Trip to Cape Town, South Africa - March 2008
The travel blog

The Table cloth, Noon gun, beautiful beaches, ocean and mountains, Jan van Riebeeck, the infamous Robben Island, Unity in diversity, Monkeybiz, winelands, the sothern tip of Africa, cape point, the Mother city, Kaapstad - this is a trip report from the amazingly beautiful Cape Town in South Africa.

A short summary
This trip report will focus on the short trip that my wife, Nikki, and I took to Cape Town in South Africa in the period from March 14th - 18th 2008. In the city we checked out some of the attractions such as the waterfront area, Slave Lodge, Castle of good Hope, Table Mountain, a guided tour to the winelands etc. The trip report is split into sections: this page will focus on our four day stay in Cape Town and there is a separate page for eating and drinking in Cape Town, a page with more Cape Town photos and one with a review of the hotel we used (Mandela Rhodes Place). Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments. All pictures are taken by Nikki and Gard with our Canon Powershot S1 IS camera and Olympus mju 750 (and in the end even my cell phone). Click here to check out the interactive Cape Town Google map which will indicate where attractions and restaurants are located.

Prelude
Nikki and I have been to Cape Town several times before but it has been a few years back. We used to go to Cape Town when I visited Nikki when she was still living in Johannesburg. The first times I went there I was blown away by the beauty of the city and I guess it reminded me of Norway with the ocean, beaches and mountains. So during a trip to visit the family in Johannesburg, we decided that it was time to re-visit the city which is known as the mother city.

Map of South Africa. Map provided by www.worldatlas.com.

Planning the trip
We went to South Africa and Johannesburg to visit the family there and we were not sure if we would have time to go to Cape Town during our stay. But when we came to Joburg things were sorted out so we started planning the trip to Cape Town - a bit at the last minute one can say :-). But hey, as long as you have access to the internet it is possible to find information and get tickets sorted out.

There are several ways to get from Johannesburg to Cape Town. I have tried driving but the road is - well, pretty boring and it takes forever as it is 1400 km one way (about 870 miles). I have also tried taking the train and that was quite comfortable but once again it takes a bit of time (about 24 hours the last time I tried the train). So the best option in my opinion is to take the 2 hour flight. As we were quite close to time of departure the cheapest option for us was to book tickets with South African Airlines directly and we had to pay about 1880 Rand for a round trip for one person (about 260$).

Once we had the plane tickets we started looking for a hotel. But finding a hotel just a few days in advance and just before Easter was not that easy. As we have stayed at Seapoint and Green Point before we wanted to stay in the City bowl this time. We started out by checking the cheaper options (like Daddy Long legs that have gotten great reviews) but everything was fully booked. But then we came across Mandela Rhodes Place in the middle of town and we decided to go for that as the reviews on TripAdvisor were pretty good and the rooms looked nice on the hotel homepage. But we did have to pay for the luxury of course - 1750 Rand per night (including breakfast) is about 240 USD/150€ . Here is the review of the hotel.

The trip begins
So armed with plane tickets and a hotel reservation we got up at 5 am on Friday March 14th 2008 and drove to OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg. We had a rental car from Avis and luckily there were lot of signs so finding out where to return it was not a problem. It was a great thing we got there early because as we were checking in we ran into some problems due to problems caused by South African Airways. But South African Airways did fix these glitches and soon we were sitting in the SAA lounge with a great view of the runway (thanks to my SAS Eurobonus frequent flyer gold card). But we didn't have to wait long before we were on our way in a new 737-800 and the flight was only 2 hours.

Arriving in Cape Town
Flying into Cape Town is a bit strange - on the one hand you have the beautiful scenery of the mountains, the ocean and the beaches. But before we landed we were flying over some - what is the politically correct term these days? "informal settlements?" To translate this it means huge areas of people living in shacks. This shows some of the contrasts of South Africa today.

