn't kind of a dump. If you're stranded for a day though, the Apartheid Museum is incredible and well worth the visit while waiting for flights.
I would totally agree with CT. It is one of my favorite cities in the world. Simply stunning.
We live in Joburg and love it actually. Very different of course but wouldn't call it a dump at all (of course there are "dumpy" sections). It is the financial hub of the country and tons going on. We live in the northern suburbs which has beautiful parks, fantastic markets (you would think you were in Europe on a Sunday afternoon) nice restaurants and shopping centers. Then within 30 minutes you can be out in the beautiful country and visit Hartbeesport damn, lion parks, great hiking/camping etc. It really is underrated.
Last edited by expatflame; 12-17-2015 at 02:10 AM.
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I gotta say, I went in February and it was the worst travel experience I've had going to Cape Town. Within the first few hours walking on the street there, I was held up at knifepoint in broad daylight in a busy place by the bus terminal station market. 2 of my friends were with me as well. Generally unfriendly people, though I had a couple friends I met from years past down there. It was weird when it came to unfriendly people though - tourists were skeptical as were the locals. Locals always had their eye on you as if you were prey. Table mountain was nice, and some very cool pics, but the people make the place. Camps bay had some nice sightlines, but there were nothing at all to do there at night, so we moved back to the more urban downtown and stayed at airbnb and the three mandelas hotel. Nights were pretty unsafe, though you get used to it. Unfortunately we got to know a bouncer at this place called Beerhouse where we were going everynight, and a couple weeks after we returned I was sent a link to the guys obituary as he was stabbed in the neck for asking for someone's ID.
Two very good things was we took in an overnight game reserve which was pretty cool to see the animals and rhinos on the conservation. Second thing - great great food. I put on 14 pounds in 2 weeks. So cheap everywhere, and so damn good.
But really, the racial divide was too great. It was multicultural in some sense, but if you wiki the demographic, and speak to various locals, you'll get an understanding of their situation. We seen the black folks treated like criminals by the rich white folks, while the white folks have the money and own the restaurants and stuff. They were elitist asses though. So it's a general culture of distrust among everyone, which kinda sucked.
As for the Robbin Island, it was nice to see, but the tour and time it took simply wasn't worth it. Locals even thought of it as a tourist trap. I'd highly suggest a game reserve and then eat like a king everywhere. Really wish I took in some of the wineries as well.
Tell me about Cape Town (and surrounding)
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