South Africa
Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Kruger National Park and Johannesburg
Our 10 Day Itinerary
South Africa, due to it's tumultuous history, and varied natural landscape, has been a destination sought after by many visitors. With its beautiful coastlines, diverse flora and fauna, and modern feel, it's hard to believe that apartheid is in a not so distant past, with the first fair election vote only happening as recent as 1993. You can still see major differences in classes of living as you drive around, from stately mansions to shanty-town corrugated roof housing. South Africa is surely still improving and growing as we speak.
Fly Denver to Newark, Newark to Johannesburg, onward to Cape Town
Cape of Good Hope scenic drive, Boulders beach, Chapman's Peak
Robben Island tour, Waterfront, Oranjezicht City Farm Market, Bo-Kaap
Lion's Head Hike, Table Mountain
Wine Tasting
Wine Tasting
Flight to HDS airport, transfer to safari lodge, game drive
Full Day safari lodge and game drives
Flight to JNB and dinner in the city
Sight seeing in Johannesburg, evening flight home
Day 1 & 2: Travel from home to South Africa
On this journey, we found the best roundtrip tickets from the Newark area to South Africa. Unfortunately, we missed the very best which was round trip Newark to Johannesburg, but realized that we could book a return to Toronto instead and still save a bit. Since we usually like to travel business class on long haul flights, sometimes saving a bit can mean a couple thousand $. We booked a separate ticket from Denver to Newark, and Toronto to Denver. Although a bit risky, we try to leave a bigger buffer of time when booking a separate ticket.
The flight from Denver was smooth and no issues. We spent some time in the Newark United Polaris lounge before boarding our long 15 hour flight. We ended up being delayed on the runway for almost an hour, making us a little worried about our short layover in Johannesburg for our flight to Cape Town. In 15 hours, you can do a lot of things including watching 2-3 movies, eating dinner and breakfast and getting a long sleep on the United Polaris lay flat beds. By the time we landed in J'Burg we were rested and ready. We were nearly first off the plane and walking fast down many long hallways leading to immigration and customs. We lucked out that the lines were very short and soon were on our way with another long walk to the Terminal B domestic check in counters. Our Air Safair line was also short and we checked in and were able to keep our bags with us. Another short line in security and soon we have almost too much time before boarding. After a quick 2 hour flight, we landed in Cape Town where we picked up our rental car and drove to our Airbnb in the Camps Bay area. By then it was after 11pm. Our rental apartment seemed very nice, but we were hungry so we drove a few streets over to find food. After striking out (too late), we drove up the coast a bit and happened to see a food hall style place that looked open. We had a burger and chicken sandwich with fries and a beer and then headed back to get some sleep.
Back to Top
Day 3: Drive the Cape
After a short night sleep, we each had varying degrees of jetlag but needed to push through. Bryan got up early and got a few breakfast items from a nearby grocery, allowing us to save time by eating at the apartment overlooking Camps Bay beach. We reviewed our plan for the day and set out in the car headed for Muizenberg Beach. Along the way, we passed a larger grocery store and decided to stop in. Visiting a grocery store in a foreign country is something we really enjoy doing, if possible. This store was surprisingly modern and very close to what you might find in the US.
