BootsnAll Travel Community

I strongly urge you hire a guide. Other than the security aspects, there are other numerous benefits.
The best wine estate (not only to drink but to view) is Boschendal (http://www.boschendal.co.za/).
Go check out the Chachma baboons at Cape Point - they are near extinct due to the locals. If you need a contact here let me know.
Robben Island has been done to death but if you must go a boat travels from Cape Town Harbour (the Waterfront) almost every day.
The Waterfront is a tourist trap filled with over priced shops and restaurants.
Go check out Hout Bay -- go to the harbour and take a boat out to seal island.
Go check out the amazing views from Chapman's Peak which gets you from Hout Bay to Cape Point.
You must go up Table Mountain on the cable car and try out the ostrich steaks in their restaurant.
Bear in mind when hiring a car it will be STICK shift. You need to specify automatic.
Get your GPS loaded with software for South Africa roads - there is so much to see you can't go wasting time getting lost. And PLEASE don't stop on a lonely road asking for directions.
The best night clubs are in the 'coloured' areas (that racist term they still use today) - ask your guide about clubs in Lansdowne.
Stay away from Sea Point (which is next to Camps Bay) -- it is very dangerous and is a red light area, lots of drugs and muggings.
Keep the doors of your car locked at all times!!!! (so you want to get a car with air con)
Get yourself a money belt you can wear under your clothes and a camera that would fit into your pocket (in other words don't advertise your a soft tourist).
Get yourself a can of pepper spray (or something similar).
And practice your snarl in the mirror - walk around with a menacing look on your face and your safe.

I can't wait for F1 to read this thread....he's gunna flip.

I get a feeling you may have been unlucky, I've only ever heard good things about Cape Town. OK it has it's bad bits, and sometimes bad things happen, but that's the same as most big cities in the world, especially where a lot of people are poor.

Keep your wits about you and don't look like a stupid tourist flashing your valuables about left right & centre....same as I'd try and do in most places.

Unlucky no -- I lived there 10 years ago - then it was bad but now its INSANE!! Go see the South Africa - BEWARE thread for more details.

yeah i saw it earlier, that's what made me think you were unlucky.

i'm there for 3 or 4 days in feb, you've made me feel really good about going.

come on cape town lovers, put my mind at rest

Cape Town is an amazing place - I stayed there for a week in May which I suppose is nothing to compare to living there!!! What an amazing city, yes I heard a few dodgy stories but all in all if you're sensible and listen to the local advice that you get you'll have a great time. Don't let anyone put you off Ian - bad things can happen anywhere although I realise that they happen with a little more regularity in SA (a guy I met there was murdered in August....), but if we were afraid all the time most of us would never travel would we....????? Have you BEEN to Stockport recently???
Stay safe and sensible and you'll never want to leave!!! Oh and if someone asks for you wallet - just hand it over!!! That's a kind of a joke but failing miserably....

it hasn't put me off, although i may tread a little more carefully...and follow my instincts i think. bad feeling, get the hell out of there kind of thing.

i'm with a mate though so won't quite as easy a target...although as the pair of us aren't exactly muscle bound that remains to be seen.

also only there for a few days anyway.

not been to stockport for a while, went to wigan recently though so guess it's similar...oh and burnley too. shudder

I think Cape Town is either hit or miss as far as your luck goes. I spent a few days there with a friend of mine years back and had no problems what so ever. Then, I left and she spent the ensuing week there. Within 7 days she got mugged twice and harassed by police on another occasion. She was good natured about it, however. Her email had me LOL.

<<Within 7 days she got mugged twice and harassed by police on another occasion. >.

That is just GREAT that she was "good natured" about being mugged twice in the same week AND was hassled by the police. I would not have responded in such a cheery way. That dangerous crap is what keeps so many from going there. I want to see SA, and will, but the understatement of the danger--Capetown, according to international crime statistics remains one of the most dangerous cities on earth for residents AND visitors--does no one any good.