After picking up the suitcases we headed outside to find a taxi. We asked an airport official and he pointed us to a taxi stand and once we came there a young lady asked us to follow her. Maybe we should have questioned that but there was lots of construction work going on at the airport so we figured that the taxis were lined up somewhere else. We followed the lady until we came to the car they called a taxi. The car was not in great shape but we were not really keen on dragging the suitcases back again to the taxi stand so we agreed to go for it. In retrospect I don’t think we should have done it as the car was in really bad shape. But we arrived alive at Mandela Rhodes Place in the middle of town for 200 Rand (about 27 USD). I hope that this airport can get organised so that it is not that easy for false taxis to get customers at the airport. This is the second time in a year I have been “tricked” by airport taxi service - and I thought I was a seasoned traveller *grin*

One funny observation: When I went to Cape Town many years ago I saw a highway bridge in the middle of town that ended in mid air. I figured that they were not finished with the road construction but I was quite surprised when I came back to Cape Town this time and it is still there - and it is still not completed. According to a taxi driver we had it was caused by bad planning and some real estate issues :-)

A bit of history about Cape Town
I normally leave this to the guidebooks but in order to understand some of the attractions of Cape Town you need to know a bit of the history - but I’ll try to make it as short as possible. You should however read up about the history as it will give you a better understanding of some of the sights.

The whole thing started basically with wars in Europe that stopped the trade routes from Europe to Asia. To get around the problem they searched for a sea-route around Africa to get to Asia. The Portuguese were the first ones to succeed but they met a lot of resistance when they landed in South Africa so they never did follow it up. But in 1652 Jan van Riebeeck landed in Cape Town to establish a garden for the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC as it is commonly known). They claim that VOC was the first multi-national company and the first with a trademark logo. They were big in the trading business and they soon disovered that the route to Asia was so long that they needed a place along the way that could provide the sailors with clean water and food. So Mr. Riebeeck came to setup the gardens, not to occupy territory.

But over the years Europeans settled here, the French Huguenots came here (and improved the wine making), slaves were brought in from around the world, Asians came here (and that explains the Muslim community). But this Dutch colony did not last forever - due to things that were happening back in Europe the British came and took over that again lead to a lot of the Dutch community moving north in the great trek and created some of the free states there. Later on came the Boer war, Apartheid but I think I will leave it at that.

Slave lodge
The first thing we did was to walk over to the Slave lodge as it was close to our hotel. The Slave lodge was build by the VOC in 1679 as they had to bring it slaves to work in the area. As far as I understand the VOC preferred to bring in slaves as they didn’t want to ruin their relationship with the local Khoikhoi (also referred to as Hottentots) as they were trading with them. We paid the 15 Rand entrée fee per person and went in and we toured the museum on our own. As always it is very sad to see/read about slaves and how they were treated. The VOC had to create lots of rules to keep the slaves under control as there were far more slaves than VOC people after a while. So the slaves suffered as they were brought there and when they were kept in the Cape Town area. But even if it is uncomfortable to visit a place like this, it is important to get the knowledge. Read more about the Slave Lodge on the museum homepage.

The Company’s Garden
After our visit to the Slave Lodge we took a short walk to the Company’s Garden. The Company’s Garden is what is left of the garden that VOC created and today it is a peaceful park in the middle of Cape Town. It was nice to walk around after the visit to the lodge to let the impressions sink in. The park turned out to be filled with various birds and some very tame squirrels. But not all the visitors in the Garden seemed to enjoy this close encounter (as you can see on the photo on the left hand side). As we walked further into the park we got a lovely view of Table Mountain and the legendary “table cloth”

When Nikki and I went to Cape Town a few years ago, we went to the planetarium located in Company’s Garden. It is still one of the best planetariums I have been to - not because of the technology as it felt a bit run down at the time, but because the presenter did a great job explaining the universe for us :-) So check that out if you have a few days in Cape Town. You can read more about the planetarium on the official Iziko homepage.