The Muizenberg beach has colorful changing huts, freshly painted in South African colors of yellow, red, blue and green, that stand out against the white powdery sand beach and ocean beyond. We enjoyed a stroll on the beach taking in the huts and testing the icy cold water. From there, we continued down the coast and stopped in Simon's Town for lunch. We found a quaint restaurant called the Lighthouse Cafe and had a delicious meal of mussels and fresh fish with some South African white wine, at only $35 total including tip, this was a steal! It was a short drive from lunch to Boulder's Beach, the famous home of the Cape's endangered African penguins. With former populations in the millions, these penguins only number in the 10,000's currently. Part of the South African National Parks system, we paid entry to the beach and soon came across our first penguin. The part of the beach (further south) that we entered had fewer penguins but crystal clear water with large boulders all around. We made our way through the boulders and came across so many penguins hiding in the nooks and crannies. They seemed very comfortable with humans and even may have been posing for some photos. We spent some time taking photos and enjoying the penguins very close up, and then walked on a path where you could view hundreds of them from a viewing platform above the beach. Running later on time than we had planned, we headed straight for the Table Mountain National Park / Cape Point entrance. Entrance was R800, or about $45 for two of us. We entered just before 5pm and were told the exit time based on sunset was 6:50pm today. We had to be quick! We drove straight to Cape Point where we took the funicular up for around $4.50 ea to save time. The lighthouse at the top is perched over a cliff with a fantastic view and we spent some time taking pictures and flying the drone before heading back down. We had just enough time to drive over to the Cape of Good Hope, which is not the most Southern point but is the most South-Westerly Point in Africa. The most Southern point happens to be about a 3 hours drive. In the park, we were amazed at the number of wild animals we saw, including a zebra, large antelope, ostriches, sea lions, and a warthog looking pig. The sun was setting and it was time to exit, so we drove out and back to Camps Bay where we enjoyed a fresh pick-your-own fish and prawns dinner (plus conveyor belt sushi!?) at The Codfather restaurant for only $50, again well worth it.
Back to Top
Day 4: Cape Town Market, Robben Island, Bo Kaap
This morning we went to the Cape Town Oranjezicht Farmers Market, which is only open on Saturday and Sunday mornings from around 9am - 2pm. It is located near the waterfront, where we needed to board our boat for the Robben Island tour. The market was crowded with many food vendors which was perfect since we were counting on eating breakfast and getting coffee there. It was hard to choose but we ended up going with an avocado toast with eggs and smoked salmon plus coffees and fresh squeezed juice. Everything only cost a few dollars each. The market vendors were also selling fresh flowers, produce and some handicrafts.
After breakfast, we walked over to the dock where the Robben Island ferry was located. We had prepurchased our tickets to Robben Island online and they were quite expensive in comparison with everything else in South Africa, at roughly $30pp. Having just finished reading Nelson Mandela's book A Long Walk to Freedom, it was surreal to then visit the place that he was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in captivity. First, there was a bus tour of the island. We got to see the limestone quarry that the prisoners were made to mine for many years. Our bus guide was fantastic and very entertaining. Next, we were given a tour of the prison cell area by a former inmate who spent 7 years on the island. His story was fascinating. Luckily for him, all political prisoners were given their freedom after Nelson Mandela negotiated with the government, with the beginning of the end of apartheid and releasing prisoners in 1990. We boarded the ferry back and found the water to be much rougher. After a quick nap, we landed in Cape Town once more. It was after 2pm by then and we were hungry for lunch. We found a fresh pasta restaurant, Scala, on Google maps and made the 25 minute walk there. We sampled a few delicious appetizers and several pastas with some wine, all for around $50. The restaurant was close by to our next destination, the Bo Kaap neighborhood. The Bo Kaap neighborhood is one of the oldest Cape Town neighborhoods and is known for its brightly painted homes and cobblestone streets. We spent some time wandering the streets and taking pictures of the houses along with views of Table Mountain behind. From there we headed back to the waterfront area. Along the way, we stopped at a small bar where we met an interesting local fellow. You'll have to ask us to tell you the story of what ended up happening with this guy, but it was a travel lesson / reminder for sure. Back at the waterfront shopping district, it was a very lively scene with entertainers, music and a lot of people. We found a seafood and oyster restaurant and decided to have a few things for dinner. We ordered a dozen oysters but kind of wished we hadn't because they were HUGE. Some of the biggest oysters ever, and not completely enjoyable to have them so big. We also had the mussels and some salmon sashimi with a local red wine. Again, everything including tip was $60 or less. We drove back and called it a night, our last night in Camps Bay.
