Cape Town Vacations

Cape Town. The Mother City. Kapstaad. Locals and visitors alike have all manner of names for this beautiful city, nestled between the bulk of Table Mountain and the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. These natural barriers have put a check on the city’s growth, meaning it retains a small town feel despite offering an incredible diversity of experiences and places to stay.

Table Mountain, Robben Island, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Peninsula and visits to the African Penguins on Boulders Beach are high on the must-see list of things to do in Cape Town, and rightly so. However, one of the beauties of Cape Town is that as a modern, vibrant African city it is constantly evolving with new, innovative experiences being offered on a weekly basis. Walking food tours are very popular and take visitors away from the more mainstream restaurants, and we work with a number of superb guides who can show travellers hidden beaches to see penguins, teach them to surf at local spots and paddleboard in deserted coves. Township tours, long a staple of Cape Town tourism but often done in a voyeuristic way, can now be enjoyed in a far more interactive fashion, allowing visitors to see the good their visits are doing, rather than being told about it.

The food scene in Cape Town is thriving, with fresh seafood, game meat restaurants, and superb Italian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Peruvian cuisine all easily found here. Locally produced wines are something Capetonians are rightly proud of and feature prominently on restaurant menus, along with a seemingly endless array of local craft beers and the new kid on the block – craft gins. We are reliably informed that rum is going to be the next craze in Cape Town, so watch this space for further updates!

For first time visitors on a tailor made Cape Town holiday the V&A Waterfront is a popular base, with several excellent hotels located within easy, and safe, walking distance from restaurants and attractions. A little further afield, the residential “City Bowl” area is home to a huge number of guesthouses and B&Bs which offer a really authentic feel to your stay. Repeat visitors who want to enjoy the laid back feel of the city and don’t need attractions on their doorstep may opt to retreat to the beautiful Constantia Valley or the hip suburbs of Clifton or Camps Bay, where some stunning boutique hotels look out across the Atlantic Ocean. Further South there are a number of small fishing villages such as Noordhoek and Kommetjie where some superb little guesthouses can found.

Broadly speaking Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate, albeit with a little more wind. Between November and March the city is at its hottest, although the dry south-easterly wind, known locally as the Cape Doctor, tends to blow and makes summer days very bearable. April and May are hugely underrated times to visit, often lovely and warm with little wind but far quieter than earlier in the year. June, July and August are the Cape winter where rain is common, although not persistent and it is a superb value time of year to travel. September and October tend to mirror April and May, with visitor numbers relatively low and the weather almost always fine.