Cape Town Tours Ahead of Elegant Adventure
On the Elegant Adventure Tour, can anyone detail what the Cape Peninsula Day entailed. We are considering a Cape Fusion Tours day tour ahead of the Tauck trip, but don't want to duplicate everything. Does Tauck take us on Chapman's Peak Drive and to any of the small towns? I know they go to Boulder's Beach for penguins and Cape of Good Hope sign. Any details would help. We are also considering a City walking food tour with Cape Fusion Tours based on some forum comments that the Tauck city tour wasn't great. Please let me know what you thought of the Tauck City tour and also if you did the Cape Fusion walking tour. We are deciding between the Peninsula tour, the city walking food tour or skipping those two independent tours and just doing things on our own. We do plan to do a private Wineland's tour with Cape Fusion tours.
Comments
I don't know about the Elegant Adventure itinerary but on the Botswana tour, Cape Peninsula day was a long bus ride with stops at a couple of view points, the actual cape/Cape Sign, some time to ride a short funicular or climb steps to the base (only) of the Cape lighthouse, and lunch at the only (Nat'l Park?) restaurant nearby After lunch we rode the bus to Simon Town where we had a few minutes to check out the store fronts before boarding a rather small boat for a rough windy trip out into the bay to see the Sea Lions, before a long bus ride back to the hotel for the Farewell Dinner. Weather was very overcast with occasional light rain so the day could have been much better. Anyone even slightly prone to seasickness should think about passing on the boat ride.
BeckyL, we loved our extra day in Capetown and filled it by going to Robben Island followed by lunch along the Victoria and Albert waterfront ( lots of good restaurants ) and then taking the complimentary car provided by the Cape Grace down to Long Street where there is terrific shopping at Tribal Trends. Back to the hotel for the Welcome Dinner. I did not experience the bus ride down the coast to be extremely long as we made interesting stops along the way. There is a local artist named David who sells his wonderful and inexpensive paintings at the Hout Bay rest stop. I also enjoyed Capetown’s Zeitz Museum although I think it has been renamed. The best contemporary African art in SA. Fortunately, we had excellent weather both times going down the coast ( first time Elegant Adventure; second time Botswana, Zambia and South Africa )
. Not sure if they are still there. But, the hotel has a car that will help you to get to local places. There was no charge for the service, but we did tip the driver, of course. The driver took us to Cable Mountain and picked us up later. Even though Cable Mountain is included in the tour, the cable car to the top is very dependent on the weather. So, we went up on one of our free days. As it was, during our tour, the trip to Table Top was canceled due to wind. The city tour may have changed- since I was there, but it did not include the District 6 museum, which is worth a visit. Some of our fellow travelers did a food tour, which was enjoyable. The driver also took us to the Holocaust museum and synagogue, which were nice visits.
By the way, there was a decadent afternoon tea at the Cape Grace- one was enough for 2 people (FYI).
You are staying across the way from an art museum, which is worth a visit as well. When our Tauck Cable Mountain tour was canceled, ,our tour guide bought the group tickets for the museum.
One of the best tours is Robbins Island boat tour. I watched the weather forecast before we left the States and we were lucky to have nice weather. The concierge secured the tickets for us and you can also get them at the dock. We needed to send the concierge our passport information in order for him to get us the boat tickets. It's a rough boat ride (I get seasick), but well worth the visit. You'll have a lecture by one of Nelson Mandella's guards (Mr. Brand). I purchased and read his book as well.
Robben Island is closed for maintenance from June 16 until the end of August.