Back to Top
Day 5: Lion's Head Hike and Wine Country
With today being our last partial day in Cape Town, we wanted to get some hiking in and enjoy more of the views from Lions Head and Table Mountain. We packed up and checked out of our Airbnb and went to the local coffee shop for lattes, juice and avocado toast with eggs, all for $20 including tip. The weather was much cooler and really windy today, but we figured hiking would still be a good option. We drove to the nearby Lion's Head trail. According to AllTrails, this was 2.8mi RT with 1142ft elevation gain. From the looks of it, it seemed impossible that the trail could go to the top of this rocky cliff.
When parking our car, the parking attendant made sure to let us know that he was going to be keeping our car safe. There are people working all over the city trying to direct parking or help you in some way, we are not sure if they are officially employed by the city or if they are just taking advantage of the situation. But, in this case, we were happy to plan on providing a tip for him to keep our car safe at the trailhead. It was extremely windy at the car, but as soon as we headed up the trail, it was only on and off wind gusts. We noticed that the Table Mountain tram station was across from us but we didn't see any cable cars running the entire time. We assumed that our trip up Table Mountain would not be happening today because of the very strong wind gusts, as they are known to close the cable cars for that very reason. The hike up Lion's Head starts as a steep wide path which then turned in to stairs, followed by more and more rock climbing. There was a sign for using the ladders, chains and staples (small rungs imbedded in the rock) at our own risk. We continued up and up until we finally reached the summit. The trail is unique because it wraps around and around the small mountain, providing you with views of all sides of Cape Town. The 360 degree view from the top was definitey worth the effort. We made our way back down very carefully and opted to start our drive over to wine country, since we still had not seen any Table Mountain cable cars running. It was roughly an hour drive to our wine country hotel at the MolenVliet Vineyard. When we were nearing the town, we started seeing a lot of vineyards offering wine tastings. We decided to stop at Niel Ellis winery and we had a tasting that included 2 whites and 3 reds, with a charcuterie board and sparkling water. Everything was excellent! We inquired about shipping wine to the US, but unfortunately they were not set up to do that. We opted to purchase 1 bottle instead, and were suprised when they told us the tastings would then be complimentary. Walking out with a bottle of wine, having had 2 tastings of 5 wines with our charcuterie board for only $40 total was a much different experience! We headed over to our hotel and checked in to our amazing mountain view room with private hot tub pool. Dinner was at Asta Italian restaurant (Italian and sushi seem to be most popular here), where we shared a bruschetta, mussels, and penne in vodka sauce.
Back to Top
Day 6-7: Stellenbosch Wine Country
In our two days in Stellenbosch, we ended up tasting at about 5 wineries, all of which we greatly enjoyed. From our winery / hotel we found many places to be within only a few minutes drive, all within this amazing valley and equally good views. We found most of the wineries here to be set up very similar to California style tastings, but a lot less expensive. For example, you can get a 4-6 wine tasting here for anywhere between $7-15 and they often will compliment the tasting with a purchase of a bottle of wine.
Since we didn't have much room for checked luggage on this trip, we had to forgo a few purchases, where we would rather have been able to send something back. We inquired at a place or two but no shipping to the US. Our first stop was almost directly across the road at ZorgVliet. We had a tasting of about 5 wines. It was an ideal country setting including a pony grazing on the grounds. A great introduction to South African wines. Next, we went to Themela, where we tasted wines from Themela and their sister property Sutherland. For only about $8 we tasted 6 wines and sat outside in the beautiful patio setting. Our wine pourer suggested a few restaurants for us to try in Stellenbosch, so afterward, we went to De Warenmarkt, which had a varied menu of anything from sandwiches to fine steaks. After breakfast at the hotel on our second day, we showed up to Oldenburg Vineyards, which apparently many people had a reservation for, and luckily they were able to squeeze us in. In another ideallic setting, we sat down to what we were told would be an hour and a half tasting session. To our surprise, this also included some fresh cheese, crackers and olives paired with our wine tasting of 8-ish wines. It was hard to keep track, because our wine sommelier "P" kept offering us off menu tastings as well. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they were able to ship to the US, so we ordered a case to be sent home. We found this winery to be our favorite of the 5 we were to taste. Second stop of the day was Rainbow's End, literarlly right around the corner from the first place. We were only one of two couples there and enjoyed a 5 wine tasting along with some meats, cheeses, bread and figs. The view was fantastic but we would still recommend our first stop for a more upper class and experienced tasting in general. Back at the hotel, we enjoyed the sunset and found some local dinner before calling it an early night before our flight to Kruger National Park area tomorrow morning.
