South Africa in October

[amberlyrose]

We bought the cheap tickets from Etihad back around Christmas and have yet to plan anything out. We'll be flying to Johannesburg through Abu Dhabi. DH wants to do a safari for at least 1 night, but we've been told that we need to get to Cape Town because it's nicer. We have 4 nights (thursday-monday).
Any suggestions?

[amberlyrose]

Thanks! I feel like we won't have time for a safari but DH thinks we can do it. Lol! I really want to do some wine tastings.

[Deleted]

Yes, you absolutely must get to Cape Town. I would skip doing the safari. I mean safari in SA is great, but if you want a "full" safari experience I'd probably do it in another country like Kenya or Tanzania, so save it for some other time.

If you're flying in to Joburg, you can then get inexpensive flights from Joburg to CT on Mango or Kulula airlines. They'll be significantly cheaper than SAA and are really nice. They don't feed you (you can buy food, while SAA feeds you), but the flight is only 2 hours.

If you are going to spend 1 day in Joburg, I'd say the only must see things are the Apartheid Museum and Soweto/Nelson Mandela's house.

In Cape Town I'd do cable car for Table Mountain. The main Table Mountain hike isn't all that fun. If you want a fun hike, I'd do Lion's Head. Doing it at sunrise or sunset is great.

Of course wine tasting. With limited time you can hire a tour group...they'll pick you up in CT, drive you to 3-4 wineries and then drop you back off.

Camps Bay has great views. The restaurants there are pretty touristy and pretentious, but it's a nice area to sit by the beach and grab some ice cream and take pics.

The Cape of Good Hope is really beautiful.

I'm not sure if you plan on renting a car. Driving is really easy there even though it's on the opposite side of the U.S. But it's a pretty walkable city and there is a nice bus that expanded last year that can get you pretty much anywhere without a car.

The Hop on Hop off bus would also be a good recommendation to get to most of the major sites. Even if you don't get it, you can look at its route to plan your days since you have limited time.

If you have any specific questions, let me know!

[riverpestie]

Thanks for posting this! I love the suggestions for Cape Town.
We're going to SA for our honeymoon in November and we're going to be spending time in Cape Town, Durban and some other areas.

[amberlyrose]

I've found a few tours for wineries on viator, so we may book one! Any suggestions on neighborhoods to stay in/avoid?

[chicago]

You have great suggestions so I will just echo those.

Not sure what you want in a place to stay, but we stayed at a super cute guesthouse called Manna Bay. It's not walking distance to anything really, but the cabs were cheap, people were so nice, breakfasts and high tea were delicious. I would have liked to stay near the waterfront initially, but we splurged on our safari hotel - we wound up loving Manna Bay.

Eta: Well shit, scratch that. I just looked up Manna Bay since we stayed there two years ago. We paid $120/night for our room, but it looks like they added some amenities and it's now $470/night. Boo.

[Champagne Supernova]

Posting to follow this thread. We're thinking about going early next year.

[kaylie]

I would stay in Camps Bay or near the Waterfront. I found the Waterfront to be very convenient for anything we wanted to get to.

It might be worth contacting Rhino Safari about arranging some activities for you: www.rhinoafrica.com - They can probably get a better deal than what you'll pay on Viator. I was really impressed by how much we got for our $$ there.

I don't think shark cage diving has been mentioned yet. That was one of the highlights of our trip. We used Shark Lady: www.sharklady.co.za.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2015 16:02:16 GMT -5 amberlyrose said:

I've found a few tours for wineries on viator, so we may book one! Any suggestions on neighborhoods to stay in/avoid?

I personally would absolutely stay in the City Bowl. I think around Greenmarket Square would be good a good area. I obviously never stayed in any hotels while living there, but for work we often put people up at Inn on the Square and I heard good things about it. 

Personally when I'm visiting a city I like to somewhat see "everyday" life. If you're in the City Bowl you can check out little cafes or shops, see people going to work, see the hustle and bustle and be centrally located and feel like you're in South Africa. It's a nice area to get around everywhere.

If you want to feel like you're in America and stay in a more touristy area then go for Waterfront or Camps Bay. 

If you have any specific hotels you're looking at and you have questions, feel free to ask me. Another option would be to do airbnb. 

Also, the more I think about it, I'd absolutely recommend renting a car for 1 day and doing the Chapman's Peak drive and then on to the Cape of Good Hope. The views are absolutely FABULOUS. I'm guessing there might be some kind of tour company that would drive you around (or maybe a private driver?), but driving is really easy and it'd be nice to be on your own time. Other than a winery, I think Chapman's Peak drive and Cape of Good Hope are must sees. I'm a city person and typically not even that in to landscape, but I fell in love with those views every single time. If you stay in City Bowl there are plenty of car rental places around and I think you can rent a car for about R400 per day. 

Oh and if you're going to be there on a Fri night, Sat. or Sun, Hout Bay has a cool market with great food and music and vendors. Worth checking out. Also on Thursdays for lunch there is a market right by Greenmarket Square that also has really great food. 

You're going to have so much fun!

[amberlyrose]

May 28, 2015 20:44:14 GMT -5 kaylie said:

I would stay in Camps Bay or near the Waterfront. I found the Waterfront to be very convenient for anything we wanted to get to.

It might be worth contacting Rhino Safari about arranging some activities for you: www.rhinoafrica.com - They can probably get a better deal than what you'll pay on Viator. I was really impressed by how much we got for our $$ there.

I don't think shark cage diving has been mentioned yet. That was one of the highlights of our trip. We used Shark Lady: www.sharklady.co.za.

This would be panic attack central for me but I'm sure DH would love it!

[chicago]

Rhino Africa was great - we used them too.