8 days · 7 nights
A Family Week in the Cape
Penguins, a canopy tour, a boat and a beach, with the driving kept short.
One of the great places to take children, once the logistics are somebody else's problem.
Penguins on a suburban beach, thirteen zip lines through a forest gorge, a boat full of seals and no malaria anywhere. The Cape delivers easily. It is the planning around it that eats people alive.
About two thirds of the trips we run have children on them, and a family itinerary looks materially different to a couple's. Fewer moves, longer stays, no drive over ninety minutes, and the days built around what the ages in your party can actually do.
The decision that shapes a family week here is the order you do things in, not which things. The peninsula on day two rather than day six, because the penguins are what they came for. A day off in the middle of the week, because eight days without one is where family holidays come apart. And the canopy tour early enough in the trip that a rained-off morning can be moved rather than lost.
Everything else follows from the ages on your enquiry form, which is why we ask for them before we ask for your dates.
The questions people actually ask
- Which activities have age limits?
- Three of them, and the limits are firm rather than negotiable. The canopy tour above Elgin is seven and up, with a weight range set by the operator. Shark cage diving out of Gansbaai is eight and up, though younger children watch from the deck and often prefer it. Deep-sea charters we would not put a child under about six on, though the inshore False Bay trips are fine. Everything else, the penguins, Cape Point, the cableway, the seal boat, works at any age.
- Is there malaria?
- None. The Western Cape is malaria-free year round, so there is no prophylaxis conversation to have and nothing for a four-year-old to take. It is one of the genuine advantages of doing this region rather than the Lowveld.
- How much time will we spend in the car?
- Very little, which is most of the reason this region suits families. Nothing on a family itinerary is more than ninety minutes' drive, the peninsula day is a loop rather than a transfer, and you unpack twice in eight days.
- Our children are very different ages. Does that work?
- It is the thing we design around most often. Usually it means splitting the party for part of a day rather than hunting for one activity that suits a six-year-old and a fifteen-year-old, and it works far better than the compromise that pleases neither.
- What is there for teenagers?
- The canopy tour above Elgin, shark cage diving at Gansbaai from age eight, sandboarding at Betty's Bay, kloofing in the Winelands, surfing at Muizenberg and a deep-sea charter out of Hout Bay. Give us the ages and we will put the right things in rather than defaulting to the under-tens version.
- Do you provide child seats?
- Yes, fitted to the ages and weights you give us, at no extra charge, in place before you land. Bring your own if you would rather.
- What about the safety question?
- It is the thing people ask last and worry about first, so here is the short version. South Africa's violent crime is high and heavily concentrated in areas no visitor goes near. The incidents that catch tourists cluster tightly around hire cars: a wrong turn, an unattended boot, a breakdown out of signal. Being driven by somebody who lives here removes most of that category outright. The longer, more honest version is in the journal.
Itineraries built this way
7 days · 6 nights
The Classic Cape Week
The city, the peninsula, the Winelands and the whale coast, in one region.
What tends to suit
Wildlife
The penguins at Boulders
Two thousand African penguins on a suburban beach.
An hour and a half, usually part of a peninsula day
Adventure
Zip lining in the Overberg
Thirteen slides through an indigenous forest gorge above Elgin.
Half a day, about three hours on the cables plus the drive
Adventure
Horse riding on Noordhoek beach
Eight kilometres of empty sand, and nothing else on it.
Two hours, or a half day with the wine estate ride
Scenic
Boat trips and sunset cruises
Seal Island out of Hout Bay, or a glass of something off Clifton.
Forty minutes to three hours, depending on the boat
From guests who travelled this way
I will be honest: I spent four months worrying about this trip and about ninety minutes actually worrying once we were there. Angie was inside the terminal before we had cleared passport control, the car seats were already fitted, and she knew both our children's names and ages before she met them. By day three my husband had stopped checking the news and by day six I had stopped counting bags. The thing I did not expect was how much thought had gone into the pacing. There was a day in the middle with nothing on it at all, which I would never have planned myself and which saved the rest of the week. The penguins were on day two rather than day six, which in hindsight was obviously right. And the zip line thing above Elgin is the only part of any holiday my eleven-year-old has ever described as the best day of his life.
The Hartley family
Greenwich, Connecticut ·
8 days · Cape Town, the peninsula and the whale coast
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Two adults, three children under ten, and eight days that never once required us to be anywhere at half past five in the morning. The one early start, for the penguins, they explained the reason for the night before and everybody went along with it happily. The children still talk about the penguins. The adults still talk about the day in the middle with nothing planned.
The Nkosi-Reid family
Chicago, Illinois ·
8 days · Cape Town, the peninsula and the Overberg
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Nine of us, aged from four to seventy-eight, which is not a party most operators want. Cape Compass did not blink at it. They asked more questions about my mother's mobility than about our budget, and every viewpoint on the peninsula day turned out to be one she could actually reach. The vehicle was large enough that nobody had to sit in the back and shout. The guide learned by the second day who needed lunch at noon and who wanted to keep walking, and split us up accordingly without making it awkward. I have organised family holidays before and I have never had one where I did not, at some point, want to go home.
The Okonkwo party
Houston, Texas ·
10 days · the full Cape circuit with three generations
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Practical questions
- What ages does this work best for?
- Six to sixteen is the easiest range. Under six works well if the safari is in the Eastern Cape and the itinerary has fewer moves in it. Teenagers do very well here.
- When should we come, given school holidays?
- The Easter fortnight and the British October half-term both fall in excellent Cape months. Christmas and New Year is peak season here as well as at home and wants booking a long way ahead, and it is also our windiest period. July and August is our winter: green, mild and wet, fine for everything except swimming, and by far the quietest time in the city.
- Can we do laundry?
- Yes, and we plan for it. Where a family stays two nights or more we pick properties with laundry, and the serviced apartments we use in Cape Town have washing machines. It sounds trivial and it changes how much you pack.
- Is the food a problem for fussy eaters?
- Rarely. South African food is broadly familiar and the portions are generous. We pass dietary requirements, allergies and preferences to every restaurant and lodge before you arrive, including "will eat nothing green", which we have handled more than once.
- What if a child is ill?
- Cape Town has private hospitals of a standard British and American visitors find familiar, and your guide knows where they are. We ask every guest to carry travel insurance with medical cover, which is the one thing we are firm about.
Tell us your children's ages
It is the third question on the form and it changes more of the itinerary than anything else you can tell us. Three minutes, and a reply within one working day.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.