South Africa Trip March 2023
It’s the 5th March 2023 the night before my first international trip since Covid and I am heading to South Africa. This is my first time to the African continent, and I am super excited and nervous at the same time. Thanks to South African Tourism and Virtuoso, ten of us Travel Agents are going on a weeklong, action-packed trip of a lifetime! This upcoming week will be filled with food, wine, and wildlife!
After sleeping for about five hours the night before, I arrived at the airport by 7am for the 10am flight. Check in with Qantas was super quick and easy as they have plenty of self-check-in kiosks, which is different from the last time I was here. After that it is a simple bag drop! At Immigration you scan your passport, stand on foot markers for a photo, identity check and then onto security. This took me maybe 20 mins max. Just through security you arrive at all the duty free and designer labels shops. I needed food first, but I find the international terminal doesn’t have half as many food options as the domestic. It almost the opposite with more shops for the international visitors. After some food and a quick shop, I head to gate 10 to meet our group of ten travel agents.
We board (our fully booked) flight to Johannesburg. (The boarding process was smooth and efficient). I was seated in economy and upon arrival at row 56G I found water, headsets, blanket, and a pillow. After stowing my carryon, it was time to sit back and watch some movies, read, and rest for our 13 hours 20-minute flight. Our aircraft was a Qantas Boeing 787, which the cabin crew told me, are modern and faster than other passenger aircraft used today. These aircraft have a wide range of movies, TV, music, and video games to keep everyone entertained throughout the flight. You can even chat with your friends onboard from the seat chat. A new window tinting feature allows you or the Cabin Crew to adjust the light coming in from the outside, our flight was during the daylight hours, so the flight crew tinted the windows, so it felt like night-time. The in-flight service was good, the cabin crew come around with a small snack, carrots, cereal, corn chips with a dip and serve a drink, then lunch. Special meals ordered 24 hours in advance comes out first which I had done. I enjoyed a vegetarian pasta, two slices of sour dough bread, chocolate orange cake and some seasonal dried fruit. Snacks are available during the entire flight. The snacks include biscuits, cheese and crackers, apples, and any drink you like. They also served dinner, so there are two meals for this flight.
As we arrived in Johannesburg in the afternoon, I could see very flat and green landscape. Our connecting flight was tight as we only have 1.5 hours. Immigration was very slow with just two people so we had to move on up the line so we could make it. After collecting our luggage, we checked-in for our domestic flight, and a quick dash to our gate.
Our domestic flight is with South African airlines. The journey to Cape Town is 1.5 hours and the aircraft seemed old compared to Qantas. I felt like I had stepped back into the 80’s with brown coloured seats and a very lovely air hostess with 80’s makeup and hairstyle.
Upon arrival in Johannesburg we collected our luggage and are greeting by our driver. It was dark and raining upon arriving in Johannesburg, so it was hard to see much on the drive into the city. Our driver drove us to the “Taj Cape Town”, a 5-Star Virtuoso hotel, where we will stay for the next four nights.
We were greeted by the lovely staff and given hot towels while we checked in. They receptionist gave us a quick rundown of the hotel and its amenities including a whiskey bar, restaurant, spa. At the conclusion we headed to our rooms for the night. My room was big and had everything you would expect from a 5-star property with robes, slippers and a bathroom that had a glass partition so you could see into the bedroom. My room is on the 8th floor and has a balcony that I could see city lights and the mountains. I can’t wait to see the view in the morning. Now it’s time to sleep
Monday – Cape Town
I woke up to a very windy and rainy morning. The views from the room were not great due to this but I know once it cleared up it will be spectacular. I headed downstair for breakfast which was buffet style with a mixture of everything you would usually have along with some African dishes.
After breakfast, we meet our driver who takes us to our first stop: Bo-Kaap, Wale Street which was just up the street from our hotel. This is the street with all the beautiful, coloured houses. This is a Malay/Muslim area and even the Hyatt Regency which is located here is a dry hotel. After apartheid ended, they painted their houses in bright colours as a celebration of their freedom. The houses are so pretty, and many tourists visit daily to take pictures for their Instagram posts!
Table Mountain was closed today so the next best thing, is Signal Hill. Signal Hill is a beautiful lookout that takes in Table Mountain and Cape Town. It is very popular for sunsets and at night to see the lights of the city.
