Dream Vacation Itinerary: South Africa

Kayla Walazek
Apr 6, 2017
8 min read

I've been thinking really hard over the past few days to come up with some unique ideas for my blog posts. After a lot of thought I decided to do a series, kinda of like my "10 Free Things to do" one, only this one is going to be a Dream Vacation Itinerary series. There are SO many places I want to travel as soon as i graduate college. I always find my self planning a whole vacation, saving in a folder on my lap top and then later deleting it to clear up space. So why not put these itineraries i create into a blog post? Not only will it be a reference for me, but i'm hoping that it can help other people when choosing there destinations and planning on what to do. I hope you guys enjoy this post!

Cape Town, South Africa

Photo Credit: https://capetown-airport.co.za/

My absolute dream vacation is to visit Cape Town, South Africa. There is one main thing that is attracting me to this part of the world and it is sharks. My life goal is to cage dive with Great white sharks, and South Africa is the perfect place for that (I will go more into details about this later in the post). After I decided this is where I wanted to go, I did some research on Cape Town, and it is so beautiful. There are so many other things to do and so many sites to see. So below is going to be a 7 day itinerary for visiting Cape Town, South Africa.

Important Things to Know

Time to Visit: June through August (these are the best months for shark diving.)

Accommodation: Hotels can get kind of expensive so I feel the best option would to book a place through Airbnb. Prices range from $20 to $150 a night, so you can find some really good deals and save a lot of money. I personally think I would want to stay in the area where the red mark is. The reason I didn't pick an exact Airbnb to stay in is because i don't know whats going to be available at the time i decide to go, but after looking on their website there were plenty of places to choose from in this area that were very affordable.

Flight: Flights to South Africa are typically around $1,600. Below I will list a few other major airports and how much it will cost to get to South Africa. The plane will land in Cape Town. This will probably be the most expensive part of the trip.

Boston: $1.500

New York: $1,500

Florida (Miami): $1,200

Chicago: $1,500

California (LAX) : $1,500

(all prices are round trip)

Car Rental: While this is totally optional, it is a great way to get around if you do not want to rely on other people and just do things on your own time. There are places to rent cars right at the airport so you wont have to worry about any type of transportation. The website listed below seems to be the best place to find all the good deals. For 7 days it will cost $112USD to rent a car, which is not bad at all.

http://www.rentalcars.com/

Money: The American dollar goes a lot further in South Africa than it does in America. 1 US dollar is equal to 13.57 South African Rand. Through out this blog post I will be listening prices in both currencies so you can see how cheap it really is to buy things.

Restaurants: I am a vegan, so the places I list are going to be vegan friendly. I find that restaurants like this are so much harder to find than regular ones, so I figured it would be more beneficial to list these since there seems to be is a rise in vegan consumers.

Maharajah Vegetarian Indian Cuisine

This is an indian style restaurant that fits the needs of a lacto free vegetarian diet. The most expensive thing on the menu is R66 which converts to $4.85 USD

http://www.vegetarianfoods.co.za/index.html

Mother Earth Cafe

There isn't an actual website to this place but i found a website that has its menu on it, this restaurant is good for people who are vegetarians, vegans and gluten free. The most expensive thing on this menu is R78 which converts to $5.73 US.

https://www.zomato.com/capetown/mother-earth-cafe-somerset-west/menu

Plant

This is a vegan cafe that strives to inspire people to make more compassionate choices when it comes to food. The most expensive thing on their menu is R81 which converts to $5.95 USD

http://www.plantcafe.co.za/

The Hungry Herbivore

Another vegan place that offers delivery! They have a whole bunch of different types of vegan cakes that look amazing! The most expensive thing on the menu is R90 which converts to $6.61 USD

https://www.thehungryherbivore.com/

Raw and Roxy

Vegetarian and vegan friendly, this place is a cafe and a grocery store. They don't have a legit website, but the reason i had to put this here is because they have a Facebook page with a lot of great reviews!

"I can honestly say you don't have to be vegan to enjoy the food, this lady truly is blessed and talented when it comes to creating food. I will definitely be back" - review from Facebook website

https://www.facebook.com/rawandroxy/

7 Day Itinerary

Day 1

So I don't think that my day 1 is going to be filled with too much adventure. After getting off the plane and settled into where I'm going to be staying, I'm guessing that I will be pretty exhausted. Depending on what time my plane gets in, if I have some daylight left, there are a few beaches that are close by, so i can see my self spending some time relaxing on the beach. There are a few beaches on the cost of Cape Town including Oudekraal Beach, Kite Beach, Clifton Beach and so many more! I'm definitely going to want to grab something to eat so I will choose a restaurant from the list above to get some food.

