A Tour to Cape Point: the Most Beautiful Part of Cape Town

18/05/201514/06/2015wareontheglobe Leave a comment

If you are in the Cape Town area, in addition to the Wine Tour, you absolutely must take a trip down the Cape peninsula to visit the villages and beaches on the way and the Cape of Good Hope!

There are several options for touring this area of Cape Town: self-drive, join a tour or take the Green Bus from Cape Town. We decided to take an arranged group tour, Day Tripper’s, because we did not have a car and the tour included stops at Hout Bay and Simon’s Town and a bike ride through Cape Point! If you are choosing between the 3, self-diriving gives you the most flexibility but requires advance planning, an arranged tour is the easiest but you are married to their schedule and the Green Bus is the most environment-friendly and is fairly easy, but time is very limited. Our tour with Day Trippers was only about $65 a person and well-worth it.

After an early pick-up at our hotel, the first stop was Hout Bay with an option to take a boat to “seal island” for $10 US.

Since we wanted to see the seals, we went directly to the boat for the 20 minute boat ride, which goes around Hout Bay and right up to Duiker Island (aka “seal island”). Duiker Island is really a tiny rock of land inhabited by tons of seals. To avoid confusion, there is another similar, but slightly larger, island in False Bay officially named Seal Island. No need to visit both! The scenery to the island is gorgeous!

Coming up on the island…the seals are so cute! Take your camera!

If you don’t take the boat ride, there is a craft market and several shops and restaurants in Hout Bay.

After the boat ride, we grabbed some coffee and moved on to Simon’s Town to see the Penguin Colony at Boulder’s Beach! To get to Boulder’s Beach, you walk straight through Simon’s Town and pay a small fee for entrance into the park.

In addition to the penguins, Simon’s Town is a cute little town and would make a good lunch stop.

After the penguins, we drove to Cape Point Nature Reserve, which is the very bottom of the Cape peninsula and leads to to the Cape of Good Hope. Our tour, Day Tripper’s, incorporates bicycling into all of its tours, so we stopped as soon as we entered the reserve and cycled about 5km to our lunch spot, which was a basic picnic…the lunch could have been better.

Did I mention, the Cape Point Reserve is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Gorgeous scenery was a theme on this tour.

Below are the bikes and me on the bike! It wasn’t as hard as it looked…

We also saw some wildlife, including baboons up close and personal and ostrich! Actually, the baboons can be aggressive if you have food, visible water bottles or are carrying a large woman’s tote bag (they know they contain food). Be careful – they are quite large and have really big teeth! They did not bother us and there are park employees monitoring their location to ensure they leave the tourists alone. But, if you see a traffic jam, it is probably due to baboons!

After lunch, we cycled another 12 km down to the Cape of Good Hope!!

After an obligatory photo-op, we did the hike from the Cape of Good Hope up to the Cape Point Lighthouse. The hike is not exactly easy, but it wasn’t difficult either. It is one of the most gorgeous landscapes I have ever seen and you do not want to miss out on this hike. Definitely wear proper shoes.

Once we made it to the Lighthouse area, there are a few shops and the Two Oceans’ Restaurant, We didn’t eat there, but it looked really good! Definitely go up to the light house, which offers gorgeous views of False Bay (shark diving is there) and the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. If you have mobility issues, note that you can drive directly to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point Lighthouse. There is a small funicular that takes passengers from the restaurant/shop area to the Lighthouse.

Steal Our Trip

DayTripper’s Cape Point & Peninsula Tour, Tel: +27- (0)21-511 4766, Fax: +27- (0)21-511 4768, Email: info@daytrippers.co.za Simon’s Town Table Mountain National Park, including Boulder’s Beach and Cape Point Nature Reserve Cape Point Hout Bay Notes – If you plan to recreate all or some of our trip on your own, you should do some advance route planning, etc. to ensure you hit everything!

