As in the previous post, our base camp was the Westin. From there, we started our last minute adventures. As you can imagine, you could easily spend more than five days in Cape Town and sure enough, at the end of our stay, we longed for more. Below you will find some of the activities we got ourselves into.

This is part of a broader trip report and you can find the other installments below:

• Chicago to Paris onward to Johannesburg, South Africa in Air France Business Class.
• South African Airways on inner country flights.
• 4 days on safari in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve
• A review of the Westin in Cape Town
• Exploring Cape Town
• Emirates First class from Cape Town to Dubai and onward to New York – Part One
• Emirates First Class Fun – Part Two

World Famous Table Mountain is worth the trek

The weather on and around Table Mountain can change quickly. So the advice we got: If there is a nice day, go and do it. Don’t assume you will have the opportunity later. There are two ways to see Table Mountain. You can take a cable car straight up to the top and in mere minutes. The other option is to hike all the way up along the mountain. That hike “should” take you around two hours. I say “should” as we opted to hike up and planned to take the cable car for the way down.

The views from the hike are absolutely beautiful and spectacular. However the hike up is not easy. They say its fine for beginners, but it is not. We saw plenty of people absolutely struggling and we had to take a few breaks as well. Some passages I would really describe as climbing vs hiking. Especially the last passage which has about 500 natural stairs with varying heights, gaps etc..

Once at the top, the views got even better. You could look in all directions and truly saw the beauty of Cape Town. We were surprised by how few people were at the top, but we quickly learned why. It was quite windy and they had closed the cable car. On the top they have a horn to let people know to get back and into the car. Well on the side of the mountain, we couldn’t hear it. The only way back down was to hike back where we came from. So begrudgingly, we hiked the treacherous trail back down. After finally making it down we ordered an incredibly inexpensive Uber (R60 or US$4.20) to reward ourselves with some food and drinks at the VA Waterfront.

Storied VA Waterfront

Everyone who has seen a picture of Cape Town probably has seen the Waterfront pictures. It has this cute little Cape Cod feel. However, make no mistake, it is basically one big shopping mall. You will find every designer on the planet. This was not as appealing to us and we spent more time in the local markets that were close by, set up in an old warehouse.

After our Table Mountain excursion, we found a place by the water in the harbor. Hungry and thirsty we dug in, while sitting in the sun and seeing the bustle going by. Somehow it felt like half of the tourist walking by were Germans. I didn’t realize this was such a popular destination for them.

Overall, I would say the Waterfront mall was not incredible. Yes it is part of Cape Town, but the local shops and nice restaurants in the harbor were more our thing.

12 Apostles restaurant for something special in a foodie town

Cape Town is well known for great restaurants. Of course, we needed to take advantage of that. We wanted to have a special dinner one night. I had tried to get a reservation at “The Test Kitchen,” but they were completely booked out. Even the American Express Platinum card concierge, known for their ability to get reservations at places around the world came up empty.

The concierge at the Westin suggested 12 Apostles, which is a restaurant a few miles outside of Cape Town. It is part of a hotel and sits on the edge of the 12 Apostles Mountain Range overlooking the Oudekraal Bay. A quick Uber ride for $7 got us their plenty early to enjoy a few sunset drinks on their terrace before dinner. If the view and specialty cocktails weren’t entertainment enough, I am pretty sure we had the Real Housewives of Cape Town reunion a few tables away.

We opted for a seven course tasting menu. The menu had a lot of fresh seafood and was unbelievably delicious. I wish I would have taken a pictures of the actual courses or menu. The next trips will be better picture-wise, I promise. Along with the food, we also enjoyed two bottles of a great rose-blend wine. Total cost for the whole dinner: $150.

Cage shark diving day trip and the southern-most point

This was a bucket list item for my wonderful bride. Since we knew we were going to South Africa, Great White Shark diving was number 1 on her list. This was going to be a day trip for us. We would get picked up at 7 am at the hotel and didn’t return until 10 pm at night. The actual bay from where most diving tours start is about a 3 hour drive away. On the way there you will stop by Cape Agulhas, the southern-most point in South Africa. It has a beautiful view and a few Baboons around, who enjoyed stealing food from tourists if you weren’t careful.

When we actually got to the shark diving tour, we were informed it would be another 90 min at least before we would go out on the boat. They also shared that there had not had any Great White sightings in the morning or in the last few days for that matter. Finally on board, it was a 25 min ride to our anchoring spot. With some chop in the water, more than half of the tourists on the boat got seasick. Most of them never recovered during the trip and never actually went in the water or cage. That also meant more time for us in the cage if we chose to.

The chummer started dropping fish guts and all in the water to attract some sharks. It didn’t look or smell very appetizing to me. It took over an hour before our first shark sighting. A small shark of about 5 feet swam by the boat, before anyone could even get in the cage. As a few more sharks appeared, we made our way in the cage, to at least experience it from there. People on the boat would yell out if a shark was close, so you could dive under and hopefully see them. With some murky water due to the chop it was very hard to see and I just saw some silhouettes of sharks a few times.

After a couple more hours, we were disappointed as no Great White Sharks appeared when we headed back into port.

One the way back, our spirits were lifted when we stopped by one of the penguin colonies on the coast in South Africa. This certainly put a smile back on our face seeing these little guys running around.

At the end of the day this was a disappointing experience and not sure if I would necessarily recommend it. I am sure it would have been different if we saw a Great White.

Getting around by foot or Uber

During our stay, we did quite a bit of walking to explore the city. In comparison to Johannesburg it is safe to actually walk to most places, especially in the downtown area. Whenever we needed to go a bit further we used Uber. It is very prevalent, super convenient and cheap. No ride within the city was ever more than a few bucks.

In general South Africa is currently very cheap to visit due to the strong dollar. Our dinners, drinks and especially local wine was always top notch at a very reasonable price. To give you an idea, a $20 bottle of wine at a restaurant was one of the most expensive ones.

Summary:

We absolutely loved Cape Town. While technically it was the end of winter, we had great weather. Cape Town has everything you are looking for: green spaces, city feel, waterfront and first class restaurants. The days flew by for us and were sad to leave. Next time we will also ensure to leave time to explore the wine region in Stellenbosch. This was a great relaxing end to our whirlwind Honeymoon, which had one more great thing in store for us.

Have you been to Cape Town and what has been your favorite place or activity?