in Cape Town, you have to be flexible. Since it is winter in S. Africa, the weather might not work in your favor. I was there in the 4th week of June, and the Robben Island trip was cancelled 4 out of 5 days.
The day I arrived, it was very cold, windy and rainy. So, basically, I could not do anything, except staying in the hotel. I did browse through the mall at Victoria Waterfront.
The second day, it was still raining, I signed up for a private tour and went to Cape Point and Boulders Beach to see the penguins. I went to Victoria Waterfront and Robben Island in the afternoon. I suppose you know by now that only the official tour that leaves the Nelson Mendela Gateway at the Victoria Waterfront actually lands on the island. The wave was too high that they used a slow boat instead of the high speed boat they advertised. It took an hour to get to Robben Island, and some ppl were seasick. We landed on the island with perfect weather though, and the sun was shining. It was a really strange feeling. It was a very good tour I had to say. You got to see a lot and listened to a lot of stories. There was also a picture perfect point to take picture of the Table Mountain and Cape Town. However, if you wish to visit Mr. Mandela's cell, you're out of luck, as it is under maintenance.
The third day, we had perfect weather. The Top of Table Mountain was completely covered by cloud for the last two days that I was in Cape Town. Although my room had a perfect view of the mountain, I did not get to see much. When it finally cleared up the third day, I had signed up for cage shark diving, thus was not able to go up to Table Mountain.
In JNB, your intinerary seems very nice, however, to me the Apartheid Museum is really a big disappointment. There's really not much to see there, besides tons of TV screens. The whole museum is like a big room with lots of TV shows on. The thing is those documentaries can be viewed from DVDs or a History Channel show or so, not necessarily need to travel all the way to the museum. The cradle for human kind is far more interesting in my opinion.
Last edited by hugochan; Aug 2, 2007 at 2:34 am