Back to Top
Day 8: Travel to Kruger National Park area
We had to leave the hotel fairly early this morning for our 9:30am flight from Cape Town to Hoedspruit. It was a good thing we left early because there ended up being a LOT of traffic. People were out and about walking, biking, driving and taking the bus to work or school. We were stuck in stop and go traffic for much of our drive, making us a bit worried about time. Luckily, Cape Town airport was smooth and not crowded, and we didn't have any issues dropping off the car, checking bags and getting through security with plenty of time. We were flying on a small local airline CemAir to one of the closest airports near Kruger National Park.
On landing there, it felt like we were going to walk off into the bush right from the plane. We were the only plane there and the airport was very small. After collecting our bags, we met our driver, who would take us to Beck's Safari Lodge located on a private game reserve about 50 minutes drive. The drive took us down one main road where there were many fruit trees, mango and lemon, on either side. We passed a few trucks carrying a full load of underripe mangos that our driveer said were to be made into a sauce. At other times, the road was lined with a fence leading to other private game reserves. We had the chance to stop and see a coalition of cheetahs very near the fence, as well as a few giraffes before turning in to our lodge gate. After being introduced to the lodge and seeing our room, we had lunch on the deck, overlooking a small river. It is the very end of the dry season here and so not much water is running. We saw a few kudu antelopes grazing, and the warthogs were enjoying grazing next to the pool. Soon it was time for our first game drive, which would last from roughtly 4pm-7pm. We had only 2 other couples on the vehicle with us, so plenty of room, plus one driver and one game spotter. We drove around seeing a few different types of antelope, eagles, and heard news of an animal sighting over the radio. We tried a few times at a watering hole but then were lucky enough to drive to the other side and there was a leaopard walking only a few meters from the car. We followed it and circled back until it crossed the road right in front of us. You could even hear it kind of growl, which seemed a bit close. Next, we drove closer to the road and there were the same 3 cheetahs all resting with full bellies. We were surprised to find out that we could get out of the vehicle with another group and walked over to stand only about 20 feet from the 3 cheetahs. They didn't seem worried about the people at all and continued to rest even rolled over a few times. We joked that all we needed now to round out the cats were lions. We thought we were driving over to have our sunset drinks, when all of a sudden we pulled up to a river bed and across the way were 5 lions! The rest of the people in the group had seen the same lions feasting on a recent catch earlier in the morning, so now they were all busy sleeping and basking in the warm sand. Truly amazing to see all of the big cats in one drive! We finished the night with dinner on the deck and will be ready to get up very early tomorrow morning when they wake us before the 5:30am game drive!
Back to Top
Day 9: Safari Day!
Morning came too soon, and knowing you need to be up by 5am never helps. We were up 10 minutes before the knock on our door at 5am. There was coffee, tea and juice and it was already light out by the time we left for safari at 5:30am. The goal today was to see elephants, since they tended to be further away and harder to locate. We headed off driving for a long time, and finally came across another group, and they were looking at a crash of rhinos (a group of rhinos is called a crash)! It was very special to see the rhinos up so close. They didn't seem to be bothered about the vehicles and just went about their business. After that we drove around for about an hour looking for the elephants! Finally our searching paid off are we came upon a group of about 10 elephants.