From here we headed down to the District 6 museum to learn a little about this area. This is a small museum but with a lot of history. We did a quick tour and only had time to hear a few stories. This community before it’s destruction under Apartheid was very diverse on many levels. It had many languages, religions, and different economic classes. It was a vibrant community of freed slaves, merchants, artesian, labourers and immigrants. District Six became one of the main urban targets for destruction in the city of Cape Town and in 1966 was declared a white area and by 1982 the life of the community extinct. More than 60,000 people were forcibly removed and their houses were flattened by bulldozers. I highly recommend this museum, but I recommend you must come with a guide or driver. This area is a little rough, so if you drive, ensure you pay for parking to the local workers (no parking metres here). You must pay to have someone look after your car/van while you are here.
From here we headed to The Silo Hotel which is another Virtuoso property for a site inspection and lunch. This hotel is very impressive and unique. Located at the V&A Waterfront which is an amazing location (think Darling Harbour of Cape Town) and wonderful views. This hotel is really something special. The pool area is popular on the weekends when anyone can come up for a drink. We also had a wonderful lunch here. Highly recommend.
From here we had an hour for some shopping at the Watershed which is a permanent market of over 150 stalls of locally designed goods, cloths, craft, jewellery. An hour was not enough time for me at these markets and again highly recommend coming here.
We head back to our hotel to get ready for dinner which is hosted at The 12 Apostle hotel another Virtuoso Hotel. The drive takes around 20 minutes and it’s on the beautiful coastline. Unfortunately, it was very windy, but the views are amazing with the mountain at the back of the property and ocean at the front. We only saw one room which was a suite. All rooms at this hotel are different in colours. This hotel is great if you just want to relax for a few days (average night stay is 3) as not much around here except beach and mountains. Dinner was great but as it was our second night everyone was very jetlagged at this point.
Tuesday - Food Tour
On Tuesday morning we got up and out the door by 8.30am for a food tour. The driver took us up to the tip of the city with our tour guide “Pam” from Cape Fusion Tours. A lot of restaurants closed due to Covid, but it is now getting back to normal.
First treat is pain du chocolate (it’s a chocolate pastry) at Tamboers Winkel, a charming cafe. Our group split into two. My group was led by Lisa who is a chef from Cape Town. We headed down a cool street full of restaurants, bars and cafes called Kloof Street. Lisa reminds us to always keep our phones away and no pictures as we are in Cape Town and crime is high but nothing to worry about as long as you don’t act like a tourist.
Our second stop is called “The Local”, a restaurant that is decorated with everything second hand which is all for sale. We had a selection of dishes to share from “Shakshuka” an African dish made of eggs and tomatoes served with sour dough as well as mushroom and bacon toasties.
Our third stop is Oswald’s Bakery which serves nothing but sourdough bread and run by a few young Africans in a side street of Kloof Street.
As we head down Kloof Street we pass the “The Mount Nelson”, a Belmont Hotel known to local as The Nelly or the pink lady. This hotel is 124 years old! This is a 5-star hotel and a popular with locals for high tea.
Our next stop is “Okja”, a dessert place made with all oatmeal products. We sample some cookies here and I purchase some “Okia”, which is like Nutella but better apparently.
Next, we sample Biltong or Jerky as know by the American’s. dried sausage and beef. Unfortunately, you can’t bring any of these types of meats back to Australia.
We turn off Kloof Street and make our way through the Company Gardens for tea tasting at “Coffee @ Vine”. We sample Rooibos and Rooibos Chia which is grown in South Africa and has great health benefits like reduce inflammation, helps with sleep and many more. We also enjoyed famous milk tart and cheesecake with our teas which were delicious.
We head out of the park and back past our hotel. Coming up we have two more lunch stops scheduled. The first is Zanne’s traditional South African food like the locals would eat at home. Chaka laka and pap, bobotie, pumpkin fritters with South African wines.
We continue walking back up Wale Street where the colourful homes are and up some stairs to find a place called Fafeezas . She’s a lovely Malay lady who does cooking classes and has a restaurant from her house. She’s been in a documentary “Somebody feed Phil”. Food here was amazing!
As we head back to our last stop, I think how these laneways remind me of Melbourne. I can’t take any pictures but that how I remember it. We head into a bar for a drink at the House of machines. A biker’s bar which first started as a Bourbon bar with a location in Chinatown NYC as well. We sample a shot of bourbon and enjoy our last stop of the tour for the day.