I had a great time in Cape Town, spectacular place. Especially the areas I saw outside of the city, in both directions. But yeah...."hit or miss" in my experience, too. Literally. Was there about five years ago, riding a bus, which suddenly had to stop and let a bunch of ambulances through. A bomb had just gone off in a pizza place.

Random. You roll the dice. I'd go back in a minute.

Once youve been to Cape Town, you will wonder why the hell it took you so long to come here in the first place. You will be gob-smacked by the beauty and diversity of the city. Compared to a city like Johannesburg, Cape Town is generally far safer. Trust your instincts and you will not regret it. I promise you will have an unforgetable experience.

I spent three weeks in Cape Town last September and loved it! I didn't have any problems and never felt unsafe, not even on the "black taxis." And I don't think I ran into anyone who had problems there. If you are going to Cape Town, take normal city precautions, but I don't think there is any reason to be particularly concerned. Its a wonderful place.

quote:

The best night clubs are in the 'coloured' areas (that racist term they still use today)

to call a coloured person coloured is no more racist than calling me white because i am white. I am sorry you had a bad time in cape town. I just spent some months there working as a volunteer living with a coloured family in a coloured area in the cape flats called retreat. I walked around everywhere by myself all the time with out incident and then got mugged in cape town central station in the middle of the afternoon. they call it the informal exchange of wealth. the 6 Zambians that took my money where very polite and did not want to hurt me they just saw an oppertunity and they took it. They took 90 rand and I negotiated to keep my cell phone. They all shook my hand after. As far as cape town goes if you are freindly and polite to people you should not have a problem. I took the trains at night and I would always ride third calss because third class is full of people and their is saftey in numbers, where as first calss at night is completely empty. I would advise riding third calss on the local metro anyways because it is a better experience. If you are going to Cape Town make sure you do a town ship tour people will tell you you cannot say you have been to cape town unless you have done a township tour because it is a hudge part of what cape town and south africa is. I suggest Day Trippers for this they combine the tour with a stop in the bokapp and then the district six museum. Cape town is a lovely city and I am sure you will find that the people are more friendly than not. People will tell you that the mini bus taxis are not safe but they are perfectly safe as long as you know where the bus is taking you. I wish I could write more about the great time I had there But I must go. cheers

quote:

... If you are going to Cape Town make sure you do a town ship tour

Like Amy Biehl did???

{quote}... to call a coloured person coloured is no more racist...{/quote}

According to the SA constitution it is a criminal offence refering to someone by the colour of their skin!

If you listen to any radio staion or T.V news station in south africa you will see that they always refer to people by colour. I do not know many white South Africans however the black and coloured population love to talk about colour. They even have a law firm called the black lawyers association. Coloured people will refer to them selves as coloured and will not take afence if you do. If you ask a white black or coloured person in south africa about their history or their country in genral they will talk about one another in this way. In Nelson Mandelas book "long walk to freedom" he describes people like this as well, and when he describes how the ANC frist develped the freedom charter he explains its policy as equal rights for all races whites blacks coloureds and Indians. The people of the cuntry certainly do not seem to feel that it is a racist term no more than it is to call a person of Indian heritage Indian. I do not want to argue with you but i enjoy sharing opinions with other people (: every one is entitled to their own opinion. this is just my opinion derived from my experience living with a coloured family for three months working in a project for black and coloured children living in vunrable areas.

quote:

Like Amy Biehl did???

I do not know who this person is and if somthing horrible happend to her I am sorry. They run town ship tours all the time every day in cape town I did one when I first went there with day trippers and then I spent a couple of nights in a town ship with a fellow volunteer that was living and working in that town ship. i also spent some tme in kayalishta (spelling?) with a local boy who lived their and worked with me in my project. The people in the town ships are buetiful people. They are more humble than any one I have ever met before and they are genrally happy with what they have more so then what they do not. Of course every community has its bad apples. But the town ships for me was a cultural experience that I will never forget and I wish more people cuold share that feeling with me

I really do not mean any affence buy this but it sounds like your bad experience in Cape Town has bitterd your opinion of city. I use to feel that way about Paris because I had an awful experince there.

