LadyB

We spent 10 days in & around CPT for our last holiday as a family of 5, 8 or 9 years ago now. We went in August so their winter & apart from a couple of mild days, we experienced some chilly weather.

Your great trip report brought many happy memories back, although we rented a house in Hout Bay rather than live it up in hotels ��.

Your photos & wonderful descriptions increase my desire to head back, only next time to visit at this time of year/January time, thank you, I loved reading it ��

andymcdonnell

Great report. One question... I did a day trip to Stellenbosch from Cape Town last time I visited but only went to one winery. I'm returning to SA in February and doing the Garden Route. Would you recommend a stay in Stellenbosch and did you visit any particularly good winery?

cheers

Greenpen

Nice TR but there is a major failing in that you don't tell us much about your cat. Was he/she pleased with their holiday but glad to be home?

adampenrith

What a nice little break for you in the southern sunshine, and LGW departures too.

those villages look delightful - we were just talking about a South African trip yesterday

nequine

Great trip report and its definitely wanting me to go visit SA one day!

rapidex

Great trip report Uncle T.Have Gold card will travel.You'll be off to Ouagadougou next

T8191

Thanks for the kind comments, folks. To answer a couple of questions:

Some were a bit bigger than others, but a 300g steak [or equivalent] seemed to be the 'standard size'

We were slightly reticent about going to Africa/CT/Western Cape, and now feel we were complete idiots for worrying. Everywhere we went was clean, modern, sophisticated and safe.

I most certainly would recommend it, but then inevitably that hinges on your interests. For a couple of OAPs it was a perfect 3 days, and we wish it had been 4.

No, we didn't visit any wineries at all ... we just enjoyed the products! We know how it's done, and didn't really see the need for [a] being lectured in a group, [b] sampling wine that we couldn't bring home anyway, and [c] bouncing around in a tour bus!

CatchThePigeon

I remember when the CPT redemptions became available you were umming and ahhing (for a few minutes) about whether to go or not and I was delighted you chose to do so.

Really good planning for your trip although I'd agree you could drop a day or even 2 in Cape Town itself. I expected to see some photos of visits to winerys - did you not go to any? [Just noticed you've already answered that question....fair enough!]

Thanks for the TR.

fbrj

Thank you for an informative, well written and humorous report (I really like those little asides) about a trip that was obviously well planned and, most importantly, enjoyed too! The grub (on land) looked great and an indispensable element of a good leisure trip.


Do you aim for a 2-4-1 every year? Now that you've been West and South - and East is not an option (you will have to work on that!), where next? Or repeat destinations but with a different itinerary? (eg CPT/JNB + safari)

stu1985

Great report Uncle T - really glad that you enjoyed your time in South Africa. Your pictures of Cape Town bring back some nice memories of my trip there earlier in the year. Your days out in the wine country looked brilliant. I definitely want to spend some more time there on my text trip there.

Food pics from SA look amazing! BA ones.....meh.....OK

T8191

Thanks again, folks. Comments much appreciated.

Yes indeed. In fact this calendar year we've done 2 ... Jamaica on the cheap in January [see link in my signature], although the accommodation was more expensive that occasion, I think. I haven't had the damage report from Amex for this trip yet!! You remind me to start looking at the Caribbean for Jan/Feb 2017 soon!

Calchas

Excellent!

You do seem to choose hotels well.

And I'm glad you made so many attractive friends ...?

Stellenbosch looks like a cute place to visit.

Shame about BA, but I think they are getting close to the nadir in the luxury cycle and will get a sharp wakeup call in the next year or so .... hopefully

T8191

All Hotel research credit goes to iWife ... she does the shortlisting, which we then discuss over a glass of wine and a large iMac screen

Stellenbosch is really lovely: visually appealing, compact, all walkable, and with a wide range of eat/drink/shop/museum places to go ... we were VERY impressed.

As to BA ... enough said elsewhere. Apart from the inevitable JER-LGW hops, and the annual 2-4-1, I see little reason to use them any more. So sad.

SanDiego1K

I know why you are called Uncle T as a revered senior member of the BA board. Why is your wife called iWife?

T8191

Because she is absolutely wonderful?


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iWife