This tour was amazing, and you get to experience the city like a local walking around eating, drinking, and seeing part of the city we may not have seen. I am not sure how we will eat dinner tonight after all the food we ate during the day. I highly recommend this tour if you are a food lover and want to really experience the local places in Cape Town with a true local.
Following the food tour, we head to Table Mountain which is open today as the weather is sunny and no wind. This is a 4-minute cable car ride to the summit and once you reach the top the views are amazing! A lot of space to walk around more than I expected and views both sides of the mountains with Cape Town on one side and the coast/beaches on the other.
After departing Table Mountain, some of us head directly to the V&A Waterfront shops which have similar shops you would find in any major city. I much preferred the Watershed.
Our dinner this night is at the Waterfront. We did manage to eat a little, but I was still so full from earlier in the day. The Waterfront was lovely with a range of options from seafood to pizzas, burgers etc. Our table was at the end with lovely views over the waterfront as the name suggests.
Wednesday - Cape Sidecar Adventures
We get up for breakfast and then head to find our sidecars and drivers are waiting all lined up outside our hotel. Don is my guide/driver for the day, and we are teamed up with one other person to ride in the sidecar and one on the bike behind the driver. The tour company provided us leather jackets, helmets, goggles, and a bandana (this we can keep). We start off from our hotel and headed to the Cape Sidecar Adventures office which was just a short ride away from downtown for a quick tour and distillery sample. The morning as we headed off it started to rain so we stop to put on ponchos. We drive down some beautiful roads lined with lovely houses which lead us to some vineyards.
Our first stop was a quick look at a winery and then we continue back towards the coast. We stopped at Simons Town to view the African penguins. There is a small fee to enter but there are many penguins to see right in front of you on the beach from the viewing platform. By the time we got to lunch I was not feeling so well. Lunch was at Saveur Restaurant which looked lovely.
We continued our ride, cutting a portion off the normal tour. We go the coastal drive via Chapman’s peak route. This road can be closed if the weather is bad due to rocks failing so it was our lucky day. The views are spectacular with the mountains and coast on full display.
We arrived back to Cape town around 5pm. I headed back to my room and sleep off this bad feeling I am having from earlier in the day. The tour was fantastic, and I can imagine, had it been a lovely warm sunny day, it would have been even more amazing.
Thursday – Wine Country
Next morning, we are up and out by 7am for a 2-hour drive to the wine country of Franschhoek. We stop at Drakenstein correctional facility to see the Nelson Mándela statue. This is the place where he only spent a short period of time after coming from Robben Island when he was finally released in 1990.
At 9am we arrived at Mont Rochelle, Sir Richard Branson’s South African vineyard hotel and another Virtuoso hotel. We quickly dropped off our bags then head to the Franschhoek Wine Tram. Today we are doing only part of the Hop-on-hop-off experience on the Blue Line which has a total of 9 stops roundtrip. Unfortunately, it was raining, and the views were obstructed by the fog. We jump on the tram to our first stop, the Mount Rochelle Vineyards. They served us cheese, crackers, a meat board, and some wine consisting of: Sauvignon Blanc then Chardonnay followed by Shiraz.
The second stop was chocolate tasting with wines at La BRI. I made a wine purchase here. The prices are cheaper compared to Australia, I bought two bottles for around $30AUD!
We headed back to the tram depot after an hour at La Bri for our lunch stop at Grand Provence. This is a very beautiful fine dining restaurant. I ordered sweet corn risotto which was one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had. Highly recommend this place.
Unfortunately, as the day went on the rain increased so that was all we were able to explore for the day. We headed back to our hotel to check in and relax before we enjoy dinner at the hotel.
Mont Rochelle is a small 26-bedroom hotel and vineyard spread over 39 hectares. They also offer a Manor which can sleep up to 8 people. The rooms are named after wines. The hotel will be having a soft refurbishment this year (2023) to brighten up the lobby and new bathrooms. Highly recommend if you are in this area.
Friday – Mont Rochelle
Today for breakfast we had a small buffet of cold selections and order any hot dishes. After breakfast, we had time for a quick walk, and we discovered some plum and olives trees as well as grapes in the vineyards.
We departed at 9am making our way back to Cape Town airport. Along the drive, as we got closer to the airport, we did see many shanty towns made with tin homes with satellites dishes to my surprise.
