While in Africa, we spent our longest collective amount of time in Cape Town, South Africa. The city was our introduction to the continent and also our farewell. We spent nine days at the beginning of our time and five days at the end, for a solid two weeks in the city. In Jon’s words: “Cape Town was a large, vibrant, and busy city – a great town for exploring and definitely aimed towards the younger generation.” With our combined visits to Cape Town, we had enough time to see the sights but also to relax and take it easy. With our MyCiti cards, using the bus system was easy and convenient as it took us everywhere we wanted to go in the city. Where did we go? Here are a few of the places we saw!

Table Mountain

Nearly every picture that you see of Cape Town includes the iconic Table Mountain in the background. Situated a short bus ride away from our hostel, we arrived around 10am and bought tickets to take the cable car to the top. It is possible to hike up and down, but we elected to ride the rotating cable car to the summit, which provides everyone in the car a view out the front and back windows. The top of the mountain is flat, as one would guess from the name, providing easy trails around to look out over all sides. Views of the water, the city, and the surrounding land are all available at numerous viewpoints scattered along the trails. Small dassies (little animals native to the mountain) dart in and out of the bushes and small wildflowers provide fragrance to sweeten the air. The mountain is 3,558 feet high, and although we had a few clouds when we visited, we still got a little sunburnt due to the elevation of the mountain. This was a great introduction to the city, providing us an aerial view over the entire area.

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

Our most frequent destination in Cape Town, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is known simply as V&A. The waterfront is wrapped around a harbor where tourist boats depart for tours of the coastline and of Robben Island. Numerous shops, bars, and restaurants are found here as well as entertainment such as an aquarium, putt-putt golf (which we did one afternoon), and a comedy club. We visited a handful of times during our stay in Cape Town, sometimes to shop for our upcoming safari and sometimes just to enjoy the views and have a good seafood dinner. V&A was always busy with something to look at, so we spent some time just strolling with ice cream and people-watching.

Robben Island

I’ll save most of Robben Island for a separate post, but we took the ferry one afternoon to visit the historic prison that once housed Nelson Mandela. Now turned into a museum, this was one thing we couldn’t leave Cape Town without doing.

Castle of Good Hope

While Cape Town was discovered by the Portuguese in 1488, the Dutch are the ones who settled the city years later in 1652. They quickly established a harbor city, now called Cape Town, along with forts and defenses against other seafaring vessels. The Castle of Good Hope was built between 1666 and 1679 and served as a fort and barracks for the Dutch while they occupied the city. The grounds of the castle are all open to walk around and explore, but not all of the rooms are available for tourists as the grounds are currently under renovation. Some are still open as empty chambers but a few are filled with artifacts from the era – pottery, mosaic tiles, and weapons. The William Fehr Collection, housed within the castle, is furnished and decorated just as it was back when the Dutch were living there, giving us a glimpse of what life was like over 100 years ago. Surprisingly, the Castle of Good Hope doesn’t appear to be a very popular tourist attraction in Cape Town, as we were two of only a handful of other tourists there, but it was well worth the visit one morning to walk around and see the oldest surviving building in South Africa from colonial times.

Long Street

Arguably the most popular street in all of Cape Town would be Long Street. Stretching almost the entire way from the water to Table Mountain, Long Street is home to restaurants, hostels, stores, bars, and hotels. The architecture lends some beauty to an otherwise fairly commercial street, with balconies, pillars, and colorful siding providing a pretty backdrop to the crowds. During our combined time in Cape Town, we visited Long Street nearly every day, either because we were staying at a hotel or hostel or because we were trying a new restaurant along the street. While there are probably other, more authentic streets and neighborhoods in Cape Town, we were happy staying on or near Long Street for our first visit. For our next trip, we may venture out to stay in the Observatory area or Camp’s Bay but we’ll also return to Long Street to visit some of our favorite restaurants! (more on that in another post as well!).

