Cape Town
A working city wedged between a mountain and two oceans.
4 to 6 nights
7 days · 6 nights
A Cape Honeymoon
Seven days built for two. The peninsula, two nights on a wine estate and two on the coast, with everything arranged in advance and almost nothing on the schedule, because the point of a honeymoon is not being organised at.
- Length
- 7 days · 6 nights
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Suited to
- honeymooners, couples, anniversaries
- When to go
- October to April for long evenings and warm water. The European winter is high summer here, which is why so many British honeymoons end up on this coast.
The brief for a honeymoon is not "see more". It is "decide less".
So this itinerary has three stops in seven days, two of them for more than one night, and about half the scheduled hours of the trips we build for families. What it does have is everything booked: the table on the terrace at the right hour, the estate that will not put you at a counter with a coach party, the room at the end of the corridor rather than above the kitchen.
Telling us it is a honeymoon
Do, on the enquiry form. Not so that anyone scatters rose petals, which we will ask them specifically not to do unless you want it, but because the hotels we work with will quietly move a table or upgrade a room, and because we build the pace differently.
If you are going on to a safari
A lot of honeymoons here are a Cape week followed by a few nights in the bush. We run the Cape half, book the internal flight and hand you over at the airport. We do not operate at the other end and we will not pretend to, but we know who does.
The route
Day by day
Day 1
Arrival, and a table with a view
Your guide meets you at arrivals and drives you to a hotel on the Atlantic seaboard. Nothing is scheduled. There is one table booked for the evening, on a terrace facing west, at the hour the light goes gold, and you are welcome to cancel it and sleep instead.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, Atlantic seaboard
- Meals included
- Dinner
Day 2
The peninsula, slowly
Boulders early while it is quiet, Cape Point by eleven, and then we stop running. Lunch somewhere on the water, then an afternoon at Noordhoek, on foot or on a horse along the waterline, and Chapman's Peak on the way home with the roof open. On a honeymoon we cut the circuit in half and give the rest of the day to doing nothing, which is a better use of it than a fourth viewpoint.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, Atlantic seaboard
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Lunch
- What you might do
Day 3
The mountain, and then whatever you like
Up before the queue builds, and an hour on the plateau with the whole peninsula laid out. After that the day is yours: a helicopter along the Twelve Apostles, a sunset cruise off Clifton, the galleries at the Silo district, a beach at Llandudno, or nothing at all. Your guide is on the phone and otherwise invisible.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, Atlantic seaboard
- Meals included
- Breakfast
- What you might do
Days 4 to 5
Two nights in Franschhoek
Franschhoek is small enough to walk to dinner and pretty enough to justify the reputation. One day of estates, two before lunch with the cellars walked properly and a long table under oaks, then one day of nothing much: the pass above the village at dawn, a swim, a spa, an early supper. Your guide does not taste and does all the driving, which is the whole reason this works.
- Where you stay
- Wine estate, Franschhoek
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Lunch
- What you might do
Day 6
Over the mountains to the sea
Across the Franschhoek pass and down to the coast, stopping in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley behind Hermanus, which makes the best pinot noir and chardonnay in South Africa and which almost no visitor knows about. Hermanus in the afternoon and the cliff path in the last of the light. In season the southern rights are in Walker Bay directly below you.
- Where you stay
- Small coastal hotel, Hermanus
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Dinner
- What you might do
Day 7
The coast road, and home
One of the great drives and only ninety minutes of it, with the water on one side and the Kogelberg on the other. Your guide runs you to the airport whenever the flight needs.
- Meals included
- Breakfast
What is included
What is included
- A registered guide with you for all seven days
- Private vehicle and all ground transport, airport to airport
- All accommodation, chosen and booked by us
- Daily breakfast plus the meals marked on each day
- Park fees, reserve entry and conservation levies
- Restaurant and cellar bookings arranged in advance
- A number that reaches one of us at any hour, with your itinerary in front of them
What is not
- International flights and visas
- Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to carry
- Meals not marked on the itinerary
- Drinks, gratuities and anything of a personal nature
- Optional extras such as helicopter flights, boat trips and spa treatments
We publish no figures on this website, because the same fortnight varies enormously with the properties, the season and the size of the party. You get one total covering everything listed above, before anything becomes payable.
Guests who travelled on this itinerary
We had been quite specific that we did not want a honeymoon that felt organised at, and this was the first company that seemed to actually hear it. Nine days, three places, and about half the schedule anyone else had proposed. What we paid for, it turns out, was the absence of decisions. Every restaurant was booked at the right hour. The estate in Franschhoek did not put us at a counter with a tour bus. The hotel in Hermanus moved us to a room facing the water without our asking, which I later found out was because Sam had asked. Nobody scattered rose petals anywhere, which we had specifically requested and which apparently is harder to achieve than you would think.
Ben and Marianne W.
Notting Hill, London ·
7 days · Cape Town, the peninsula, Franschhoek and Hermanus
Placeholder testimonial. Replace with a real guest review before launch.
We went in the Cape winter, which everyone told us was the wrong time, and it was the best possible advice we ignored. The city was quiet and clear between the fronts, the wine estates had fires lit and nobody in them, and there were whales in Walker Bay in July with about six other people on the cliff path. Cape Compass were straight with us about the trade-offs rather than selling us a season. That is the whole reason we trusted the rest of it.
James and Priya C.
San Francisco, California ·
7 days · Cape Town, the Winelands and the whale coast
Placeholder testimonial. Replace with a real guest review before launch.
Where this trip goes
The Cape Peninsula
Forty miles of mountain and ocean, ending at a lighthouse.
0 to 2 nights
The Cape Winelands
Three hundred years of vines, an hour from the airport.
2 to 3 nights
The Whale Coast and Overberg
Whales below the cliff path, and a forest gorge on the way there.
1 to 3 nights
What you might do
Food and wine
Wine tasting in the Cape
Three estates, one long lunch, and a guide who drives.
A full day, or a half day from Cape Town
Scenic
Helicopter flights
Twenty minutes over the peninsula, or a valley-to-valley transfer.
Twenty minutes to an hour, plus briefing
Scenic
Cape Point
A lighthouse on a cliff at the end of the peninsula.
Half a day, or a full day combined with the penguins
Scenic
Table Mountain
The flat top of the city, by cable car or on foot.
Two to three hours by cable car, half a day on foot
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
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
Worth reading first
Planning ·
When to visit Cape Town, month by month
High summer is not the best month here, and winter is a great deal better than its reputation. A month-by-month guide to the Cape, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
Use this as a starting point
Almost every trip we run began as one of these and ended up somewhere else. Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will redraw it around you. Six questions, about three minutes.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.