Oudekraal Beach by @frontmezzjunkies on Instagram

Day 2

Day 2 is all about exploring and seeing beautiful sites. I will start my day with a pretty large breakfast from one of the restaurants that I listed since i'm going to be doing a a lot of physical activities. I'll head over to a local grocery store and get a few snacks and maybe even a lunch to pack. The adventure of the day is going to be Table Mountain. There are two activities I am going to be doing here. The first one is taking the cable car up 1089 meters up the mountain. On the way up, this ride offers scenic view of Table Mountain and Cape Town. Once you reach the top, there are places to eat, shop and enjoy the overlook of the ocean. From here you can go even further up, but you have to hike it. There are many different types of trails to hike, after looking at the different options I figured that Platteklip Gorge would be the best trail for me. This trail takes about 2.5 hours and it is the easiest route to the summit with some amazing views. The cable car ride costs R255 per person ($18.50 USD) and the hikes costs R750 a person ($54.41 USD). I know what you are thinking, "a hike costing money, thats ridiculous" I thought that at first, but the more I looked into it and the more I thought about it, I realized it wasn't a big deal. From some of the pictures I have seen, it seems like this hike is worth every penny you pay. The views are absolutely breathtaking, they aren't something you get to see everyday. So spending the few extra bucks for the experience is fine with me. But hey it's vacation, splurge a little!

Cable Car: http://www.tablemountain.net/content/page/rates

Hiking: http://hiketablemountain.co.za/hiking-routes-table-mountain/

Photo Credit: @heeyoung130 on Instagram

Day 3

Today is the day that will be the most anticipated. Shark cage diving day! The company that I would do this through is Apex Shark Expeditions. They have 2 different cage diving adventures, one in Gansabaai and the other in Simon's Town. I will be doing the on in Simon's Town. The cost of cage diving is R2,400 which converts to $176.22 USD, which I honestly think is such a good deal. I've looked into doing cage diving in America and some can cost over $400. You can either take the morning trip, which departs at 6:00 am and gets back at 11:00am, or the afternoon trip which departs at 11:30 am and gets back at 4:30pm. The reason why I picked this one over Gansabaai is because it goes to seal island, and if you are as obsessed with shark week as I am, you would know that this is probably the best place in the world to see great white sharks in their natural habitats. I am assuming that this will probably be the only thing I do this day because most likely I will pick the afternoon trip, I don't think i would be able to be ready for a 6:00am departure, I can barley make it to my 8am classes on time! I've never been on a boat in the ocean before so I will probably just have a very light breakfast, like a smoothie or something (most of the restaurants listed sell smoothies).

Photo Credit: http://www.apexpredators.com/about/film-and-photography

Day 4

Something else that really attracted me to Cape Town was Boulders Beach. If you have never heard of this beach, there is something that makes this a very unique spot, and that is penguins! Hundreds of penguins inhabit this beach and give you some opportunities for some pretty awesome photos. I will most likely start my morning off by going to boulders beach and taking some fun photos of the penguins and possibly going for a swim if it's warm enough. The rest of this day will be dedicated to exploring and doing whatever i want with no real plan, sometimes those are some of the best adventures you can have!

Photo Credit: @heeyoung130 on Instagram

Day 5

Today is going to be dedicated to the one and only, wine! I have never been wine tasting before so i figured that South Africa would be the perfect place to start! African Story Tours offers wine tasting right in Cape Town. The tour includes all wine tastings, cheese tastings, an a la carte lunch, and a cellar tour. The cost of this tour is R800 ($57.93 USD). Assuming that i'm probably going to drink a little more wine than I should, i will want find another way to get there. It looks like Uber is offered in Cape Town so i will most likely use that. I'll probably want to take some sort of nap after this since i get pretty tired when I drink. Once I wake up i'll see where the rest of the day/night takes me!

http://www.africanstorytours.com/default.asp

Photo Credit: http://www.africanstorytours.com/default.asp

Day 6

My last full day in Cape Town, how sad. I have 2 things planned for today, renting a bike and a tour of Robben Island. The first thing I will do is rent a bike from Up Cycles. I will head over there at around 9:00am and probably bike for about 2 or 3 hours. 2 hours is R90 ($6.52 USD) and 3 hours is R120 ($8.69 USD). I have no specific plan on where i would want to bike, I will take this time explore and find some hidden gems on my own. At 1:00pm i will hop on a boat that will take me to Robben Island. The boat departs from Nelson Mandala Gateway which is walking distance from where i will drop off my bike, which is great so I don't have to run around everywhere. The Boat will drop you off at Murray's Bay Harbor on Robben Island. There you will be met by a bus that will transport you to multiple historic sites around the island. This tour costs R320 ($23.18 USD).

Photo Credit: http://upcycles.co.za/#filter=.about and http://www.robben-island.org.za/tours#tourtypes

Day 7

Today will be a travel day, since my flight isn't already booked I'm not too sure when i will be departing. If i have time i will probably visit the beach on last time, go one one last adventure and maybe get one more South African Snack. I haven't even taken the trip yet and i can feel the sadness knowing that its going to eventually end :(.

Flight and accommodations: $2,000

Food: $100

Adventures: $343.68

Spending money: $200

Overall total: $2,700

**This is a rough estimate**