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
The Victoria & Alfred waterfront area is a lovely area just outside the city bowl. Here they have changed the old harbour area into a great mixture of shops, restaurants, hotels, museums etc. The last time we went to Cape Town we did spend a lot of time in this area but as we stayed in the City Bowl this time, we did not spend that much time there this time. But it is pretty easy to get there – we walked over there in about 40 minutes. One day we took the local bus from the train station area and it cost only 3 Rand per person.

The day we took the bus I was wearing a Napapijri t-shirt. I like this brand as they have a Norwegian flag as their logo. Anyway, as we were waiting for the bus a guy came over to me to ask if I could give him any money and I had to say “sorry, I don’t have any”. It was actually the truth as Nikki normally takes care of the money when we travel. But he was like “Come on, you must have something”. So I digged deeper into my pocket and I found a 5 cent coin - the guy did not look very impressed when I gave it to him. Just a few seconds later another guy came up to ask me for money and again I had to tell him that I didn’t have any. An older guy had seen all this and he just said to Nikki and myself “don’t give them any money, the only use it on drugs”.

Back to the V&A waterfront area. It only takes 5-10 minutes on the bus to get to V&A from the city bowl. We walked around there for a while, looked at the seals enjoying the sun, the boats coming in etc. We also stopped by Nelson Mandela gateway where you can get out to Robben Island. This is where ex-president Nelson Mandela was kept from 1964 to 1982 under the prisoner number 46664. I took a trip to Robben Island a few years back and it was a moving experience as we had a former prisoner as our tour guide. When you have a guide that has actually been in the prison it gives a whole different perspective on things. When we stopped by Nelson Mandela Gateway this time I went in to ask for the ticket price and the woman behind the counter said the price - and then she added that the next available ticket was in 10 days!! So be sure to book a ticket before you come to Cape Town if you want to check out Robben Island.

One of our most frustrating tasks on this trip to South Africa was trying to get VAT (Value Added Tax) back. We had read that there is an office at the V&A waterfront area where we could go to get VAT back. When we came there we were asked if we had all the papers with us and we were like “What papers?”. It turned out that we had to bring passport, the papers showing when you have a ticket out of South Africa and of course the stuff that you have bought. So be sure to bring all the papers but note that you don’t get the money here. This is just something to make the paperwork at the airport faster. But it is worth it in the end as you get 14% back. As we were leaving South Africa at OR Tambo we went to the VAT office to get the money back and a Spanish guy was in front of us. Obviously he had not done everything according to the rules because the guy in the office had to turn him down. And the Spanish guy got furious and started shouting “You always rip me of” etc. In the end they started exchanging useful arguments like “F**k you!”. It was out of line by the Spanish guy but it was even worse when the VAT employee replied in the same manner. So if you want you VAT back read the rules :-)

Weather of Cape Town
I often get questions about how the weather is at certain times of the year in the various cities that I have been to. In my opinion the best option is to check http://www.weatherbase.com for weather stats and check the weather forecast just before you go. When we were in Cape Town we had extremely windy weather in the first few days but it was still nice and warm in the day time. After the first couple of days the wind disappeared and we were left with blue skies and warm weather (about 25 to 30 degrees Celsius).

Bo-kaap area
The Bo-Kaap area is the Cape Malay area of Cape Town. Located in the slopes of Signal Hill, the most stunning feature of this area is the color of some of the houses. We started out at the Bo-Kaap museum and we actually walked past it the first time without even noticing it. When we started looking for it we found it but it was tiny, not well signed and a homeless person sleeping on the outside. We rang the door bell to get in and it was soon opened by one of the museum employees. The entrance is free and I guess that means that you can’t say “It wasn’t worth it”. The museum is tiny and does not have that much info so it is better to read up about the Cape Malay community in advance and use the time to walk around the Bo-Kaap area. The houses are painted in bright yellow, blue and green and are quite a contrast to the blue skies and Table Mountain in the background. We decided to walk all the way up to the Noon Gun Café located more or less at the top of Longmarket Street. It is uphill (to say the least) but once you get up there you get a lovely view of the City Bowl and the waterfront area. This small, family run restaurant is serving Cape-Malay style food and we went for some curry and for dessert we had koeksister. This is a typical Cape-Malay dessert and it is a sort of doughnut as it is deep-fried and covered in some sort of syrup.

