Cape Town
Cape Town is a long way from almost everywhere, but however long your journey, it’s worth it. The city itself isn’t large, but it’s lively and its location is truly dramatic. Being in addition surrounded by stunning scenery and countryside on both the Cape Peninsula and in the winelands, Cape Town in particular and the Western Cape in general are long-term destinations that simply should not be missed.
Arriving into South Africa
There are not many airlines that fly directly into Cape Town from overseas; most go to Johannesburg from where you have to take a connecting flight. Among those that do fly direct are BA, Virgin and South African from London and Emirates from Dubai.
The airport is quite small, although it is presently (Feb 2009) being modernised and extended. Arrivals, as in many airports that are in need of updating, seems to be playing second fiddle to departures, but it was certainly efficient enough.
If you are staying in Cape Town for an extended period, it is pretty much essential to have a car. Even if you are not intending to travel around all the time, it’s probably a good idea to rent one for the first week of so of your trip, just to familiarise yourself with your surroundings. There are lots of car rental places offering various deals. The one we used was Vineyard car rental who are located in the Kennilworth suburb of Cape Town. They used to charge for meeting you at the airport, but I see from their latest website information that they now do not. Given their rates are very competitive, this makes them a very good choice. They can be found here.
Driving
For some reason, South Africa has a bad reputation for driving. I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but certainly in the Western Cape, the standards seem high and the road behaviour generally good. Like every country, there are one or two quirky bits of behaviour to get used to, but really, it was no problem. Like most of Southern Africa, driving is on the left.
Some of the cars you see around the place are pretty old and probably would not be allowed on the road in Europe. However, that doesn’t really affect things unless you get stuck behind one in busy traffic.
Overtaking can be from both sides, especially on motorways. It’s made all the more exciting by a certain reluctance on the part of a lot of drivers to use their indicators, on these and any roads!
Traffic lights are called Robots in South Africa and this term is even painted on the road as an advisory that you are approaching a set.
One interesting feature of driving in the countryside is that most of the main roads are two-way, well-surfaced roads with a very wide hard shoulder demarcated with a continuous yellow line. It is more or less an expectation that when somebody approaches you from behind and wants to overtake, rather than them pull out over the central road line, the onus is on you to move to the left into the hard shoulder lane – there is plenty of room for this. The vehicle behind you will then overtake you and as he disappears into the pale blue yonder, he will flash his hazards lights a couple of times to say ‘thank you’. It makes a lot of sense and reduces the hazard of moving into oncoming traffic. The only thing you have to be careful of is that there are no pedestrians or bikes in the hard shoulder lane.
The traffic police are fairly active and the number of speed cameras is growing. In addition, the use of hand-held speed cameras in hidden locations is a favourite pastime of the police, so be warned and stick to the well-advertised speed limits.
The main concern of a lot of people is security. You don’t want to break down in a remote place, especially at night. Moral: don’t drive to remote places at night! Also for security reasons, a lot of people lock their car doors when driving, which is good practice in any location you are not sure of.
In just about every car park that you’ll use, and in tourist towns where there is on-street parking, you will be ‘assisted’ into and out of your parking spot by a smiling local guy. Some will be wearing official-looking vests, others not. In some tourist towns, the practice seems to be officially discouraged, but what must be remembered is that unemployment in South Africa is around 40% and so it’s not surprising that this goes on. What’s great is that it’s all done in a non-threatening, indeed positively friendly way and a few rand really will suffice. At just about all traffic lights (robots!) there will also be vendors selling just about anything. Again, they are normally incredibly cheerful and don’t really expect people to buy if they don’t want too. They certainly contrast with their rather more threatening and hand-wringing counterparts in Italy who, frankly, are a pain.
Security
The crime rate in South Africa is high, particularly violent crime within the poorer neighbourhoods. What struck us immediately were the almost universal security system notices displayed prominently outside houses, together with the large number of high walls and remote-control-operated gates. Armed response security companies clearly make good money in South Africa. That said, we never felt threatened, nor were we threatened.
It makes sense not to walk around with an obvious display of wealth – lots of jewelry, cameras, expensive watches etc. These are clearly a temptation, but that is really no different from most places in the world these days. All the usual precautions apply: be careful getting money out of ATMs and preferably have someone else with you, or use an ATM at a place where there are security guards round; don’t carry large sums of cash around; if you have more than one credit card, don’t carry them all with you. Credit cards are very widely used in South Africa, even for very low-priced purchases. This is presumably because having one stolen results in only hassle, not financial loss.
It’s also unwise to leave anything of value visible in your car when you park it. It’s normal to take the front of the car radio with you and also to leave the glove box door open to show that there’s nothing in there!
Perhaps, above all, it is very unwise to go into township areas. There’s a huge one in the Cape Flats area outside Cape Town - you pass the edge of it driving into Cape Town from the airport. It looks interesting, but if you really want to go there, go on an officially organised tour where you will see a sanitised version of the place that should be sufficient.
Trains
There is a very efficient and incredibly cheap system called Metrorail that has a number of lines, the main one of interest being the one running from central Cape Town to Simon’s Town on the Cape Peninsula, a journey of about an hour. The cost for a first class ticket is 5.50 rand (0.42€ ) for a single journey of any duration: one stop or the whole distance.
For some of our time in South Africa, we weren’t hiring a car and since the rail passed close to where we were staying, in order to get to the supermarket etc, we started using it. On mentioning this to a number of people, we were greeted with horror-struck expressions and dire warnings. Certainly Metrorail has a reputation and on some of the lines into the poorer areas, there are incidents. Having said that, the problem is addressed by the presence of a large number of armed security guards on the stations and on the trains. All I can say is that we used the Metrorail a lot, both together and individually, and never once felt threatened or unsafe.
On the positive side, the train ride is described in DK Eyewitness
Top Ten, Cape Town and The Winelands, as ‘one of the world’s great suburban train rides, offering a giddying series of beachfront views across False Bay.’ Certainly once the train reaches Muizenberg, the ride onto Simon’s Town hugs the shore. Through the open window the view is spectacular, although it must be more than a little wet when it’s stormy with an on-shore wind.
The train ride is almost as exciting when you are walking the coastal path from Kalk Bay to Muizenberg where at times the train is passing inches away from you.
Visas
Nationals of a large number of countries are entitled to 90 days visa-free access to South Africa, i.e. they do not need to get a tourist visa in advance of their visit; they will simply be given a visa on arrival. For further details go to this link
It’s also possible to get a visa extension, although it’s not a right. For details of this see here.
For more impressions of the Cape Peninsula, together with comments on the cost of living, see the various posts under the ‘Cape Town’ category. There is also an article under Places To Stay about our accommodation in Kalk Bay.