Arriving to Cape Town was fairly easy from NYC (although extremely long — totally worth it!). We took a 15 hour direct flight from JFK to Johannesburg, and then a short 2 hour flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town. By the time we arrived, we were incredibly jet-lagged, but that quickly changed once we started exploring the beauty that is Cape Town, South Africa…

DAY ONE:

We arrived around Noon on a sunny Friday afternoon at The One & Only. We were pretty jet-lagged so we decided to check in, freshen up, and head to the V&A Waterfront area where there are a ton of cute shops, restaurants, and vendors. A coworker of mine highly recommended Wiloughby, this family owned sushi place, so we stopped in there for lunch. The sushi was incredibly fresh and delicious and the owners came around to every table and had a long and lovely conversation. Although this spot is inside the V&A mall, it’s worth a quick bite. After we left Wiloughby, we went to The Watershed, which is a very cool industrial building filled with locally made goods. The shopping here was amazing! I didn’t buy anything because I assumed we would see cute stuff in a ton of other places, but we really didn’t. If I could go back, I would have bought many, many things! After eating and shopping, we could have easily gone back to the hotel and fallen asleep by 6pm, but we pushed ourselves to stay up, and what better way than to go to the famous 12 Apostels hotel for sunset drinks? We luckily snagged a table outside, had a few drinks and watched the sunset. It was the perfect ending to the first day of our honeymoon!

Table Mountain at sunset, with the clouds pouring through

DAY TWO

We woke up and had breakfast outside at the One & Only. While this hotel is extremely beautiful, if we could do it all over again, I would have stayed near Clifton Beaches or Camps Bay instead, as we felt that area was much cooler and more unique. The V&A area was a bit touristy for our liking.

The weather was once again perfection, so we headed to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens after breakfast. The Botanical Gardens here are absolutely stunning and have been named the #6 Botanical Gardens in the world. The crazy thing about South Africa is that the US dollar goes very far. I almost spit out my water when I heard it was only $10 for us to get in. I still don’t even understand how that is possible, but I’m not complaining! In the afternoon, we headed to Biscuit Mill, which essentially is a huge outdoor market with different cuisines, drinks, live music, and shopping (if you live in NYC, it’s similar to Smorgasburg). Biscuit Mill is only open on Saturday’s and usually closes around 3PM, so make sure to go before it’s too late! Super fun! Lots of young people eating and drinking and hanging out. We had lunch there. For dinner, we went to Kloof Street House. It’s located in a beautiful victorian house with tons of antiques and candles. Very cute restaurant with a ton of locals.

DAY THREE

This was hands down our favorite day, so if you are spending a shorter amount of time in Cape Town, we highly recommend going on a tour of the Cape Peninsula. We started our day quite early with a pick-up from Capexec Tour Company at 8AM. We opted for a 9 hour private tour which included the following stops:

Chapman's Peak Drive is known as one of the world’s most scenic road trips, running 5.5 miles on Cape Town's western coast, there are incredible views at every curve—all 114 of them.

Cape Point is in the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve within Table Mountain National Park, which forms part of the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site. It includes the majestic Table Mountain chain, which stretches from Signal Hill to Cape Point, and the coastlines of the Cape Peninsula.

Boulders Beach/Simons Town is the only place in the world where you can get close to African Penguins. Two little penguins settled here in 1982 and currently the population is estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 birds.

Our last stop was Kalk Bay. This felt like the Brooklyn of Cape Town. A lot of really hip restaurants, shopping, and artists. We stopped for a late lunch and ice cream cone before heading back to Cape Town. Cute area located on the beach, worth a stop if you have time!

For dinner, we went to La Colombe, and it did not disappoint. Definitely the highlight of our culinary experience in Cape Town. Every single dish was creative, beautiful, and delicious. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I promise you, you’ll want to make a reservation here!!

DAY FOUR

The famed Table Mountain sits directly in the middle of Cape Town, providing beautiful views from every angle. Our good friends recommended we hike the India Venster route (with the help of a private guide) and I’m so glad we booked one. This hike was NO JOKE. If you are scared of heights, or have never rock scrambled before, I would recommend a different route. That said, this was truly an exciting, challenging, and beautiful hike. We opted booked this with Hike Table Mountain and started at 7AM, before the heat of the morning was too intense. We finished around 11AM, with time to walk around the top of Table Mountain and take the cable car down! It was a truly magical and exciting experience. We loved it!

We opted to relax at the hotel pool for the afternoon, followed by a fun dinner at POT LUCK CLUB. We couldn’t get a seat in the normal dining room, which ended up being a blessing in disguise as we sat at the Kitchen Bar overlooking all of the action! Really fun vibe and delicious food. We weren’t able to get into Test Kitchen, but this is one of their sister restaurants, so it’s a good alternative!

Pro-Tips:

Uber everywhere. It’s so inexpensive and super safe!

Make dinner reservations way ahead of time. The food scene here is really incredible and everything books up fast.

When visiting the Cape Peninsula, be aware of the baboons. We brought a croissant thinking we’d have breakfast on-the-go and we had a baboon literally jump into our car, steal the croissant, and run away. It was as hilarious as it sounds, but also a little terrifying. Those baboons are no joke!

Four days in Cape Town allowed us to do everything on our list, but if you wanted to stay longer you easily could. We would have loved a relaxing day at the beach!

We only hiked Table Mountain, but I’ve heard there are some incredible Hikes on Lions Head as well, so could be worth looking into if you want to do something more active.