Cape Town
A working city wedged between a mountain and two oceans.
4 to 6 nights
8 days · 7 nights
A Family Week in the Cape
Eight days designed backwards from the things that actually go wrong on a family holiday: too much driving, too many hotel changes, an early start nobody agreed to, and an activity with a minimum age that nobody mentioned.
- Length
- 8 days · 7 nights
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Suited to
- families with children, multi-generational parties
- When to go
- Built around the school holidays: December to early January, the Easter fortnight, and July and August, which is winter here but works better than people expect.
Every decision in this itinerary came from working backwards from something that went wrong on somebody's family holiday.
Five nights in Cape Town rather than three, so there is room for a day off in the middle. Two nights on the coast after that, so nobody repacks every morning. No drive longer than ninety minutes. And an itinerary that has the penguins on day two, because that is the thing they came for and there is no sense saving it.
Child seats
Every vehicle carries seats appropriate to the ages you give us, fitted before you arrive, at no extra charge. We ask for ages on the enquiry form for exactly this reason.
Age limits worth knowing
The canopy tour is seven and up, with a weight range set by the operator. Shark cage diving is eight and up, though anyone can watch from the deck. Everything else on this itinerary works at any age.
What the guide does that a driver does not
She knows the aquarium is a two-hour building and the museum is a forty-minute one. She knows which beach has a lifeguard in February and which side of the mountain the wind is on. Mostly she takes the daily logistics of an unfamiliar city off you entirely, which is the thing you are actually buying.
The route
Day by day
Day 1
Arrival, and absolutely nothing else
Your guide meets you inside the terminal, which matters more with children and a trolley of bags than without, and drives you in. We book a family room or an apartment with a kitchen rather than two hotel rooms on different floors. Nothing is scheduled. Supper is early and near.
- Where you stay
- Serviced apartment, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Dinner
Day 2
Penguins first
Boulders at half past eight, before the boardwalk fills, with the birds coming back through the surf. A beach afterwards, then lunch at Kalk Bay harbour where the boats come in and sell what they caught off the quay. Cape Point in the early afternoon with the funicular rather than the climb, and home by five. The scenic viewpoints matter far less to a seven-year-old than the penguins do, and we build the day accordingly.
- Where you stay
- Serviced apartment, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Lunch
- What you might do
Days 3 to 4
The mountain, the aquarium and a boat
The cableway on the morning the wind allows, with an hour at the top on the level circular path. The Two Oceans Aquarium at the Waterfront, which is the best rainy-day answer in the city and holds most children for two hours. The seal island boat out of Hout Bay, which is forty wet minutes and reliably a hit. And Kirstenbosch, where the tree canopy walkway lands well and the lawns are made for a picnic and an afternoon of nothing.
- Where you stay
- Serviced apartment, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Breakfast
- What you might do
Day 5
A day off
Halfway through we take a day out entirely. Pool, beach, washing, and a parent reading a book. Your guide is on the phone if you want something and otherwise you will not hear from us. This day does more for the week than any activity we could put in it.
- Where you stay
- Serviced apartment, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Breakfast
Day 6
Over the pass, and into the trees
An hour over Sir Lowry's Pass to the canopy tour in the Hottentots Holland, thirteen zip lines down a forested gorge with two guides on the group and a waterfall under the middle of it. Minimum age seven and it is the single best thing out here for a family with teenagers. Lunch in the Elgin valley, then down to Hermanus for two nights.
- Where you stay
- Small coastal hotel, Hermanus
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Lunch
- What you might do
Day 7
The cliff path and the rock pools
The cliff path at dawn if anyone will get up for it, which in whale season puts southern rights and their calves directly below you, close enough to hear breathing. Out of season it is rock pools, a beach, and the best fish and chips on this coast. Older children can go out on a shark cage boat from Gansbaai, half an hour east, from age eight.
- Where you stay
- Small coastal hotel, Hermanus
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Dinner
- What you might do
Day 8
The coast road home
Back on the R44 with the water on one side and the Kogelberg on the other, stopping at Betty's Bay for the second penguin colony that hardly anyone bothers with. Ninety minutes to the airport, unhurried.
- Meals included
- Breakfast
What is included
What is included
- A registered guide with you for all eight days
- Private vehicle with child seats fitted to age and weight, at no extra charge
- All accommodation, chosen for families and booked by us
- Daily breakfast plus the meals marked on each day
- Park fees, reserve entry and conservation levies
- Restaurant bookings made in advance, with dietary requirements passed on
- 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 the canopy tour, boat trips and shark cage diving
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
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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Where this trip goes
The Cape Peninsula
Forty miles of mountain and ocean, ending at a lighthouse.
0 to 2 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
Wildlife
The penguins at Boulders
Two thousand African penguins on a suburban beach.
An hour and a half, usually part of a peninsula day
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
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
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
Adventure
Shark cage diving
Gansbaai, a surface cage, and no diving qualification needed.
A morning, roughly five hours on the water and back
Worth reading first
Safety ·
Is Cape Town safe for a family holiday? An honest answer.
It comes up in about half the enquiries we get, usually apologetically. Here is what the risk actually consists of in this city, what changes it, and what we think is genuinely worth planning around.
Planning ·
The peninsula day, in the right order
Almost every visitor drives the Cape Peninsula the same way round, at the same time, and meets every coach in the Western Cape at Cape Point. There is no reason to, and the day is transformed by running it backwards.
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.