They were a herd of all ages and sizes, and they were marching through the trees at a relatively fast pace. We stopped and they walked right in front of us, breaking down a few trees to eat. We had never seen elephants do that and it was really dramatic. They crashed a tree down right in the road in front of us and started eating it. Later, our guides had to move the tree out of the way. Back on the road, we headed back for the lodge, wondering if we could see buffalo to complete our Big 5 sighting of Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard, Lion and Rhino. Sure enough, we soon came across a herd of 30+ buffalo just migrating and eating as they went. Again, very close to the vehicle. After our coffee break, we headed back to the lodge and along the way spotted a dazzle of zebras, a lone very tall giraffe policing the road, and then a surprise female cheetah on the hunt. We think we may have scared off her prey, but she still posed for a few pictures anyway. Back at the lodge, we had a good breakfast before going on our personal "walking" tour in the bush. Don't worry, we had a specially trained armed guide with us, and we didn't really walk far at all. Our two guides explained many things about traditional African medicinal uses for plants, trees, and even the elephant dung. Apparenly elephant dung can be used for a number of things including ingesting to reduce intestinal issues. We learned why some plants are left alone by the animals, and how others such as giraffes have adapted to eating the thorny plants. It was a very hot day by then, with today's temp reaching 95F, so we returned to the room and had a nice nap in the AC. After a light lunch, we had our afternoon safari drive at 4pm. The day had been super hot, and it seemed like the animals were harder to find. We managed to find a family of lions that was feeding on a fresh kill in the river bed, but they were very hard to see. We saw a few monkeys, the typical variety of antelope, and a mama and baby Cape buffalo. After a lot of driving around, it was time for our sundowner drinks by the reservior. A large family of hippos (about 8-10) call the reservior home. They were eyeing us from the water while we had our drinks and watched the sun set. We had our final dinner back at the lodge, and enjoyed getting to know our new friends a bit better. It was interesting to learn a bit more from them about modern South Africa and some of the struggles that still exist.
Back to Top
Day 10: Safari and Travel to Johannesburg
Another early 5am wake up and off to our last game drive of our stay. This morning was not quite as cold as yesterday and we didn't need to use the provided blankets in the vehicle. We drove off in different direction than previouly. The preserve is indeed quite large, when we asked our driver, he said it was roughly 7,000 Hectacres, or 70 square kilometers! You could tell the drivers were communicating but we were not sure what they were looking for. They like to use code words, or speak in another language, to keep us from knowing just in case we never find what they are looking for. After a lot of searching, some other vehicles located a leopard that was off in the distance. It was fairly hard to see, and then got up and moved away into the trees.
More searching by the safari teams and we located a male lion who was resting along in a large river bed with a grassy middle. Most of the river beds are extremely dry right now because we are at the very end of the dry season. Supposedly, the rains will start coming within the next couple weeks or so and everything will burst into green. Right now a lot of the trees are just starting to produce leaves. The male lion walked through the grassy area for a while and we were able to follow him but then lost him. We spotted a martial eagle up high on a large tree. It was was time for the coffee break where we parked overlooking the river bed. After coffee, it was time to head back toward the lodge. It's suprising how fast 3 hours can go while you're driving around looking for animals! Along the way, one last spotting of two giraffes, eager to pose for more pictures. The older one was the same one we had seen yesterday policing the road. Another breakfast and we packed up and checked out. All in all, an excellent experience here at Beck's Safari Lodge and we were very impressed with every aspect of the lodging, food, hospitality and game drives. We hopped on our Airlink flight to Jo'Burg and with the advice of our friends, used Uber which was quick, easy and cheap ($15) to get to our hotel in the Melrose Arch area. The Melrose Arch area is very trendy and upmarket area with a lot of restaurants, shopping and very safe. We checked in to the Autograph Collection African Pride Melrose Arch hotel, a member of the Marriott group, and were treated to a nice large room with welcome gifts. After taking a breather and doing a little research, we walked around the Melrose Arch outdoor and indoor mall area, which was filled with a lot of shops and restaurants. It was a bustling area very busy with local nightlife, and we chose a Tapas restauant, La Parada, to have a glass of wine and a few appetizers at. Afterwards, we had our final dinner in South Africa at Sebula, which was a steak house / seafood restaurant. We decided to try the mussels in lemongrass and coconut, prawns in risotto, and steak. We ended the night with a 20-year old Port from Portugal that actually tasted closer to a Madeira for only $6/glass. We look forward to tomorrow where we have purchased tickets for the Red city bus hop-on-hop-off sightseeing tour with the Soweto neighborhood add on.