We also stopped by a Monkey biz store in the Bo-Kaap area. Monkey biz is a non-profit organisation that pays women in the townships to make various products out of beads. So if you want to make sure that the money goes back to the community I think it is safe to shop at a Monkey biz store.

Walking tour of Cape Town – in the footsteps of the VOC
We stopped by the tourist information office in Cape Town and we came across a brochure of Walking tours. We decided to go for a company called Footsteps to Freedom and we decided to go for the walk called “In the footsteps of the VOC (ref my short history lesson earlier on). At 2 pm we went to Castle of good hope and met up with our guide Carline. It turned out that Nikki and I were the only participants that day so we had Carline all to our self. We were taken a bit of guard when Carline basically started the session by telling about her “white” upbringing, her feelings about apartheid etc. I don’t know if she does this for all participants or if she did a special twist for us as Nikki is South African. But it was very nice of her to open up like this right away and we came of to a good start and Carline did a great job taking us around Cape Town. We started out by walking around Castle of good hope - the fortress that was vital to the protection of Cape Town. Carline took us around, pointed out where they think Jan van Riebeeck landed, explained why one of the streets nearby is called Strand etc. Information was just pouring out of her as we walked around :-) From the castle we walked over to Grand Parade, Groote Kerk, the Company’s Garden and Greenmarket Square. After about 3 hours it was time to end the tour but if you are in Cape Town this is a tour that I highly recommend. And if you run into Carline send her our regards :-)
 

A road trip around the peninsula
It is pretty easy to get around Cape Town with taxi/bus but if you want to see the rest of the peninsula it can be useful with a car. We decide to rent a car for a day and as there was an Avis car rental place on Strand road we decided to go for that. The car was about 280 Rand (37$) for one day. We were not really impressed with the service at Avis but we did get a nice Toyota Yaris in the end and we drove of early in the morning. We started out by driving to the Table Mountain cable car station to see if we could check out the top of the mountain - but in the morning it was chaotic there. So we gave up and drove out of town. After a short stop in Camps Bay we drove M6 out of town and we were not the only one out on a Sunday drive. This road out of town is picturesque and we met people in convertibles, on motorcycles etc. They were just out cruising in the perfect weather. We had a short stop in Hout Bay where we walked around on Fisherman’s Warf. This is where you can take boat trips to Seal island. We did get to see a seal as there was a guy with a HUGE seal at the harbour.

The M6 road was beautiful to start with and it got even better when we continued further on. The next section is called Chapman’s Peak drive and here you drive on a road that is carved out of the mountain side. The views are great and you get a beautiful view to Hout Bay.

We continued to Simon’s Town and I guess we picked the wrong day for a drive. As we came towards the city there was a big traffic jam and it turned out that we had picked the weekend of when the South African navy had an open house. The navy has a base in Simon’s town and each year they open the doors so that families can come and take a look at the boats, submarines etc. We joined in on the festivities of course and walked around on the base for a while. But the main reason for stopping by Simon’s town was to check out the penguins at Boulder beach. So you though penguins only lived on the South Pole?? Well, think again :-) I’m not sure if there are penguins all over South Africa but there is a colony of Jackass penguins in Simons Town. It was great fun to look at these strange creatures trying to walk and jump around on the boulders on the beach. A few kids were chasing them but the penguins got away when they jumped into the ocean. But seeing a penguin on a nice sandy beach where kids are swimming doesn’t seem right. I also associate penguins with cold water, ice and the Antarctica.

But the main goal for the day was to visit the Cape point. This is not the most southern point in Africa but it sure feels like it when you are there :-) We drove into the National Park and I think we had to pay about 55 Rand for the entrance to the park. At the Cape point you have to option of walking to the top or taking the small “train”. We were in a lazy mode so we went for the train and it comes 37 Rand per person if I’m not mistaken. At the top you get a great view of the peninsula behind you and the open ocean in front of you.

