#51 best destination in the world

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

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  • Waterfront in Cape Town situated on the Atlantic shore

Bo-Kaap

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  • Area known for its brightly colored homes and cobble stoned streets
  • The area contains the largest concentration of pre-1850 architecture in South Africa, and is the oldest surviving residential neighborhood in Cape Town

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

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  • Cable car transportation system offering visitors a 5 minute ride to the top of Table Mountain

Chapman’s Peak

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  • Mountain on the Cape Peninsula
  • The western flank of the mountain falls sharply for hundreds of meters into the Atlantic Ocean, and a road, known as Chapman’s Peak Drive, hugs the near-vertical face of the mountain
  • Tourists and locals often stop at viewpoints along this road

Boulders Beach

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  • Sheltered beach made up of inlets between granite boulders
  • It is a popular tourist stop because of a colony of African penguins which settled there in 1982
  • These penguins are currently on the verge of extinction
  • As a result, the penguins are under the protection of the Cape Nature Conservation
  • The granite boulders are 540 million years old

Apartheid Museum

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  • Museum illustrating apartheid and the 20th century history of South Africa
  • Opened in 2001
  • At least five times a year events are held at the museum to celebrate the end of apartheid and the start of multiracial democracy for the people of South Africa

Cradle of Humankind

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  • Paleoanthropological region that contains the most extensive discovery of a single hominid species ever found in Africa
  • The caves were the site of the discovery of a 2.3 million year old fossil Australopithecus africanus
  • Nearby 15 fossil skeletons of an extinct species of hominin was found in the nearby Rising Star Cave system
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

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  • 9,884 acre nature reserve that hosts a large number of both indigenous and exotic species of trees, birds, and mammals
  • Mammals that can be seen are Cheetah, black wildebeest, common zebra, leopard, buffalo, and hippopotamus
  • Currently there are also 4 lionesses and 2 male lions

Blaauboschkraal Stone Ruins

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  • Provincial heritage site originally declared a national monument in 1975
  • The ruins are thought to be the remains of structures created by the Bokoni people who settled the region in the 16th century and who altered the landscape to increase agricultural yields in high-altitude grasslands
  • The stone rings were probably used as enclosures for cattle
  • The Blaauboskraal stone ruins are among a number of stone circle ruins located in the Mpumalanga escarpment, a number of which are facing threats to conservation
  • Information about the people who created these stone circles and terraces was often omitted from South African historical sources

Bourke’s Luck Potholes

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  • Sustained kolks in the Treur River’s plunge pools have eroded a number of cylindrical potholes or giant’s kettles, which can be viewed from the crags above
  • It was named after a local prospector, Tom Bourke, who predicted the presence of gold, though he found none himself

Kruger National Park

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  • One of the largest game reserves in Africa
  • #5 of the top 25 national parks in the world
  • Became South Africa’s first national park in 1926
  • Now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique

iSimangaliso Wetland Park

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  • The word isimangaliso means “a miracle” or “something wondrous” in Zulu
  • The name came as a result of Shaka’s subject having been sent to the land of the Tsonga, when he came back he described the beauty that he saw as a miracle
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

Costs

Number of Days: 30 days

Best Time To Fly: May, Sept

Airline tickets: $1,072

Seattle -> Cape Town (round trip) $949
Cape Town -> Johannesburg (one way) $40
Johannesburg -> Durban (one way) $33
Durban -> Cape Town (one way) $50

Food: $25/day x 30 days = $750

Rental car: $14/day x 27 days = $378

Gas: $48

Entertainment/tours: $623

Airbnb: $95/day x 27 days = $2,565

TOTAL: $5,436