South Africa

My 20-year-old daughter spent her Spring, 2024 semester studying in Stellenbosch, South Africa.  My 23-year-old daughter and I had an amazing adventure visiting her during the last two weeks in April.  We loved every part of our trip!  The first part of our trip started off in Cape Town, followed by a Safari, and then finishing in Stellenbosch and back to Cape Town. Cape Town is a beautiful city situated between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean.   It has been voted the best city in the world seven-years running.  Stellenbosch is about 45 minutes away and it in the wine country.

We packed a lot into our trip and my photos include more info in tags.  Activities included:  Visiting waterfront and Zeitz MOCAA modern art museum; day trip to the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder’s Beach; my girls hiked Lion’s Head mountain and tandem paraglided; quad bike ride at the sand dunes; cable car up and hike at Table Mountain; visit to Oranjezicht City market;  professional rugby game night; visit to Robben Island; a harbor cruise; visit to the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens; experience feeding giraffes at Giraffe House; Spice tour at Spice Route destination that included five tastings – wine, charcuterie, beer, chocolates & gin; wine tram tour with stops at 5 wineries; and visit to Camp’s Bay. 

We ate incredible meals - the food was creative and extremely affordable (less than half of what it would cost here).  Favorite restaurants included: Pot Luck Club, Kloof Street House, De Eetkamer and my all-time favorite- La Colombe.  Reservations required at most and La Colombe 6-12 months.  Some require a deposit. 

We felt very safe our whole trip.  South Africa is an interesting mix of First World and Third World.  Much of it was extremely modern but we did see homeless tent encampments and people begging at stoplights. We were advised to leave jewelry at home and to keep our valuables close.  We luckily didn’t have any problems.  I wouldn’t hesitate to return.

How we did it:

I flew mixed business class on United for 88K points each way plus $6.  On the way there I repositioned to Atlanta for 7K Southwest points and stayed at a Hyatt Place with airport shuttle for 5K Ultimate Rewards points transferred to Hyatt.  My flight was from ATL-EWR-CPT and took about 22 hours with the 16-hour portion in business class.  Coming home I booked all the way home to KC for 88K points and $6 on United flying Ethiopian Air CPT-ADD-YYZ-ORD-MCI.  My original flight had two connections but they cancelled a direct flight, so I had three and it took about 32 hours to get home which even with the 17-hour business portion was tough. 

I was able to get my daughter great flights economy class from Minneapolis where she lives.  On the way there I paid only 23K points on Virgin Atlantic plus $25 for her to fly MSP-AMS-CPT and it took her about 23 hours.  On the way home she flew CPT-EWR-MSP on United for 49K points plus $6. 

We stayed the first 5 nights at the Hyatt Regency Cape Town, a category 1 Hyatt, in a 2-bedroom suite for 10k points/night.  A standard room would have been 5K points. The property was beautiful, and the staff was incredible.  The location was good – we ubered from the hotel most of the time to our activities (very easy and cheap). 

In Stellenbosch we stayed at a lovely boutique hotel called Bonne Esperance near my daughter’s University.  I booked through Rakuten on Expedia (I am usually weary of booking through sites like this but in this case, they did not have a direct booking option).  I received 10x back on Rakuten and paid $150/night for a room with a single bed and king. 

Our last two nights in Cape Town I booked a Small Luxury Hotel through Hyatt (unfortunately no longer a Hyatt partner – will be a Hilton partner) for 12k/night called Cellars-Hohenort.  It was a stunning property and had a fantastic restaurant.  I loved this property so much that I would stay here again with a cash booking.

-Erin