Eric & Al, you're so lucky! My partner and I spent 2+ weeks in South Africa last November and absolutely adored it. We're still poring over the photos & showing them to friends, talking about it longingly, and counting up our frequent flyer miles hoping to go back. (The prices recently dropped, incidentally, on both Star & SkyTeam, to 120k for business class and 160k for first.) We flew in SWISS First via Zurich -- our trip report appears here, mostly detailing the flight segments.

As to what you should see & do, I think it depends on what you hope to get out of your vacation. What I think is so great about South Africa is that it has all the regular tourist stuff -- big city arts & culture, restaurants, etc., gorgeous scenery, wildlife viewing in the game parks, the garden route through Napa Valley-like wine country, warm Indian Ocean beaches, etc. But in addition to all that is the recent political, social, and racial history of the country, which is also fascinating. Some people find that stuff depressing or boring, but I think visiting South Africa and not learning about it is a real shame, especially for us Americans with our similar racial and cultural history.

• Cape Town: Table Mountain As someone else said, you can take the cable car up & down or hike -- either way, plan to spend a couple hours or more wandering around the top. (Bring a warm jacket -- it can get very cold and windy up there.) There are trails that go off in all directions and spectacular vistas, not only of Cape Town but of the other mountains, the ocean, etc.
  ..........You'll want to have a rental car in Cape Town, so you can explore the region (including the winelands, the peninsula, Hermanus, etc.), but you don't need one in Johannesburg, Soweto, or Pretoria. There, you should take a guided tour. And no rental car is required in the bush -- Hertz doesn't rent open-top Range Rovers anyway.
  ..........We stayed right downtown at the new City Lodge V&A Waterfront, walkable to the Waterfront and very close to downtown and the gay neighborhood. The hotel was also close to the freeway & the airport, with lots of free parking, low price, etc.
• Cape Town: Victoria & Alfred Waterfront This is the touristy center of town... there's a big mall there, just like you'd find in a U.S. suburb, with a dozen chain resturants whose patios overlook the harbor. It's also a working harbor, though, with ships from all over the world dropping off cargo (including enormous just-caught fish) and stopping for repairs. The ferry to Robben Island departs from the Nelson Mandela Gateway, a gorgeous new building in the heart of the V&A Waterfront.
• Cape Town: Robben Island Robben Island is famous for the prison where Nelson Mandela was detained for 27 years, and a tour of the maximum security prison where he and other political prisoners were held is the highlight of any visit. (There's also a medium-security prison on the island, which was for murders, rapists, and thieves.) But the island is also home to an enormous colony of penguins, a battery of World War II artillery, and the first European settlement at the bottom of Africa. The tour is good, although there's not enough time to talk to the former political prisoners -- contemporaries of Mandela -- who lead the tours of the maximum security cell blocks.
  ..........Don't miss all the artifacts, stories, and photographs in the Nelson Mandela Gateway building. Most people stand in line for the ferry outside, never going into the waiting room, but the exhibits inside are almost more informative than the tour itself. Spend some time going through the computer exhibits, and pull open all the drawers in the cabinets in the center of the room. Each drawer contains a fascinating artifact of life in the maximum security prison -- an improvised eye shield so the prisoners wouldn't go blind while mining white limestone, a report card from the 'university' set up by more senior political prisoners to teach the youngsters, letters from the prisoners to the warden and guards, etc.
• Cape Town: District 6 Museum For me, the District 6 Museum was the most moving and powerful tribute we saw to the horror of apartheid. District 6 was a region of the city of Cape Town, like an arrondisement in Paris or Greenwich Village in New York. District 6 was a vibrant neighborhood, home to scores of small businesses, half a dozen churches, a small college, and thousands of working-class people of various races. In the late 1960s, however, the government declared that it was too close to downtown and should be reserved for white South Africans only.
  ..........Eviction notices were issued to everyone in District 6, and as families vacated their homes, the buildings were bulldozed. Everything was destroyed -- even the grid of streets. The only buildings spared were the churches, because the apartheid government didn't want to cause trouble with the international headquarters of the churches abroad. Today, the churches remain the only buildings standing. The rest of the district is grassy fields -- nothing has ever been built on most of the land -- and it is today a silent memorial.
  ..........The museum contains an enormous map of the district, including each building and alleyway. Former residents have come to the museum to sign their names where there homes were, and to record their stories. The neighborhood has been preserved in this way, with various exhibits chronicling the life and times of District Six and its residents. Tours are led by former residents who share their own experiences.
• Cape Town: Peninsula & Cape Point Almost more beautiful than Cape Town itself is the drive down to Cape Point. The waterfront is at the very top of the peninsula and Cape Point is at the very bottom, so you can start out going either clockwise or counterclockwise. We went west and then south, along the Atlantic coast. We stopped at Sandy Bay, the purported gay beach, but saw only a few obvious homosexuals and not a grain of sand. Instead, the waves crash against enormous house-sized boulders. Maybe it gets busier later on?
  ..........The scenery is spectacular -- a lot like the California coast along the Pacific Coast Highway. The road ends at Chapman's Peak just past Hout Bay, however... a landslide several years ago closed it down, although it's rumored to be reopening soon as a toll road. We then cut across and countined down the east side of the peninsula. The Cape of Good Hope itself is gorgeous -- you feel like you're looking off the end of the earth. Don't miss the baboons, but try not to let them grab your food or climb into your car. And if you have time, take a drive around the remainder of the nature preserve. We saw various species of antelope, a family of ostriches, and other wild animals just by turning off the main road. We also came upon a spectacular sandy beach! Leave yourself plenty of time to explore.
