Highlights from My Trip to South Africa

If you follow along on my Instagram, you’ll know that Dave and I recently visited South Africa. And as it turns out, everything everyone says about Africa is true. It was a completely life changing experience. From the incredible scenery, to the once-in-a-lifetime animal exchanges (elephants, I’m looking at you), to the farm-to-table meals that blew my mind – this was the trip of a lifetime.

As much as I’d like to say, “Stop reading this blog and go book your flights, stat!”, I promised a recap, and I know many of you are keen to hear my highlights and tips from the trip. So, I’m here to reminisce!

As we have done a few times now, we booked our trip with elsewhere. Organizing a trip to a place as rich and varied as South Africa is no small feat, so it made the world of difference having experts on our side. By now, the team at elsewhere know what Dave and I look for in a vacation (a bit of adventure with sprinkle of luxury, and plenty foodie moments thrown in for good measure), and when they combine that with a deep understanding of the destination – in my opinion – it’s a failsafe formula. The experiences they booked, the accommodation they sourced and the people they introduced us to made the trip truly unforgettable.

While there were simply too many experiences to share them all (and you can see many of them in my Instagram Story highlights), I thought I’d share my top moments from each destination.

Cape Winelands

The first stop on our trip was Cape Winelands, where the name says it all. Known for its wine production, apparently the mountain ranges provide ideal microclimates for vines. It goes without saying that the wine was amazing. In fact, it is such a big part of the culture there that any time I declined wine at a meal – opting just for water – there was a confused look on the waiters’ faces. (They were probably right to be confused!)

Apart from the wine, the highlight of Winelands was the hotel we stayed at – Babylonstoren. It’s one of the oldest Cape Dutch farms, set at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek wine valley, and has been remodeled to be a hotel. As well as having accommodation, there are farms and gardens all throughout the property, with chickens, donkeys and water buffalo among many others. Their restaurants are farm-to-fork, with most of the ingredients sourced directly from their own gardens, so we were even treated to water buffalo gelato and mozzarella!

The garden is completely experiential – so you can walk through and pick fruit and vegetables throughout. It was so surreal and magical, and really just made me want frolick around in the garden wearing a sundress the whole time. Which is basically just what I did.

Cape Town

Wow, Cape Town! This was undoubtedly the busiest part of our trip, when we had so many different activities planned and were kept occupied with something new every moment of the day. But will it come as a surprise to you that my highlight was the food? 

We’d been recommended by Andy Speer and Rebecca Kennedy to try dinner at Kloof Street House, and holy cow, the food was fantastic. The vibes were really fun, and even the wait staff were all somehow incredibly good looking (Dave and I got quite a laugh out of that). The dishes are all designed to be shared, and lean in to celebrating local produce. We had such a nice time and I’d put this on the top of my recommendation list for anyone visiting Cape Town.

Another highlight was our helicopter ride, which followed our hike up to the Cape Point Lighthouse. The hike itself was foggy so we couldn’t enjoy all the scenery, but we were completely spoiled when we hopped on to that helicopter and the fog cleared. The scenery was truly spectacular, and the ride itself was all sorts of fun. The pilot had us doing some crazy turns and dipping down into cliffs toward the ocean. It was exhilarating and a little bit terrifying – which I think makes for a perfect experience! 

Another hike we did in Cape Town was the popular Lion’s Head, which was packed, for good reason. It’s 669 meters above sea level, so the hike provided the perfect workout (not too difficult, but enough to work up a sweat), and the views along the way – as well as at the summit – were gorgeous. 

Last but certainly not least? The coffee. Thank you to everyone who recommended Truth Coffee Cape Town – you were right! It really was the best.

Safari

I’m sure everyone says this when they visit Africa, but the safari was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip. Having never been on a safari before, it was a thrill to be (dangerously!) close to such beautiful animals in their own habitat. It also really made me laugh that my a-little-too-close-for-comfort encounter with two happy elephants went viral on my Instagram. At last count, over 3.6 million people have watched them get it on!

Jokes aside, experiencing this safari will stay with me forever. Being a child of the 80s – with The Lion King as the soundtrack of my childhood – this safari was memorable and life-changing.

While on safari, we stayed at Mhondoro Safari Lodge, which was just beautiful. So many people we met were returning for their second, third or even tenth time, which tells you enough about how special it is as a place. The fact that we needed to be escorted back to our rooms by a guide to be protected from predators (read: lions)? That just added to the excitement, in my opinion.

Having stayed at the Safari Lodge for four days, it was clear how you could stay for much longer, and have different experiences at parks all over Africa. With memories that will last a lifetime, I’m already hoping for my next return trip to experience even more.

Now, for some of my tips.

Learn the lingo.

We loved throwing around some of the South African lingo! “Lekker” means “great” (anyone with a South African friend will know that already!), and the various iterations of “now” require a dictionary.

Now now = later.

Just now = soon.

Now = anywhere from 0 – 10 minutes.

Good luck! 😉

Pack appropriately.

There are tons of things you’ll need for your trip (and some excellent guides on Pinterest, if that’s your vibe) but a few of my most valued items on the vacation were:

• – This SPF button-down shirt, which the chambray color goes with pretty much anything. 
• – A gimbal which was great for filming while driving around on bumpy roads during the safari.
• – These Lululemon cargo pants that were comfortable and lightweight especially in the heat. I have them in army green, so cute!

Embrace the food.

The food in South Africa blew my mind. But the mainstay? Biltong. It’s a South African variety of beef jerky which is cured in vinegar, air dried whole, and sliced. We ate it all throughout our trip.

I hope you enjoyed this wrap-up!