We check into Safari Air for the quick 50 min flight to Port Elizabeth also known as PE. We are met on arrival and transferred to our accommodation at the Shamwari Prviate Game Reserve a Virtuoso property which is located about an hour from the airport. Our group was so excited for the next two nights on Safari, something I have never done.
As we travelled 7km up a gravel road to the reception area, we instantly see numerous African wildlife in the distance. We are staying at Long Lee Manor which is just beautiful. It has lovely, manicured gardens and an amazing pool overlooking the rolling African plains where you can see the wildlife moving about.
Our room for the next two nights is one of the “Plain view” rooms which was huge! It contained two beds, double vanity bathroom with bathtub, indoor and outdoor shower, plenty of wardrobe space, air conditioning, coffee machine, minibar, safe and a veranda to sit back and watch the wildlife. Amazing!! The Shamwari Private Game Reserve is set on 250,000 hectares - 61,000 acres and offers other accommodation which we will see tomorrow.
After we check in we head back for our first game tour and the weather was just perfect. We split up in two trucks and my guide is Simone. It’s not long before we start seeing the animals and Simone has great information on the wildlife with so many years’ experience at Shamwari. It was so exciting just to be out there in South Africa on a safari and seeing all the animals! It was so amazing! The Shamwari team had set up some afternoon tea for us just before sundown with drinks, cheese, and crackers in the fields for us to enjoy along with a campfire. We were out there for around 3 hours and the time went by so fast.
Once we get back to Long Lee Manor it is time for dinner. Tonight, we are outdoors in these huts that are set up with table. It’s hard to even explain but it was so beautiful. Food was also amazing!!
Next morning, we are up at 6am for a quick coffee, snacks, and straight into another Safari. Words can’t describe how amazing a safari is and I highly recommend you come and experience this for yourself!
After three hours we are back for breakfast and then out again for the day to inspect all the other lodges at Shamwari. As we go along the day, we see so many animals so it’s basically a game tour drive all day for us.
Our first stop is Eagles Craig located on the north side of the reserve which is higher up in elevation. This manor only has 9 rooms and a spa that has three treatment rooms. Many famous stars have stayed here, and I can see why. It’s very private, which would be ideal for honeymooners also. There are no tv’s, but each room has a plunge pool.
As we head to lunch we come across three lions and it was so amazing. We watched them walk in front of us and then stop and take a rest on the side of the road. We needed to pass them to get to our lunch stop which we could see in the distance but there was no other way around, so we had to carefully pass them which we eventually did after about 20 minutes of observing them and another car passed by. That was the most amazing and exciting traffic jam I have ever been a part of!
Lunch was at Bayerhe, which consisted of 12 rooms. This lodge is one level up from Long Lee then Eagles Craig. The accommodations were Bush canvas wood cabins with a plunge pool, outdoor shower, living space, big walk-in wardrobe. Note, this is not for families or groups but amazing for couples. Essentially it was a bush cabin tent but with all the luxury inclusions.
After lunch we head across to Sindile, which is located very high in altitude and has 9 rooms only. No kids under 16 are allowed on this section. This place was built for the views, and it was my favourite. The tents are solid canvas so there is no wind noise, and the rooms are big with a fireplace, plunge pool and the most amazing views. You can sit and just watch the animals in the distance and enjoy a bottle of wine while taking in the beautiful scenery.
Our last stop for the day was Riverdean this is the family friendly lodge. Kids are 50% off so if you have more than one child it might be better to get two rooms interconnecting for the same price. There is a great outdoor playground, kids club and pool.
There is also the Explorers camp (we did not see this). This is for the adventurous traveller as there is no electricity but has tents, showers, and flashlights.
At Shamwari you can eat and drink at any of the properties at no additional charge. All prices are per person and kids are 50% off for under 12 years. No specific migration period here either.
We headed back to Long Lee Manor for dinner after an amazing day exploring Shamwari. It is a truly a fabulous place that you need to come and experience for yourself!
The next morning, we enjoy our final safari and breakfast.
Finally, the trip had to come to an end, and we head back to Australia after what was a once in a lifetime experience. This wouldn’t have happened without the fabulous people at the African Tourism office and Virtuoso who I can’t thank enough. If you are thinking of a trip to South Africa than please reach out.