South Africa - September 2014

[brissleboy]

Just booked a couple of First tickets to Cape Town next September with some Avios/2-4-1 voucher, now need some help with itinerary:

Arrive early morning on Friday 29 Aug, depart evening Tuesday 2 Sep, would have loved longer but grandparents can't keep the kids forever! That gives us roughly 4 whole days (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon) as need to be back in CPT on the Tuesday to fly home. So, we want to drive the Garden Route, drink some wine, try and see some whales, etc, can anyone offer a rough plan?

All help would be greatly appreciated!

[brissleboy]

Puggit said:

You can do the GR or CT, but not both in such a short time so it's time to decide!

CT - Robben Island, book in advance! The V&A waterfront and shopping, along with acquarium is good too.
Boulders Beach for the penguins
Cape of Good Hope - not really worth it unless you want to say you've been. It's not even the most southerly point. Beware of baboons - do not leave your windows open!!!
Drive along Chapmans Peak - one of THE roads in the world.
Visit Hout Bay and Camps Bay
Table Mountain, of course - this will dictate your other days as you have to go up when ever it's clear.
Century City/Canal Walk. Absolutely massive shopping centre.
Blouberg for the views across the bay of Table Mountain (and amazing sunsets)

Further afield:
Stellenbosch to Franschhoek for the jaw-dropping scenery, wine visits and lunch at a winery.

Garden Route places worth a visit nearer to CT: Start at Bettys Bay and pass Hermanus to Gaansbai for the shark diving

This is awesome, thanks! I realised after I posted that getting all the way along to Mossel Bay and beyond is just not realistic so that idea has now been binned and we'll leave that for another time, maybe coincide it with a safari when the kids are older.

Would love to spend a day driving out to the wine region and having lunch/tasting - feasible?
Another (long) day down to Hermanus and Gaansbai - again, feasible in a day? That's almost half the time done already...
Can explore V&A Waterfront in the evenings I guess, maybe the day we arrive to just chill out
How much time to do the Chapmans Peak Drive, Boulders Beach, Hout and Camps Bay, looks like they can all be done easily on one drive?
Obviously Table Mountain
Is Robben Island really worth doing as I imagine that would take a fair chunk of time, appreciate the historic nature of the place

Thanks mate

[brissleboy]

So, we're only a few weeks away from our trip to Cape Town now, been frantically researching what to do, where to go, places to eat, etc. Plan is as follows:

Fri 29 Aug: Arrive 09.55, transfer to hotel, weather depending do Table Mountain and V&A Waterfront, dinner at hotel that night
Sat 30 Aug: Hire car early and drive to Franschhoek, explore town and do a vineyard tour - any recommendations for this? Dinner already booked.
Sun 31 Aug: Drive from Franschhoek to Hermanus to try and see some whales, follow the R43 and R44 back to Cape Town. No dinner booked for that night, any recommendations?
Mon 1 Sep: Head towards Boulders Beach down through Constantia (lunch planned at Steenberg), not sure if we'll make it as far as Cape Point, then head back up to Cape Town via Hout Bay, Camps Bay & Chapmans Peak. Dinner booked for this night.
Tues 2 Sep: Nothing planned as yet, we fly just before 7pm, any suggestions?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, too much, not enough, etc, etc.

Cheers!

[brissleboy]

Puggit said:

Cape Point really isn't all that, apart from the lethal baboons

It's not even the southernmost point...

We'll probably give it a miss then... rest of itinerary look reasonable?

[brissleboy]

Thanks for all the tips and advice chaps, really appreciate it!

Booked a car last night, £60 for 4 days, can't really grumble at that! One thing, do we need a satnav or are the roads well signposted? I'll be driving, not the wife

Any recommendations for vineyards to visit in Franschhoek or are they more or less the same?

[brissleboy]

TEKNOPUG said:

That depends, based on the quality of the wine or the scenery. Will you be drinking? Is someone going to be driving or will you both be drinking?

On the way, I suggest you stop at Rustenberg (stunning farm in the Cape Dutch style), which is on the Franschhoek side of Stellenbosch. Rainbow's End is also on the road out of 'bosch to 'chhoek.

In Franschhoek itself, the places I like are; Maison, Moreson (good for lunch), La Bri, Rickety Bridge and Cape Chamonix (super cheap wine). That's mainly based on the quality of wine. You could also go to Anthonij Ruper/L'Omarins, which has a classic car museum. You might want to invest in a copy of Platter's Saffa Wine bible, either here or at the airport.