Back to Top
Day 11: Jo'Burg and Travel Home
On our final day in South Africa, we packed up our bags and had the hotel store them for the day, so we could do our tour of the city. First, we took an Uber to the Rosebank area, where the red bus sightseeing tour started and also where there is a market that's open on Sundays. Rosebank is another very affluent area with a lot of large homes and shopping. The Sunday Market is located in the mall parking garage, which felt sort of strange. Inside, there were a lot of African crafts for sale, with every vendor trying to get us to stop at have a look. We stopped at a few and were attracted to some small paintings of animals, so bought a few to bring home. They were selling for about $10 each. There were also a lot of food stalls, and we got a fresh juice from one stall and a chicken Shawarma wrap from another. We debated about the saftey of putting all the fresh veggies in since they were using water from taps in the parking garage, but the place seemed very popular with both tourists and locals so we decided to risk it. The wrap was delicious!
We moved on to find the red bus and "hopped on". Once we were on and had the bus time table, it became clear to us that we were not going to be able to "hop off" as much as we had hoped to. Given the time, it was already past 11am, and the bus schedule, with our Soweto tour add on only running at particular times, we ended up needing to ride the bus all the way to the Soweto tour without getting off. It was ok though, because the view from the bus allowed us to see a lot of the city that we wouldn't have otherwise seen. We started by passing through several very rich neighborhoods with mansions. The security presence in Jo'Burg is very high, with almost every home having some sort of gate plus surrounding fence with security surveillance cameras and posted signs. After passing through the upper class neighborhoods, the bus took us into the central business district, where it became a much different scene. Since it was Sunday, not much was going on downtown. The buildings would flucuate between modern and dilapidated, from block to block. You could tell that there was a lot of poverty in the city center. There were no bus stops in this part of the tour. Moving out of the downtown once again, we caught our small add-on tour to Soweto. Soweto stands for South Western Townships and was created in the 1930's by the apartheid government as a place to segregate and move blacks out of the city. This densly populated area became a very important center for the resistance to apartheid, and many important leaders lived there, including Nelson Mandela. On the tour, we drove through different areas and our guide pointed out the more upper class areas (nicer brick houses with more space) as well as the lower class areas (people still living in small metal shacks). We stopped to see Nelson Mandela's house and at the street where the 1976 Uprising took place. We learned about the history of some of the events that took place there, and made a few other stops to take pictures and even stop at a small bar to get a Soweto beer. All in all, we felt that we did not have enough time to properly hop on and off the red bus as planned, because of the Soweto tour taking up 2 hours and only leaving at desingated times. If we were to do it again, we would hire a separate more flexible tour or private driver to take us around Soweto instead. The rest of the red bus tour would have been fine if we had started first thing in the morning allowing more time to get off at a museum or two. After the Soweto tour, we took an Uber back to the hotel to get our things and then another Uber to the airport. The Ubers are really cheap and we found them to be top notch quality. We had a little time after checking in, so spent time in the lounge and then boarded our flight to Frankfurt. From there, we had a few hours in Frankfurt and a flight to Toronto and then home to Denver. Visiting South Africa definitely left us with additional desire to see more of Africa, including some of South Africa's neighboring countries such as Namibia, Mozambique, and Botswana.
Back to Top