Cape Town with a child!

Hello!
I am traveling with my 8-year old to Cape Town this SEPTEMBER. We're staying for 1 month, on a budget, before heading to Kenya. I'm thinking we'll rent a car.

I would LOVE any good suggestions about good, SAFE, towns / beaches/ budget accommodations for kids (are there child- friendly hostels?), and ANY helpful advice about traveling with a child in Cape Town!

Any thoughts about what price should I expect to pay for one month for a good, clean, self-catering budget accommodation?

Also, any tips about what to prepare for when traveling there with a child?

Thanks very much, I'm JUST starting to ask questions!

Hi there!

First let me just say that Cape Town is possibly the most beautiful, amazing city I've ever been to. I'm not a big "city" traveler and like to wind down in the country more-so, but Cape Town is completely worth it.

Unfortunately I stayed with a friend of my aunts so I don't have much advice in the way of budget accommodations or food costs. That said, I've had great luck searching for "specialty lodging" on TripAdvisor when searching for quality hostels. I would think with spending a month there, that you might want to rent an apartment or condo on http://www.airbnb.com since it'll probably be cheaper...

Boulder Beach in Simon's Town is awesome for kids and adults! It's where penguins come to roost, and I"m sure they'll love finding wild penguins hiding among the rocks. Kirstenbosch Gardens might be good if they're in to nature, otherwise it might be a little boring for them. Taking the glider up Table Mountain might be better than hiking up since you probably won't want to carry them if they get tired (and it is a serious hike!).

As for watching out, I'd say the biggest thing is the animals. There aren't too many wild animals in the city proper except for baboons, which are large and powerful, very mischevious and like to attack animals smaller than themselves (like children). They also like destroying rental cars, so watch out for that and make sure baboon damage is covered when you rent one.

As for the rental car (called "car hire" over there, so use that term when searching Google), I used Cardboard Box Travel for my trip around Namibia. They have a South African car-hire branch here - the Namibian branch was simply wonderful to work with, so hopefully the SA branch is as well. Also, just remember that all the cars are manual, the drivers seat is on the right of the car, and you drive on the left. I'd recommend picking up the car outside of the main town if possible, cause you aren't going to want to practice that in the middle of the city. I had a hard enough time in Namibia which isn't nearly as busy.

My blog (in my sig) has more info about my trip in Namibia, which depending on your plans might be something worth looking into as well. It's a pretty new blog so I don't have my SA travels up on it yet, but I'm working on it!

I did all my African travel independently (no guides or tour companies), so feel free to ask me any questions at all cause I've amassed a fair amount of knowledge through doing it all the hard way and love to share Hope this info helped out!