Cape Town, South Africa - Beautiful, Seaside, And A Little Dangerous!
This is a guest post by Jatin Kumar, on his recent trip to South Africa-Shrinidhi
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I recently went to Cape Town, South Africa with my mother and a couple of her friends. We were looking for a nice and small place to vacation in the summer.
An interesting thing about South Africa is that its summer and winter are reversed. So the winter is in June, July, and August. We went there in June and stayed for 1 month. So we got to experience a nice winter while escaping the heat in India!
Instead of staying a hotel, we rented a house. It was cheaper, and turned out to be better. It was located by the seaside, and it was an open and airy house. The landlord was very nice too.
Here is a picture of our house:
One of the first things we did was go to the V&A waterfront. It’s the most famous attraction in the city. It attracts over 23 million visitors each year!
It’s a large area with shopping centers, a harbour, museum, hotel, aquarium, and bridge. It was a lot of fun to walk around the beautiful area, see the museum, and enjoy the authentic seafood.
Cape Town is a beautiful city filled with blue colors and mountains. It’s one of the bet destinations we’ve ever visited.
It’s right next to the Atlantic Ocean. The air is clean and fresh.
One of the places I had to go to, of course, was the beach!
When it was around evening, I went to the Sea Point beach-side area. It has an open beach that anyone can go to at any time.
People were setting up picnics, bicycling by the road, playing with toys, and swimming in the ocean. It’s a vibrant and relaxed area.
Like any place, Cape Town is not without its downsides. It’s known for its high crime. Thankfully, we chose to stay in an area which is relatively safe. But when you’re touring around the city, you have to be careful.
One time, when we were shopping in a grocery store, my phone got pick-pocketed. I didn’t realize it had happened, until I reached home.
This is a word of advice to every traveler: Look after your belongings.
An awesome place we visited was the Table Mountain. It’s a large mountain where people go hiking in groups. It was chilly, but the workout of climbing the mountain kept us warm.
On one of the nights, we went to a restaurant across the street to try original South Africa food. It was our first time tasting South African food. We had some South African stew, sausages, and rice. It had a unique flavor and was delicious. The meat made in South Africa is tender and juicy; it’s part of their daily diet.
Cape Town was a fun experience. It was clean and beautiful. The people were nice and the food tasted great. We’d love to go back there again.
How You Can Travel To South Africa?
An an Indian citizen, you need a visa to go to South Africa. You can apply at a visa center or embassy. They ask you for your passport, status of employment, bank account details, and a cover letter. They may ask for more documents if necessary.
It took about 1 month to get our visa. It was a smooth process. The visa fee was 3000 INR. It’s valid for 90 days.
Flights are affordable. A round-trip costs around 30,000 INR per person. The best route is to book a flight with a layover in Ethiopia or Mauritius. It’s the cheapest with low wait times at the layover. We chose the Ethiopia route. The airlines were Ethiopian Airlines.
Thankfully, my mother had a connection in Cape Town, so he let us rent his apartment for 1 month. It cost 90,000 INR. It was big enough for the 4 of us.
If you’re going to Cape Town, I recommend booking a home on Airbnb. If you want to stay in a hotel, I recommend the Mandela Rhodes Place.
In total, the trip cost us somewhere between 3 and 3.5 lakh. This is pretty cheap for 4 people, in a country that’s so far away. It was well-worth the money.
Because safety is an issue, the best area to stay in is Sea Point. I’m sure you’ll find apartments to rent there, it’s where we stayed. It’s one of the safest areas in the city. It has low crime and it’s regularly patrolled by private security.
When you’re going around the city, be careful of scams and pickpockets. It’s recommended to not talk to people and make conversations with them, if they seem like sketchy random people on the street. Homeless people will also come up to you and ask for money, and you can either ignore them or give some change. They’re harmless, they don’t seem to be scammers
One thing to note is that Cape Town has a water shortage. We were told by the landlord to be mindful of our water shortage. But there wasn’t a big problem, we were able to use water without shortage. Still, it’s necessary not to waste any water.
If you have extra time, you should definitely check out the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. You can also go to Namibia, which is close-by.
Jatin is a blogger from India. He works from home and likes to travel in his free time. You can check out his blog at IncomeLearner.com.