Savoy Cabbage: A Not-So-Touristy Game Restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa

12/05/201514/06/2015wareontheglobe Leave a comment

A good, non-touristy game restaurant. More difficult to find that I imagined. A number of people we spoke to went to the tourist-favorite Mama Africa, but I was determined to find something more authentic. Luckily for me, I came across Savoy Cabbage doing some internet research and it ended up being a fabulous choice for game and a champagne bar!! I love champagne bars!

We made reservations easily online and our table was waiting when we arrived. The interior of the restaurant was so cute and the service was impeccable. More important, however, they had a good selection of game done in a modern way. Fantastic!

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The Most Fun Wine Tour – Stellenbosch, South Africa

08/05/201514/06/2015wareontheglobe 2 Comments

We really wanted to visit a few wineries during our time in Cape Town but we didn’t want to drive (due to all the tasting we planned to do) so we decided to take a full day tour. There are a lot of options, and we ended up going with Wine Flies, and are so glad that we did. This tour went to 5 vineyards, included all wines, cheese and chocolate tastings and lunch, and only cost about $55 USD a person. Our guide, Riaan, was super knowledgeable and laid back. Really, I cannot say enough great things about this tour!!

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One Week in Cape Town, South Africa!

05/05/201514/06/2015wareontheglobe 3 Comments

Dan and I began our trip to Southern Africa in Cape Town, South Africa! Cape Town is a gorgeous, historical city with so much to offer! Literally, it has beaches, mountains, great food, even better wine, craft beer, so much history, a mix of people and an evolving political climate. Cape Town makes for such an interesting place to visit. Main picture from the top of Table Mountain and below are some more favorites!

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The Layover: Jo-Burg Edition

01/05/201514/06/2015wareontheglobe 3 Comments

Dan and I had a brief, overnight layover in Johannesburg (“Jo’Burg”) when transferring between Victoria Falls and our safari near Kruger. We were hoping to go strait from the airport to Kruger, but the only flight from Livingstone, Zambia (one of the two airports near Vic Falls) got in too late to make the 5-hour drive, and we just made a night out of it!

Unfortunately we did not have enough time to see the city – and I really want to go back and explore more – but we did have enough time to enjoy the luxurious hotel 54 on Bath and have a delicious, delicious meal at Cube Tasting Kitchen.

Our afternoon started with 54 on Bath sending a luxury car to pick us up from JNB (private transfers are about $65 US…there is a cheaper train). Upon checking into the hotel, we were taken straight to our room, which was so lovely! The entire hotel is done in black and white theme and it is super nice! Our room was very large with a king bed, luxurious bathroom and included snacks and coffee! My favorites were the complementary sweet treats!

The hotel also has a Champagne bar with outdoor seating and some FABULOUS wall paper!

The wall paper. LOVE.

We spent the afternoon outside overlooking the pool and croquet course with a bottle of South African sparking wine and South African fried cheese. And I can’t forget, the flowers were beautiful!

After, we changed and went to a delightful 10-course tasting menu at Cube Tasting Kitchen, a BYOB restaurant about 10-minutes from our hotel that has freshly prepared meals by about 10 chefs. Its ranked very highly and you can make reservations online. We brought one bottle of wine for the two of us, but many tables brought two for two people given the large number of courses.

First course: light salad from the garden. Tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, aubergine, mozzarella, mint, chili, vinaigrette film. This was simple, but so, so tasty!!!

Second course: antipasto interpretation. Artichoke, asparagus, cucumber, apple, elderflower. That arancini was awesome!

Third course: fish pie. Trout, white anchovy, spinach, pastry, lime. The anchovy (wrapped in the thing reminiscent of a birds nest) was surprisingly delicious!

Fourth course: dissolving textures. Pomegranate, sherbet, caviar. Woah. This was such a crazy combination. The chef suggested taking it like a tequila shot, with sugar on your hand, a shot of pomegranate and finished with the caviar sherbet. Mind blown.

Fifth course: pork. Smoked eisbein pie, slow cooked belly, crackling and onion, dehydrated bacon, leeks. How can you go wrong with pork?

Sixth course: beef. Braised flank, bone, herb moss, olives, mushroom, dried onion, fennel. Even with marrow, this was my least favorite course. Perhaps I was stuffed at this point.