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Contiki Cape to Delta: Cape Town Crash Course
- Mike McHugh
- Jun 27
- 11 min read
Updated: Aug 3
The past few days in Cape Town with Contiki were an absolute whirlwind and a fantastic way to kick off what will surely be the trip of a lifetime. I feel like I say that a lot about my trips, but most Contiki trips are truly the trip of a lifetime and I am so fortunate to be on eight of them so far in my lifetime, about to embark on my ninth.
The Orientation & First Evening
Our Contiki trip kicked off on Sunday evening with an orientation from Jesse, our Contiki Trip Manager, about 20 travelers from the USA, Australia and Mexico. We also have the unique experience of having Yuji, a Contiki Trip Manager that runs many of the Southeast Asia trips, shadowing Jesse as he will be running this itinerary in the near future. The two hour orientation had an ambitious, important agenda including an overview of the itinerary, paperwork, a review of extra excursions options not included in Contiki’s base package & other miscellaneous items. I did learn that we are actually going to be going to Zimbabwe on this trip as, given the time of year, the hotel we are staying at is in a better location. That means I'll hit country number 57 on this trip!
Once the orientation concluded, most of the group headed to a Time Out Market, a food hall, for our first meal together. It was perfect as there were many global food options including South African food, pizza, ramen and sushi. Even though I was in South Africa and felt obligated to have the local cuisine, I was still full from my lunch, so I elected to have gyoza and a glass of Pinot Noir from the wine bar also in the food hall.
It was nearly 10:00 PM by the time we finished and most of the group had just gotten in that morning, so everyone went back to the hotel and crashed.
A Full Day Exploring the Mother City a.k.a. Cape Town
Our first day in Cape Town on tour was really about exploring the beautiful city of Cape Town.
The hotel had a full breakfast buffet with an omlette bar which was fantastic and we hit the road at 8:00 AM on the dot. The weather was a bit overcast, but we hoped it would burn off quickly as we were on our way to Table Mountain, one of the new seven natural wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has a cable car that goes from the base to the top of the flat mountain for an epic view of Cape Town, the surrounding area & the ocean.
Unfortunately, the cable car was shut down because of low visibility and high winds so we decided to pivot and go to Signal Hill for a different view, from a lower vantage point but had a picturesque overlook where we could see Table Mountain.
After the photo stop, Table Mountain was still closed so we decided to proceed with our itinerary and go back up to the mountain if it opened up later in the day (spoiler alert, it did not).
The next item on our itinerary was a city tour. It started in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood I took a tour of the day previous, but we really didn't spend too much time there so it mainly served as a photo stop. The nice thing was it was not raining at the time, so I was able to take better pictures this time around.
We walked down a hill for about 10 minutes until we continued the walking tour. Our first stop was to see two benches in front of the High Court, which are the epitome of Apartheid, and really had parallels to what the United States had with segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. One bench clearly said "Whites Only" and "Non-Whites Only". This served as the introduction to Apartheid for our group. It literally translates to "apartness" in Afrikaans and took place between 1948 - 1994, and was essentially the categorization of people into four groups - white, black, colored & Indian). This dictated everything from where people lived to who they could date to where they could work to where they were even allowed to be at certain points in the day. There were curfews and some of the groups literally needed documentation to be in a certain area, the documentation was eventually nicknamed a "dompas" or "stupid pass". It wasn't until 1994, when under immense internal and external pressure from countries like the USA & UK that Apartheid finally ended. The following year, South Africa hosted and won the Rugby World Cup (as depicted in the move, Invictus).
We then continued to walk towards Company Gardens. The first stop here was an area with a few memorials to war heroes. We learned that the South African military was a huge reason that one of the key battles, the Battle of Delville Wood, against the Germans in World War I was won by the allies, they sent 3,500 soldiers to an offensive front and, within a week, only 600 were left. While there were statues honoring some of the white leaders, there was no mention of the non-white soldiers, many of which were sent into the battle unarmed until a few years ago when they erected a memorial of those soldiers.
We then continued to the VOC Vegetable Garden, a smaller garden of what was once established by the Dutch settlers over 350 years ago when Cape Town became a resting point for sailors between East India and Holland. The garden had a variety of vegetables and herbs from Holland which gave the sailors a taste of home.
Our next stop was a statue of Cecil John Rhodes, a former Prime Minister who is seen as one of the founders of the Apartheid movement. Despite this, his statue still up. He was the founder of De Beers Mining Company.
When we were on our way to the next stop, it started pouring out of nowhere so we seeked shelter under a giant tree. Unfortunately, I left my jacket and baseball cap on the bus because it was so nice when we got off and I got pretty wet. After about 15 minutes, the storm passed and it was more of a sprinkle so we continued our walking tour in rapid fashion. We ended the tour at a statue of Nelson Mandela from the balcony of where he spoke for the first time to a crowd of supporters after being released from Robben Island in 1994.
We then hopped into the bus and headed to a "township", a smaller version of what we would call a "reservation" in the United States. It was a place where many people were forcibly moved to during Apartheid where many people still live because they can't afford to move out. A local cook made our group lunch which was so good, our group collectively ate it all.
With our bellies full, we headed on a walking tour of the Langa Township, the oldest in Cape Town, where we learned a bit about the history and how things operate. It was quite sobering, but the people are united and have created a strong community that supports each other. Many of the people that work in hotels and restaurants in Cape Town all come from the various Townships every day.
We visited an art gallery which features local artists before going to see the various types of accommodations that people squeeze into - a shipping container, to a hostel style housing, to small single family units to full houses.