There is a "wine train" in Franschhoek that will take you round a lot of the farms (it's mostly a tractor pulling a trailer) if you are both drinking. That's probably easiest. You'll be in a group though and it will probably be busy but it's the easiest way of doing it and it might be more fun if there is just the two of you. Bare in mind that if you travel on your own, it's more flexible but you may run into a wine train just arriving, so may have to wait a little until it clears. Alternatively, they also do horse-back tours of the farm. Which can be fun (or awful) depending on how much you have drunk! Fortunately the horses know the way but do tend to speed up after the last farm as they know it's time to go home....

Tastings are about 50zar iirc and it could be anything between 5-9 glasses, often with something sparkling to begin with. If you buy a bottle, the tasting charge is waved. I've never paid to taste.....

Teknopug, this is awesome, thank you so much, all the information I need to know here!! We are staying at Le Quartier Francais and have a dinner reservation there in the evening so we'll only need a light lunch somewhere... I think what we'll do is stop at say Rustenberg on the way there (opens at 10am according to their website), get to Franschhoek, have a wander and a quick bite there then jump on the "wine train" for a couple of hours or so... we both like a drink so that keeps everyone happy and as you say, a little bit of company/banter is good for the soul! I'll take a look at the website... 50zar, that's rather cheap isn't it?!!

Thanks again!

[brissleboy]

Thanks so much for all the replies, I really do appreciate it, getting pretty excited now!

So, we've decided to do the 12.30 wine tram (Red Line) which stops at the following vineyards:

Mont Rochelle
La Couronne
Moreson
Leopard's Leap
Rickety Bridge
Grande Provence

It is our intention to skip the first two and get to Moreson for 13.00, have lunch then continue on... of the 3 remaining vineyards, which one should we choose? We don't want to spend all day doing this, just 3 hours or so, that will then give us time to have a wander around Franschhoek before our dinner reservation at 20.00.

[brissleboy]

TEKNOPUG said:

Different culture though. Locals aren't going to pay more and coming from England, the exchange rate works massively in your favour. Also, a lot of these farms are small, boutique places.

If you take somewhere commercial, like Arabella, you can pick up a bottle from a supermarket here for maybe £8-£10. In SA, it would cost maybe £3. If you consider something like Rustenberg "Peter Barlow" or Rickety Bridge "Paulina Reserve", these are top, top 5 star wines and will cost, say 200zar - £10-12. By the time they get here, with shipping cost and duty, they'll be nearer £30. Supermarkets etc won't stock them because of the price and the limited quantity. So you'll only find them in up-market restaurants and once they have added there profit, you are looking at £60-80-100 bottles of wine.

There are exceptions, such as Ernie Els wines, where Yanks will happily pay £100 for a bottle because "..it's Ernie's wine!" but he has very purposely marketed it at foreign tourists. Wine is also a funny business in that once you have released a wine and priced it, you can't really then hike the price up just because it's popular and people will pay more. So most of the farms are pricing for the local market. Had you gone a couple of years ago, when it was only 10-£, it would look expensive.

So yes, 50zar seems cheap but then if you take away the exchange rate benefit and consider the differences in wages and living costs (my friend bought a brand new Kia Sportage in SA, £60k!) it would be the equivalent of 200zar for tasting, if you were a local.

Exchange Rate is your friend - it's the equivalent of going to the South of France as a millionaire. For example, a day at Newlands to watch SA v Australia in the cricket, in the members stand - £7. At Lord's that would be a £100. 2 large G&T's and 3 beers - change from a tenner.


With regards to Franschhoek, the main street has a lot of good restaurants and art galleries but it's quite touristy and expensive. None of the farms you can really walk to comfortably.

This is really useful, thank you. How do you get wine back home, will they ship?

[brissleboy]

TEKNOPUG said:

Puggit said:

brissleboy said:

This is really useful, thank you. How do you get wine back home, will they ship?

I have asked in a SA winery and the cost was prohibitive. Cheaper to find it in the UK than shipping for yourself - about £100 for a case of 6, the wine was about £3 per bottle!

Yes, very much depends upon how much you want to ship. I lot of the wines are distributed via Germany, so you can get them over here for maybe twice the price. Can easily fit 3/4 bottles in a suitcase though (obviously you would need to declare then when you land.............)

Of course, being the upstanding citizen that I am