The trip back to Cape Town took forever. We drove back when the SA Naval weekend ended in Simon’s Town so we were stuck in traffic for hours. We ended up taking Chapman’s Peak drive back again and the sun was about to set in the ocean. It was just beautiful.

Tour of the winelands with Arn
When we went to Cape Town a few years back we took a guided tour to the winelands. But the “problem” at the time was that we were not really into wine so we didn’t really get much out of it. But over the years we have started to enjoy wine and hence we decided to go for another tour of the winelands. We went for the company Hylton Ross and we had to pay 590 Rand (about 75 USD) per person for a full day guided tour. We were picked up at 08.45 am at the hotel in a nice new mini-bus and our guide was Arn. I was a bit puzzled by the name as it is not a very common name amongst white South Africans. So we were joking that he looked more like a Scandinavian with his name and big beard :-) As we were driving out of Cape Town Arn used the opportunity to go through the South African history. But he also included a lot about himself and his history seen in perspective with the recent South African history. He was joking about Scandinavians and said “Ok, just listen to my history lesson first and then you can get drunk later on” :-) I guess we have a certain reputation.

Our first stop this day was at Nelson’s Creek outside Paarl. When we came out of the bus I got flashbacks to Tuscany from last year: it was hot, the landscape was beautiful and there were wine ranks all around. We got a short tour of the estate with Victor and we got to taste 5 different wines and Victor tried to teach us how it should be done. We continued towards Franschhoek and drove passed the place where Nelson Mandela was released from prison (he was not kept at Robben Island at the end) but unfortunately this is where my camera gave up. I’m going to miss my Canon Powershot IS S1 but I hope that my Canon EOS 450D will be able to replace it :-)

We had lunch at La Courronne outside Franschhoek. The lunch was optional and hence not included in the price. Once again we got to taste 5 different wines before we had lunch in the garden. I went for the bobotie - a typical South African dish. One of the girls working at the Estate had gold decoration glued to her front teeth and it was beautiful. She had had in for years without any problems. I wonder when that trend will come to Norway :-) We drove over to Stellenbosch where we had half an hour to walk around town. The town is named after Simon van der Stel, one of the governors of the Cape colony. Bosch means forest so it basically “Stel’s forest”. Anyway, it is a beautiful little town to walk around in and you can read more about it on this page. Our last stop was at Spier Wine Estate and once again we got to taste 5 different wines and at this place we also had the option of paying 80 Rand to pet a cheetah. The wine in South Africa is so cheap! I looked at one price list and I found it a bit expensive (even for Norwegian standards) but then the girl behind the counter informed me that it was the price for a box of 12 bottles!! I was tempted to buy a box but the price for transporting it to Norway would be a lot more than the value of the wine itself. If you are into wine you should do a tour of the winelands right outside Cape Town. Arn and Hylton Ross did a great job with the touring during this day and I especially enjoy Arn’s summary of South African history. It made it much clearer to me.

To the top of the world – Table Mountain
One of the highlights is going to the top of Table Mountain. Standing at about 1000 meter (about 3300 feet) it really sticks out in the city together with the other peaks Lion’s Head and Signal Hill - I’ll get back to those later on. We took a cab one day to get to the cable car station at the foot of Table Mountain and it cost us about 80-90 Rand from the Waterfront area. As it is one of the most popular attractions in Cape Town we had to line up for a while. They have put up shade over most of the line but a woman did collapse in the bright sun so be sure to have something cold to drink when you line up.

We reached the ticket office eventually and we had to paid 130 Rand (about 17 $) per person for the cable car. The cable car rotates on the way up and that is quite clever as everybody gets a view. From time to time they fill water into tanks in the cable cars for stabilizing purposes and it is also used for transporting water to the top – clever. The cable car starts at about 300 meter and when you reach the top you are about 1000 meter above sea level.

