Cape Town

Accommodations

• Welgelegen: 4-star boutique hotel in Cape Town. This is one of my favorite boutique hotels I've been to! The property is two Victorian town homes linked by a courtyard with a pool. There is only a total of 13 rooms and everything in the rooms feels like french colonial meets Martha's Vineyard. There are personal touches with personalized welcome cards, fruit platters and completely heart warming service. Welgelegen is located near Kloof street and the waterfront a short drive away (although I did the walk for the exercise). I would happily stay here again!

Sites/Tours

• Icons of SA "Big Fat Whale, Wine and Wors tour": This company prides itself as unique, does things a bit differently - the opposite of giant lemmings coach tours. It's great, small in size, I chose this specific tour as I wanted to get into wine country but also see some whales. I loved this experience, the people, the wine, the cider, the panoramic views, the whales and oh, don't forget the sausage - mmm! Would do this again in a heartbeat!
• PG Tops "Cape Peninsula Tour": I knew I wanted to see Boulder Beach and the penguins, everything on top of that was going to be icing on the cake. I loved my Wine Flies tour but they didn't hit up these areas so they recommended I reach out to PG Tops, and I did! Their communication was great and I ended up doing a full day Cape Peninsula private tour. Some of the highlights being Cape of Good Hope and hiking the cliffs to Cape Point, Boulder Beach and belting out of Wilson Philips songs. Check out my TripAdvisor review.
• Table Mountain: The enormous backdrop to Cape Town, where the clouds dance and move around the peak. Obviously I saw plenty of this from a variety of vantage points in the city but the weather was not on my side to go up to the top. Every time I tried to make a break for it, it was too windy for the cable cars or visibility was zero. I considered hiking up as well but felt it would be good to have a buddy for that. So this is still "on this list" for my next trip to Cape Town.
• Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens: I generally don't get too excited about flowers and plants, but holy crap, this is such an incredible place and the views of Table Mountain from within the garden are hard to beat. One of my favorite pieces about Kirstenbosch is the Tree Canopy Walkway as it literally snakes its way high through the trees to give you a birds-eye view of the grounds and an even more stellar view of Table Mountain.

Food

• Black Sheep Restaurant: Found on Kloof street, South African cuisine with a small set menu and daily blackboard specials. Excellent food and a friendly atmosphere. I had some fresh, grilled seafood and it didn't dissapoint.

Sabi Sands/ Ulusaba Private Game Reserve

Accommodations

• Ulusaba Private Game Reserve - a Sir Richard Branson property: 5-star everything, all around. This isn't a hotel or just an accommodation, this is a full-on safari experience on a private reserve. By far, this was the most amazing experience I've EVER had traveling. It's more expensive than other lodges but this is one of those experiences to go big on and is worth every penny. Ulusaba has two lodges, the Rock Lodge and the Safari Lodge. The Safari Lodge is in the middle of the bush while Rock Lodge is set high up on a cliff. I stayed at the Safari Lodge in an elephant room and loved it. Rock Lodge gives spectacular views but I preferred being in the bush and closer to the animals. I woke to baboons jumping on my roof, seeing the monkeys scattering on my balcony and watching a heard of elephants drinking out of our riverbed at lunch. Dinners are 3-5 course masterpieces sitting family style, which allows everyone to share their game drive experiences of the day, it's incredible. Listing everything wonderful about Ulusaba would take pages, just thinking of my experience still amazes me, I can't recommend it enough.

Sites/Tours

• Game Drives: Staying at Ulusaba you have two game drives a day, morning and afternoon. You'll have both a guide and a tracker with you at all times. One of the perks to being on a private reserve is that you can go off road, whereas if staying in Kruger you have to stay on trails and there are additional restrictions. We were able to get close (while being safe) to the animals and just watch them. All the guides keep in touch with each other through the day so if there is communication of certain animal activity you may spend a drive just tracking it. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to come up to a heard of elephants or a family of leopards, or watching a lion roar at another lion right next to her. Your first game drive will leave you speechless and if you're like me, it will be addicting. There are never two of the same game drives, every drive is different. I never wanted to leave.
• Pride 'n Purpose: Ulusaba partners with the charity Pride 'n Purpose. Bring some school supplies to donate and volunteer some of your time with this charity by going into a local community with a Pride 'n Purpose leader. Many times this is visiting a local school and meeting the amazing students. This is such an incredible and humbling experience that I would recommend for everyone. The kids are so happy to see you and any donation makes such a huge impact to their lives. The younger kids love having their picture taken and then being able to see the photo on the screen. It's utterly heartwarming.