CFFrost

We're planning on a leisurely pace for this trip. We have 9 nights in Cape Town, 2 nights along the Garden Route, and 2 nights at Kwandwe near Grahamstown. We also have a 7 night stopover in London on the way down. We are certainly fortunate to have the opportunity to take a lengthy trip at this juncture - so our plan is to take our time and if we "miss" something, so be it. My hope is that we'll be able to do one or maybe two activities per a day max, and even take a day off and just relax if jet lag or poor sleep-in-transit gets the best of us.

I certainly agree regarding convenience and flexibility.

Out of curiosity, and as a point of comparison - how much did it cost per day to hire a driver, if you recall?

worldiswide

I don't remember off hand. I'll see if I can find my receipts. They did seem a little negotiable especially since we used them for airport transfers and multi day hire. The rand is pretty low to the dollar at the moment so that is a factor as well.

FSU

One more suggestion would be to hire a private guide for a hike up Table Mountain. This was one of the highlights of our trip to Cape Town. You do need to be in pretty good shape for this, but if you enjoy hiking you will love it.

Philatravelgirl

I went solo for a month working with Rhino Africa in Capetown they were awesome! My private touring was with Hylton Ross (as Rhino didn't have others that week for their own small tours) I did small tour groups (less than 10 ppl) for cape peninsula, wineries and was the only one for city tour so my own private guide, I didn't want to drive garden route alone so did a 3 day tour just me and another lady (crazy though!) table mountain -took 3 attempts due to wind, clouds, rains so do schedule this early in case you can't do it / my website (philatravelgirl) has info on Capetown Table Mountain and Kirschbosch so far still writing posts so DM if you need more info

CFFrost

This was kind of our plan. We saw tour groups that did the hike with you and were planning on doing something like that. If I recall correctly we were looking at one that allowed you to hike up and ride the cable car down, which sounded like a good balance to me.

Where did you find your guide? Any suggestions, recommendations, etc would be appreciated.


Thanks for the suggestions I'll keep them in mind. Looking at the tour companies online now.

Haven't seen your blog before, but I'm scrolling through it now and I'll take a look at the Cape Town posts for sure. Also just noticed your Chicago posts, which always make me miss that city. Spent about 5 years there - What an amazing city!

We're not in a huge rush since were not heading to CPT until September so I'll keep an eye on your blog and if I have any questions shoot you a message. Thanks!

FSU

We used Mother City Hikers. Found them on Trip Advisor. We were extremely happy with Lauren. We were given a choice of about a dozen different hikes depending on what we were looking for. This was probably the highlight of our trip to Cape town.

mee

Actually I wouldnt hike up table mountain. Rather do the cable car, and if you want a similar walk, you can't beat the hike up Lion's head! Spectacular views and the path circles around the head so you see all different sides of the city

thijsseh

Do NOT do the Lions Head hike without a reliable guide. There are very serious safety concerns here, it is probably the area on the mountain with the most attacks on tourists. But it is vey scenic and not too difficult (some chains which you can bypass).

The hike up Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge is strenuous. It is however done by so many people that it is not as unsafe as many other options.

CFFrost

Thanks for the recommendation - I generally value a FT rec far more than Trip Advisor. Taking a look at their site now.


Thanks for the point / counter-point. From what I've seen it looks like Platteklip Gorge makes sense - we're young and can handle a few hours of of moderately strenuous hiking. Regardless of what we will do - we will do the hike with a guide.