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Arrival in Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town with an Emirates flight from Dubai, UAE. As soon as we recovered our luggage we picked-up our rental car at the Hertz office. Due to the busy season our class of car was not available and we had to choose between a BMW X3 and a VW Polo. Of course the first one was the obvious choice but we were not sure if it would be a safe choice as some parts of South Africa have high car-jacking rates. We chose the VW Polo (and after this holiday never again...).

Cape Town is a vibrant city with lots of sightseeings and great places to drink and dine. We stayed at the PortsWood Hotel (an excellent colonial hotel) in the centre of the V&A Waterfront. This is where a lot of good restaurants and bars are located. From here you can also take the ferry to Robben Island. We spent two full days to explore this magnificent city and at the end of our trip we returned here for another couple of days.

Table Mountain and Cape of Good Hope

From Cape Town we drove to Table Mountain (which is adjacent to the city). You have to park your car beneath the mountain and take a cable lift to the top. This will give you stunning views of the Cape Town area and the mountain area behind Table Mountain. It's worth to spend some time here.

After Table Mountain we left for the Cape of Good Hope Natural Reserve. As soon as you leave the outskirts of Cape Town you can enjoy beautiful landscaping. Just minutes after entering the reserve we spotted some ostriches and after parking our car near the Cape Point baboons were all around. Be careful with those because they can be very aggressive :)

A cable car called "Vlieënde Hollander" (Flying Dutchmen) took us to Cape Point lighthouse. At the lighthouse you can overview the entire western cape area. After a nice lunch and some baboon watching we drove along the road to the actual most south-western point of the African continent. This is a good place to spot penguins. From here we drove to Swellendam to the east of Cape Town where we enjoyed the evening and spent the night.

Swellendam & Mossel Bay

Swellendam is a nice colonial village east of Cape Town. We found a really nice guesthouse and a great place to have dinner. We didn't expect the owner to be Dutch. In the morning we left for Mossel Bay.

Mossel Bay is a coastal village. Near the rocks we encountered "Klipdassies" for the first time. They're like small badgers with an attitude :). The cliffs are really nice and the food was really fantastic. From Mossel Bay we moved on to Knysna.

Knysna

Knysna is also on the coast and it's a worth to visit. It has a really nice bay where you can enjoy walking and great food. This was our stopover before we moved on to the next big city: Port Elizabeth.

Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth or PE as it is called by the locals. The city has some really nice architecture but it has lost its glory over time. The city centre is not what it used to be and the main shopping street only hosts some B and C class stores. Of course we had some trouble finding a good parking spot. As Dutch as I am, I wanted to park as close to the sights as possible. Eventually we parked near city hall not knowing it was a taxi stand. Just after we left we realised why people where wondering about our decision to park in that spot :) Next time we know.

Be careful at the beaches after sunset. Some places are not as safe as they appear to be. If you are looking for hotels or guesthouses you have to go to the outskirts of the city near the beach. A lot of them are with gates and you have to look twice before you find them. It gave us a clear idea on safety in that area, but to be honest we didn't encounter any unsafe situations.