Stellenbosch

While probably not as well-known as Napa Valley, California; Bordeaux, France; or Mendoza, Argentina, South Africa has a wine region that is gaining in popularity around the world. We spent a day touring nearby Stellenbosch on a trip with Wine Flies, which led us to five different vineyards around the region. Different wine tastings were available at each: pairings with cheese and chocolate at two wineries, a traditional braai for lunch at another, and we finished the day with a biltong tasting. The group of 13 bonded quickly, with new friends from South Africa, New York, Russia, and Canada all joking and laughing our way through the day. Finally, I can’t describe a day wine tasting without mentioning the wine! We tasted a large variety of wines: reds, whites, rosés, and sparkling; some blends and some previously unknown varietals. It was hard to pick a favorite, so I won’t! I’ll just say that the next time I see South African wines on the shelf at the grocery store, I’ll definitely be picking up a bottle or two!

Simon’s Town

We spent one night in Simon’s Town, due to its proximity to Cape Point which we wanted to tour the following morning. I could have happily spent another night or two in the town, walking along the boardwalk and browsing in the shops. Simon’s Town is located on the eastern coast of Cape Point and is a fun summer coastal city. While there isn’t a beach right in town, there are many nearby making it a popular place for weekenders and holidays. We happened to arrive the weekend of the annual Naval Festival, so we caught part of a military parade in the morning over breakfast. Naval ships dotted the harbor and fighter jets flew overhead periodically as locals and tourists alike converged in the city. Although we were only there for one night, we took advantage of our time, walking down to Boulder Beach in the afternoon, enjoying delicious dinner and breakfast in cute cafes, and looking out over the water to the harbor.

Boulders Beach

A half-hour walk from our hostel in Simon’s Town is Boulders Beach, famous for the penguins that make it their home. Arriving in the late afternoon, when most people were heading back to their hotels to change and go to dinner, we lucked out with a small section of beach surrounded by large rocks where we could sit and watch the penguins. At first there were only two standing out on the rocks in the water, but by the time we left, nearly 20 penguins were hanging out on the beach only feet from where we were sitting. With nobody else in sight, this was a magical time for us, watching the sun go down and being surrounded by penguins. There are around 3,000 penguins who make Boulders Beach their home and we could have easily spent hours sitting and watching them.

Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope

The most southwest corner of Africa is Cape Point, a rocky peninsula that stretches 50 kilometers south from Cape Town. This was at the end of our road trip across the Garden Route (more on that later!) and we took advantage of having our own car to spend the night and explore the area. After a filling breakfast in Simon’s Town, we drove south into the national park and followed the road to the end of the peninsula. The Cape of Good Hope is the tip of Cape Point, the last bit of land jetting out into the ocean. There were two sections that we visited: climbing up on the top next to the lighthouse and stopping for a picture at sea level with waves crashing on rocks behind us. The sign is a popular place to stop and have your picture taken and we had to wait a little while for a break in the tour groups to sneak in a quick picture ourselves. We enjoyed ourselves much more climbing up on the top and walking around the village and lighthouse. The lighthouse was erected in 1859 but decommissioned 61 years later in favor of a second lighthouse further out on the rocks. The buildings nearby housed visitors and the keeper while the lighthouse(s) were in operation, but have since been turned into park offices and a gift shop. From the top, you can see far out into the water on almost all sides, with just the small stretch of land connecting the Cape of Good Hope to the rest of the mainland. Having arrived just after the park opened in the morning, we left as the crowds started to gather and made our way back into Cape Town for our final few days in the city.

Summary

Cape Town was the perfect introduction to Africa for us, giving us a good taste of things to come but also allowing us to indulge in some comforts from home. I immediately loved the city and although Jon took a little longer, I think at the end he was sad to be leaving. There is so much to do and explore in and around Cape Town that we can plan another week or two just for the things we didn’t see (such as the Kirstenbosch Gardens and Lion’s Head). On top of that, we have a friend to visit so I know we won’t stay away for too long! Cape Town is already calling me back!