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I recently went to Cape Town, South Africa with my mother and a couple of her friends. We were looking for a nice and small place to vacation in the summer.
An interesting thing about South Africa is that its summer and winter are reversed. So the winter is in June, July, and August. We went there in June and stayed for 1 month. So we got to experience a nice winter while escaping the heat in India!
Instead of staying a hotel, we rented a house. It was cheaper, and turned out to be better. It was located by the seaside, and it was an open and airy house. The landlord was very nice too.
Here is a picture of our house:
It’s a large area with shopping centers, a harbour, museum, hotel, aquarium, and bridge. It was a lot of fun to walk around the beautiful area, see the museum, and enjoy the authentic seafood.
Cape Town is a beautiful city filled with blue colors and mountains. It’s one of the bet destinations we’ve ever visited.
It’s right next to the Atlantic Ocean. The air is clean and fresh.
One of the places I had to go to, of course, was the beach!
When it was around evening, I went to the Sea Point beach-side area. It has an open beach that anyone can go to at any time.
People were setting up picnics, bicycling by the road, playing with toys, and swimming in the ocean. It’s a vibrant and relaxed area.
Like any place, Cape Town is not without its downsides. It’s known for its high crime. Thankfully, we chose to stay in an area which is relatively safe. But when you’re touring around the city, you have to be careful.
One time, when we were shopping in a grocery store, my phone got pick-pocketed. I didn’t realize it had happened, until I reached home.
This is a word of advice to every traveler: Look after your belongings.
An awesome place we visited was the Table Mountain. It’s a large mountain where people go hiking in groups. It was chilly, but the workout of climbing the mountain kept us warm.
On one of the nights, we went to a restaurant across the street to try original South Africa food. It was our first time tasting South African food. We had some South African stew, sausages, and rice. It had a unique flavor and was delicious. The meat made in South Africa is tender and juicy; it’s part of their daily diet.
Cape Town was a fun experience. It was clean and beautiful. The people were nice and the food tasted great. We’d love to go back there again.
How You Can Travel To South Africa?
An an Indian citizen, you need a visa to go to South Africa. You can apply at a visa center or embassy. They ask you for your passport, status of employment, bank account details, and a cover letter. They may ask for more documents if necessary.
It took about 1 month to get our visa. It was a smooth process. The visa fee was 3000 INR. It’s valid for 90 days.
Flights are affordable. A round-trip costs around 30,000 INR per person. The best route is to book a flight with a layover in Ethiopia or Mauritius. It’s the cheapest with low wait times at the layover. We chose the Ethiopia route. The airlines were Ethiopian Airlines.
Thankfully, my mother had a connection in Cape Town, so he let us rent his apartment for 1 month. It cost 90,000 INR. It was big enough for the 4 of us.
If you’re going to Cape Town, I recommend booking a home on Airbnb. If you want to stay in a hotel, I recommend the Mandela Rhodes Place.
In total, the trip cost us somewhere between 3 and 3.5 lakh. This is pretty cheap for 4 people, in a country that’s so far away. It was well-worth the money.
Because safety is an issue, the best area to stay in is Sea Point. I’m sure you’ll find apartments to rent there, it’s where we stayed. It’s one of the safest areas in the city. It has low crime and it’s regularly patrolled by private security.
When you’re going around the city, be careful of scams and pickpockets. It’s recommended to not talk to people and make conversations with them, if they seem like sketchy random people on the street. Homeless people will also come up to you and ask for money, and you can either ignore them or give some change. They’re harmless, they don’t seem to be scammers
One thing to note is that Cape Town has a water shortage. We were told by the landlord to be mindful of our water shortage. But there wasn’t a big problem, we were able to use water without shortage. Still, it’s necessary not to waste any water.
If you have extra time, you should definitely check out the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. You can also go to Namibia, which is close-by.
Good one
ReplyDeleteNice article
ReplyDeleteGreat to read.
ReplyDeleteAwesome experience indeed except the lose of phone.
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteGreat! Thanks for sharing this information I am so very happy to read this content
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing such a useful information about Cape Town, South Africa.
ReplyDeletegreat knowledge..........
ReplyDelete