Looking for advice on where to go for 1 week after flying into Cape Town?

Question

We arrive in Cape Town 18th Nov and have 1 week to fill - is it safe and easy to camp in the countryside around Cape Town? Which of the many national parks are most worth a visit?
Is there anything we should make an effort to do? We want to spend as much time out in the countryside as possible - my only qualms are safety.

Answer 1

Go to Hermanus. It's about an hours drive east. A real holiday town famous for whale watching, awsome beaches (Onrus beach a must) and big parties over the holidays. You will also be very safe compared some other bigger town and cities.

Answer 2

You might be on the same flight as me! Anyway, I wouldn't camp just anywhere - follow the advice of the answers here that tell you to try designated camping grounds. I wouldn't worry too much about any advice you've been given on Durban and Johannesburg and the larger national parks - unless you have internal flights, it will take you forever to drive to either of those places from Cape Town, and if you only have a week, that would be a lot of wasted time. I know you say you want and outdoor holiday, but I really feel you'll be missing one of the most incredible cities in the world if you just fly into Cape Town and immediately leave it again. However, if that is what you want to do, you might want to think about travelling the Garden route and staying in various places along the way like Wilderness, Knysna, or Plettenberg Bay. You can also visit the wine route on the way back down to Cape Town. Hope this helps!!!

Answer 3

although a week can easily be filled in cape town and the cape area itself,(the cape national park home of cape point is a must see) you would be advised to check out the whales that migrate along the coast as you drive down the garden rout on the way to Pletenberg Bay, one of the best surfing breaks in Africa, and home to schools of dolphins etc. Also feed the elephants by hand at the Knysna Elephant Reserve. Definitely visit the monkey sanctuary about 25 miles further down the road

Answer 4

Watever you do you have to take a wine route trip, you have to go up Table mountain with the cable cart ( dont hike, its not that safe)
you can arrange a tour trip through the town ships and try the Cape town locals speciality : a polony gatsby ( if you eat meat) or a fish & chips gatsby!
Take a ferry boat to Robben Island and see Madiba's old prison cell, you get hourly trips to Robben Island at the V&A Waterfront.
and then all the beaches are absolutely idillic so book into a b&B and laze in the sun on the beach, why do you want to come to Cape Town and go camping out side of Cape Town itself?

Answer 5

I have lived in Cape Town for almost 17yrs before I left and still have not seen everything,every one seems to have forgotten the west coast towards Velddrift there is amazing places of interest and a National Park ( which I have not been to visit) but believe it is good.if travelling by car and you driving beware the hidden speed cameras they all over the place. Table mountain is so beautiful as well as the Kirstenbosch Gardens ( Newlands/Kirstenbosch) you will have so much to see and not the time to see it in.

Answer 6

Johannesburg is the second largest city in Africa, with an increase of than 3 million people contacting that lively town house and if you wish to visit this amazing town then this hotelbye is the area to start. Johannesburg offers guests an event as distinctive and diverse as the town itself. If you are on business, searching for a social encounter, an adrenaline rush or just desire to relax and unwind for some times, the town of Johannesburg has every thing you are searching for and more! In Johannesburg you can go to the Soweto (an abbreviation for South-western Townships) at 20 kilometres southwest of Johannesburg. That place offers guests a trip to the heart of the struggle for flexibility and the birthplace of the struggle for democracy.

Answer 7

You can do a six day camping trip from cape town to Swakopmund in Namibia with professional operators and then fly back. Check out www.nomadtours.co.za .

Answer 8

I agree with Alf Garnett. No where in South Africa is a place where you could feel safe. Since the ANC had taken over government, whites are targeted as free wild. So, if you are white, don't come near this country. Chances are very big that you will be assaulted, even murdered, robbed definitely. That's why the whites here lives behind bars and even that does not protect us.

Answer 9

Drive along the wine route. In the area around Stellenbosch there are many nice wineries to visit. Boschendal for example make a really cool picknick basket (reservation necessary) and have a great area to spend the afternoon picknicking and drinking wine.
Would camp on designated camping sites, not just anywhere - it is not all that safe. If you do, ask locally if a specific area is safe or not, don't just try anywhere without speaking to locals.

Answer 10

It does not matter to which park you go just remember a few tips from experience.

1. Never get between a mother and her bay. does not matter what the animal is it will attack.
2. If an elephants starts to WAG ITS EARS AT get out of their
3. Do not split a heard ever
4. If a Croc attacks do not run in a straight line they cannot turn to well
5 the animal that causes more deaths than any other is the HIPPO generally because he is clumsy and bumps into things by accident

bar this it is great lived there for a year and spent every weekend bush.

Best things to eat in bush.

Rack of ribs
Steak
Spuds
Corn all don on the brie.