At this point of our stay my camera had stopped working altogether and the battery in Nikki’s camera was out of juice. So the pictures taken from the Table Mountain area are taken with my cell phone. When we reached the top I was quite surprised to find that there was hardly any wind there. When I have been there in the past I have been “blown away”. We walked around the top for a while, enjoyed the amazing view of the city bowl, of Camps Bay and the view of quite a lot of lizards. At the top there is a coffee shop, toilets etc so you can find a place to hide if the weather is acting up.

At the top you also get a good view to the peaks known as Lion’s Head and Signal Hill (or Lion’s rump). If you have the time and enery I can recommend the trek to the top of Lion’s head. The path leading up there goes around the peak on the way up so you get a lovely view to the entire area. I didn’t think it was a problem making it to the top as it was a fairly easy hike - but then again I have been told that you should never trust a Norwegian when it comes to hiking and distances (“it is just around the corner” is a common phrase). The view from Signal Hill is also quite nice and if you get there about noon you might hear the Noon gun.

Is it safe?
To quote Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man “Is it safe?” Safety is not a laughing matter and it is sad to say that South Africa has a bad reputation when it comes to crime and safety. When I went there the first time I felt quite relived to get out of Johannesburg as Cape Town felt a lot more open and safe. I don’t know if this is the case but we did at least not experience anything bad during our stay. We walked around the city bowl both in the day and the night. According to our guide Carline the conditions in the downtown area have improved a lot after they put up cameras everywhere around town to keep an eye on everything. So as long as you take your normal precautions you should be safe.

Time to go home to Joburg
On Tuesday March 18th 2008 it was time for us to head back to Johannesburg. In the afternoon we took a taxi to the airport (it cost 180 Rand) and this time we got an official taxi :-) They are upgrading the airport and I assume it is connection with the soccer World Cup in 2010. According to the taxi driver they are working on building a airport express train in order to transport people faster into town but will it be done before the World Cup in 2010?

We checked in and ended up in the South African lounge in the airport and I got on the internet on one of the PC’s. All of a sudden a woman came over to me and asked me if I was Norwegian - in Norwegian. I had to confirm this of course and it turned out that she was a South African girl who had studied in Norway for a couple of years and she had learned to speak Norwegian. She had even been to my hometown Stavanger - how cool is that?

Conclusion
I have lots of feelings to Cape Town as I spent some of the first moments alone with Nikki here. And the city also reminds me a lot of home with the mountains, the ocean and the beaches. Coming back to a place that you have feelings about can be a bit of a let-down as you can have exaggerated how great it really is in your own mind. But I would still like to rate Cape Town as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it is absolutely worth a visit. You can find an amazing combination of spectacular scenery, beautiful winelands within an hour drive and you can drive to what feels like the end of the world (Cape Point). The city has an interesting history and some of it can be very disturbing but it is important to learn from the errors made in the past. And if you are a foodie you can find a great selection of nice restaurants that offers food and wine at affordable price - I shall give you some details about this in the next section of the trip report. Bottom line: don’t miss out on Cape Town if you have the chance!

I hope that you found this trip report useful please give me feedback if I have made mistakes or if you just have comments or questions. I can be reached on gardkarlsen@hotmail.com. If you would like to print this report you should try this PDF file for a better result.

Some “useful” tips
So what do you need to bring to Cape Town? And how do you plan a trip to Cape Town? Here are some useful tips:

• Wondering if it will rain in Cape Town? Check out weatherbase to get some weather stats so you know what to expect.

• A good guidebook: yes, you can find a lot of useful info on the internet. But get a good guidebook with a comprehensive street map. Which one to buy is up to you :-)

• Which forums to ask questions: Try TripAdvisor, Fodor’s, SlowTalk, Frommer’s and Travelers to Go!

• Are you bringing a laptop? We did and it was great to use this to check out attractions and opening times, maps etc.

• Do you wonder how far it is from one place to another in Cape Town? Why not use Google Earth/Google Maps to measure? I find this to be a great tool.

• Here is an interactive Google map where I have highlighted some of the places that we went to.

Feel free to check out the next section of this trip report: the interactive Google map Cape Town, more photos from Cape Town and a review of our hotel Mandela Rhodes Place.