Ill be another to give Cape Town the thumbs up. I have not lived there, or done any of my growing up there and i understand that can be an entirely different experience but i also think that if you go with an attitude and pre concived idea that a place is going to be racist and dangerous then that is exactly the experience you will have because you will be looking for it.

I was there for only three weeks in June/July and at the time i walked from the waterfront to the farthest end of long street alone at night and had one y an oung kid puy and arm around me and ask for fifty cents, i shrugged him off and carried on walking. That was literally the only hassle i got, probably because i acted as though i lived there.

You should defo not advertise your tourist status by carrying large bags, obvious camera bags and maps around for everyone to see because bad stuff does happen, just like it does in London, and every other big city and small town. I know two guys who had problems and hassle whilst we were there and i had none so it very much depends on attitude and confidence.

Cape Town is an easy and fun place explore on foot with lots of good shops, markets and cafes and restaurants to choose from and its very easy to find your way around too.

Cape point is a must on a clear day and obviously the sights from table mountain are fantastic. There are loads of long walks to do up there too so dont just go up and come back down again. I think the robben island tour is worth doing, the guides i had were very good and friendly people. The museums and aquarium are also a very good standard and have loads of info to get through.

I personally didnt like the township tour but had been in africa for some time at this point and had been inovlved in it for real so being driven round in a van was a wierd feeling, but all the people we met were lovely and being welcomed into a local church was an amazing experience.

Another thing i would highly recommend is a wine tour and if you have time get out to Stellenbosch and do it from there. Its only an hour out of Cape Town but a totally different place, a small pretty town with gorgeous mountainous background too. One airview as they have a cheese tasting counter too!

"i also think that if you go with an attitude and pre concived idea that a place is going to be racist and dangerous then that is exactly the experience you will have..." it is this kind of naivety that gets people killed.

Perhaps the Canadian Foreign Affairs Travel Advisory office also needs an attitude adjustment. See here - http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=270000. It makes for grim reading.

"I do not know who this person is..." I am a travel writing vet and speak of experience, with no hidden agenda, just thought I'd give advice to fellow travelers.

I have recently returned from a trip through KwaZulu Natal, along the Garden Route and on to Cape Town. In the week I was in CT I saw a woman being attacked and dragged away by 2 men (and I presumed raped, as the men were ripping her clothes off whilst dragging her ) in broad daylight in Sea Point; a car stopped in front of me at a red traffic light and had to continue through it as 2 men attempted to car hijack him (naturally I followed, fearing the same fate); and in the city centre I witnessed an armed bank robbery -- all this happened in sleepy Cape Town in a 3 day period.

Numerous locals warned me that there are many Police imposters, complete with uniform and firearm.

According to Interpol South Africa is the crime capital of the world, next to Columbia. Every 16 seconds a woman is raped. Gun crime, drugs, child prostitution and police corruption are rampant.

Perhaps I should keep my travel warnings to myself in future.

I have been to Cape Town about 8 times, mainly on business and will be going again in February. Not once did I see anything criminal going down (except the prices on the Waterfront)

Also, I travel in and out of Townships and rural areas, mostly on my own, all the time...
Talk about bad timing...

I have been sitting here thinking about some of the posts on this thread and feel i must address a couple of issues.
South African in general get really teed off when visitors come here with an expectation that everything will be just like home, wherever that may be.
Yes, our public transport is shoddy and dangerous, yes, we have a problem with crime, yes, yes, yes to a whole lot of other things. But it is also a beautiful country, with diversity in landscpe, people and just about everything else like nowhere on earth. If you want the comfort and safety of home, I respectfully suggest you stay there.