  ..........On the way back up the coast, we stopped at Kalk Bay and had a drink at the Brass Bell, a local institution right on the water. They don't serve froofy drinks, but they do have a great view out across the bay. We also went across the street to have dinner and see a play -- a joint venture of a small restaurant and a community theatre. (It's not really "dinner theatre" since you eat first at dining tables, then go into a small blackbox theatre to see the show.) The play was interesting and timely (a story about a post-apartheid white truck driver getting to know his black mechanic) and the meal was the best we had on our entire trip -- a trip marked by spectacular meals. Dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine, coffee, dessert, and tip, plus 2 tickets to the play, came to US$40. Unbelievable.
  ..........We also went to two gay clubs in Cape Town, both of which were around the corner from our hotel. One, called "Bronx," was a typical neighborhood bar, like Roscoe's in Chicago or Splash in New York. It had old wood paneling, a small dance area, throbbing music, and one-of-everything-as-long-as-you're-white clientele. There were gay waif boys, muscle queens, high-cheekbone beautiful boys, the occasional lesbian, and one preppy guy with glasses wearing a fleece jacket and drinking red wine. (I bet if I lived in Cape Town, he and I would be friends.) Nobody talked to us, the bartenders were obnoxious, and it was very smoky & loud.
  ..........We then went across the street to "55" to watch the worst drag I've seen in years. Maybe the earlier acts were better, but we saw two girls... one who didn't sing but tried to lip-sync to a U.S. comedienne's spoken performance, and one who 'performed' the wailing/shrieking Star Wars character with the silver mylar suit and the thick tentacles. The club itself, however, was gorgeous, with several levels, an outdoor upstairs patio, and racially mixed patrons. Once the drag show was over, the DJ played great music, although there was hardly anyone there and the lights were way too bright.
• Game Reserve: Sabi Sands OK, enough about Cape Town! The other thing every visitor to South Africa must do is take a safari or go to a game lodge in search of wild animals. You'll hear about the Big 5: elephant, rhino, water buffalo, lion, and leopard -- they're a lot easier to remember once you've seen them all in person.
  ..........There are many nature preserves in South Africa, but Sabi Sands is the nicest. It's private land that's connected directly to the huge Kruger National Park with no fences or boundaries. Within Sabi, there are several game lodges, with prices ranging as high as US$500 per person per night! The expensive places have gold-plated bathroom fixtures, Italian silk sheets, and 1,000-bottle wine cellars, but most people go to to Sabi to see animals... and all the lodges share the same animals. So we stayed at the cheapest place we could find, and it was fantastic! It was still extremely luxurious, and its small size (maximum of 10 guests) ensured attentive, personalized service.
  ..........We stayed at the Chitwa Chitwa Safari Lodge for 3 nights, which we think should be a minimum. Most people stay less time, but they can never really relax and they often don't see all the animals, since game drives can be so unpredictable. All the lodges operate on the same schedule: dawn and dusk 3-hour game drives in search of wild animals, a 1-hour nature walk, 3 meals a day, and total pampered relaxation in between eating and driving. My favorite part: at sunset, your ranger and tracker stop the Range Rover in a safe, open part of the veldt. You get out and stretch your legs while they unfold a small mahogany table. After a table cloth is put on, they serve you a cocktail! On our first afternoon in Sabi Sands, we found ourselves standing in the African bush, just uphill from a pride of 7 lions, watching them and the spectacular sunset, drinking a gin and tonic, and thinking "this is the life!"
  ..........I'm getting all misty-eyed just typing this. It's such a spectacular experience... honestly, spend as many days in Sabi as you can. Our dream is to find 8 friends and rent out the entire lodge for a week.
• Johannesburg, Soweto, & Pretoria There's so much to see in & around Jo'burg, but many tourists never even leave the airport. For me, however, to truly understand life in South Africa today, we had to learn about the history of the white people too. Like everything else in South Africa, the more we looked, the more complicated we realized everything was. Not even white people are monolithic in South Africa -- the English and the Afrikaaners still don't get along!
  ..........The greatest insight into the Afrikaaner mindset can be seen at the Voortrekker Monument, a shrine to the first Afrikaaner families to leave Cape Town (and the British) behind and build a new life for themselves inland. Like U.S. pioneers setting out across the great plains, these people left the safety of their cities on the coast in search of freedom as they understood it. Afrikaaners have always feared being "overwhelmed" by the native Africans -- feared their culture & civilization would vanish. This monument helps you understand that, even in its design: it's squat, beige, and fortress-like.
  ..........After visiting the Voortrekker monument, you should also jump to the very-recent past by visiting the moving and marvelously curated Hector Petersen Museum in Soweto (which you should also tour -- it's not just a big slum) and the comprehensive Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, which was designed by the same team as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Hope that's helpful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to Email the address in my profile. I came home from the trip astonished that no U.S. airline flies to South Africa and horrified that so few Americans have been. We can learn so much there, and have a great time too. Can't wait to read your trip report!

Fondly,
David

[edited to fix broken links]

[This message has been edited by IndyDavid (edited 01-27-2003).]