The first stop was the shipping container which was the size of a tractor trailer. It was split in half by a metal wall, so there were two doors. I would estimate the space was about 8' x 10' and the one we saw had 3 generations of one family living in it. Four people shared a full or queen size bed and a child slept on a mat on the floor. The bathroom was a pot in the corner of the room and the kitchen consisted of a hot plate at the foot of the bed. This was meant to be a temporary situation as people were displaced from other areas to create space for the government to build proper units, but the corruption in the government is a large issue and the units are either not getting built or there is bribery which allows people to jump each other on the wait-list.
The second stop was closer to a hostel accommodation and was used during Apartheid for males who had jobs in Cape Town. The hostel originally had 3 rooms with 4 bunk beds, a common living area and a bathroom. It was converted, though, to a situation where two full families shared a room. Each room had two twin beds which were shared by the parents which were split by a hanging sheet at night to give each couple privacy. All of the children slept in the common area, either on the floor or on the kitchen table. They blocked the main entrance to the building, so there was a strict 11:00 PM curfew to ensure the children's sleep wasn't interrupted. Each of the rooms also had a hot plate in it to act as a kitchen.
The third stop was what the government supposedly displaced the people living in shipping containers to clear space to build. It was a large upgrade where there was a bedroom, a bathroom & a living area for one family.
We then walked to the kindergarten classroom and learned that the kids have 13 hour days because their parents commute in and out of Cape Town. The kids were in the middle of nap time, but the teachers went through their daily routine and said that they periodically have doctors come in to care for the children.
Our final stop was on the outskirts of the community, where residents literally built houses with fenced in grass yards. Our tour guide claimed there was no resentment from other residents as the Township was a community, but it is hard to think the people squeezed into shipping containers aren't resentful of the people that built those nice houses.
After our Township tour, we went back to the hotel where we had a bit of free time. I went to walk around the V&A Waterfront to see if anything jumped out at me as something I needed before I headed to Kruger National Park. I felt prepared, so I decided to go back to the Time Out Market we ate the previous night and have a wine tasting.
I then went back to the hotel and dropped off a few items to be washed to hold me until Johannesburg where we will have the opportunity to have staff at our guest house wash everything for us at the midpoint of the trip. The laundry was a bit pricey, but I got what I needed for about $10 which is cheaper than buying additional items of clothes I don't need.
It was then time for our three hour cooking class where we learned how to make a variety of South African dishes. We were greeted with a local chilled drink and some appetizers before we were split into teams that were assigned to cook 3 different items that the group would be eating as a group when everything was finished. Our group was tasked with preparing the pork chops, a salad and rainbow bread. I paired up with someone and we took on the rainbow bread. As the measuring cups were being used, we eyeballed the ingredients and were quite skeptical about what the result would look (and taste) like. At the end of the evening, everyone's food tasted great including our rainbow bread, which got many positive comments.
Exploring the Outskirts of Cape Town
Our final full day in the Cape Town area started pretty early, we had to be done with breakfast and on the bus by 7:30 AM. As we drove to the outskirts of Cape Town for our intended itinerary, the sun rose off the coast on my side of the bus. It was truly breathtaking.
Our first stop was a scenic point in Camps Bay which was beautiful.
While we were taking photos our Trip Manager, Jesse, was checking something and excitedly came out and asked everyone to run and get on the bus because we were going to Table Mountain! The initial thought was to try to do Table Mountain on the way back into town if the cable car was operating, but he decided to make some phone calls to swap a few things around in the itinerary to make it happen before so we could be sure to get it in while it was such a beautiful day with clear skies.
Our bus immediately went to Table Mountain, one of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World, where there was already a line. The day before we were the first people to the mountain, but we got there about 15 minutes later and were stuck behind at least 250 people. The line was not terrible, though, as there were absolutely stunning views from the queue.
We made it through the ticketing area within about 20 minutes and were next in line for the cable car to the top of the mountain. The really cool feature of this cable car was that the floor actually rotated 360 degrees, so everyone along the outside got views of the canyon and the ocean during the ascent to 3,653 feet above sea level. Once we got to the top of Table Mountain we were immediately in awe as we took in the views.
We had about an hour at the top of Table Mountain before we took the cable car back down to our bus. We took a few more scenic stops along the coast on our way to the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern most point in Africa.
After this brief stop, we were running very behind so we hopped back in the bus and went to the Cape Point Lighthouse. Given our time constraints, we had less than an hour to make it to the top of a steep hill with a lot of steps. It is considered moderately difficult and they actually built a funicular, which I intended to use on the way down if I ran out of time. Unfortunately, the funicular was not operating so I tried to hike up and down and almost made it, but ultimately turned around when I was about 80% of the way there as I didn't want to hold up the bus. I still got fantastic views and made it back to the meeting point with time to spare.
We then continued to our lunch stop, Seaforth Restaurant. Even though I'm not a seafood lover, I ultimately decided it was worth trying the highly recommended prawn pasta. It did not disappoint.
Our bellies full, we walked to an African Penguin Reserve on Boulders Beach where we saw dozens of penguins including some going into and out of the water.
We then drove to our final stop of the evening, Groot Constantia, South Africa's oldest vineyard which was established in 1685 for a wine tasting. We had a rose, two whites and three reds. My favorite was a pinotage, which I confirmed I can get in the United States and know I will definitely be doing so.
We made it back to the hotel at around 7:00 PM. Some people went back down to the waterfront to buy a few final staples, but I was luckily all set because we had a 4:00 AM departure for our flight to Johannesburg the following morning. I packed and was in bed by 7:30 PM which meant I was very rested for our early flight!
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