Adventures in Cape Town

What brought you to Cape Town?
The main reason for my trip was to welcome our new Hotels Product Manager Tonya to the team. I was there for 10 days, and while of course weekdays were spent showing her the ropes and teaching her all there is to know about our great company, evenings and weekend were dedicated to FUN!
Which airline did you fly? We’d love a quick review?
I flew to Cape Town from Amsterdam on KLM, the Dutch national airline. The flights takes 11 hours but the inflight entertainment system makes time pass quickly (confession: I only watch movies on planes, I have not been to the cinema for ages….).
Cape Town and Amsterdam are in the same time zone so it was so weird to fly this long and not be jetlagged!

What are the best things about Cape Town? Why should travellers go there?
Now I will be honest here – South Africa was never top of my list in terms of dream travel destinations. I knew it would be beautiful (I watch the travel channels all the time so had seen plenty of documentaries), but had been scared off a little by press about crime being rife in the country.

Plus, with all the great short getaways on my doorstep in Europe, it hadn’t been a high priority for me, (usually when I am flying that far I would rather be on my way to my second home, Australia!)
However, I’m all for combining business with pleasure and this trip was a perfect opportunity to experience Cape Town and tick another destination off my list. I’m glad I did!

Where did you stay?
I stayed in the coolest hotel in Cape Town – Protea Fire & Ice. In my job I get to stay in lots of great places but I must say this one was quite memorable. It has all the facilities you would expect from a great hotel (nice restaurant, comfy beds, tea-making facilities in the room, great service and friendly staff) but it’s this hotel’s quirky features that really make it stand out.

For example, all the bathrooms in the lobby are “themed”. One looks like an outback dunny, one is filled to the roof with loo rolls and of my favourite I took this photo…

It is called “temptation”, and when you move the towel (and who wouldn’t) an alarm goes off so everyone outside knows that you moved the towel! Hilarious.

The hotel bar specialises in milkshakes and they have 27 types on the menu. We tried a few and can assure you they are all delicious.

Any insider tips on Cape Town to share?
I recommend dinner at the Harbour House in the Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront. Try out their daily menu – for the equivalent of 20 Aussie dollars I ate a two course menu of the most beautiful seafood I have had in a long time. The crayfish, yellowtail and squid were all super fresh and so tasty. Food and drink were very inexpensive in Cape Town anyway – for a foodie like me, that’s reason enough to want to come back!

We did two day trips from Cape Town. On day one we drove to the famous wine lands. We stopped at Spier winery where the ‘21 Gables’ was a firm favourite, then drove to the Cheetah Outreach in Somerset West. For about $15 you get to interact with a cheetah! We were assured they were well fed, and given instructions on how to pet them: a very cool experience.

We stopped in the beautiful town of Stellenbosch for lunch at the Wijnhuis which has a lovely terrace that can be closed off when it rains. We drove back via the town of Fransschhoek where we had coffees and chocolates at boutique chocolaterie Huguenot chocolates.

Day two of sightseeing was all about nature. We drove via the (very busy!) surfers’ beach of Fischhoek to Boulder’s Beach, where a large penguin colony has set up shop.

These are jackass penguins (so called because of the noise they make, not because they are jerks)! I was not expecting a beach so full of the little guys, so cute.

You can see their nests everywhere, and there were many babies about.

We then drove on to the Cape of Good Hope National Park, which was fantastic. As soon as we arrived we saw massive ostriches cross the road (they make emu’s look so tiny!), different types of goats and deer everywhere, and then of course there were the baboons. I had never seen monkeys in the wild before so was so was excited to see them – then wished they would go away!

They are quite aggressive and crazy for food. They jump on your car and try to open your doors, and when Tonya banged on the window one just banged back at her! Their babies are adorable though so I still do like baboons. At a safe distance.

The drive home was via the amazing Chapman’s Peak, the views were simply stunning! It reminded me a lot of Australia’s Great Ocean Road, and similarly this is where lots of car ads are filmed.

We stopped for dinner at Hout Bay where there is a big wharf famous for its fish and chips which I can highly recommend. We saw seals frolicking while we ate which made it even better.

My number one tip for Cape Town is safety first! Take reputable taxis everywhere (they are not expensive) and if you go sightseeing, go with a local (like I did) or use the hotel’s tourist service – Protea Hotel Fire & Ice have a tourist office that can organise safe tours and transits for you at all times. If you are sensible, this will be one of the best trips of your life.