South Africa

[innorway]

Anyone had a holiday in Cape Town / Garden Route with kids recently?

Oops! Sorry about that.

If you spend any part of a day in Camps Bay, you have to go to the Cape Town Fish Market, which is a restaurant with delicious cheap food (not just fish, but meat, nibbles etc) it has a balcony overlooking the beach and is lovely. Also, in that same building there is an ice cream kiosk with AMAZING ice cream and gorgeous fresh fruit sorbets. Don't buy anything from the sellers on the beach (wire animals and the like) or they will all see you and you will be beseiged by hundreds of them all selling the same thing. Buy things on your way off the beach, they are cheaper there than the gift shops and you cant get bothered too much when you are nearly at your car already!

With regards to unofficial car parking attendants. Always make sure you nod and smile to them when you get out of your car, if they talk to you say "i'll sort you out later" and smile. That way they will look after your car when you are gone and stay there for ages making sure noone nicks anything from it. Give them a couple of rand when you get back to the car and thank them, its best not to part with any money till you get back or they may take your money and run leaving the car unattended. Car attendants are a necessary evil in SA, a couple of rand a time wont be much to you, but will mean your car is looked after!

also, I echo what everyone else has said - wee spent a good cuople of hours filling small bags with stones at scratch patch at V & A, only a couple of quid, and gave some to grandparents when we got home to put in glass vases instead of those glass nuggets for flower arrangements.

The aquarium is excellent as well, they have colouring and lego stations there too to keep the kids entertained.

oops - really should finish writing each post - the NEST day we spent the whole time was a Boulders Bay. It is the only place on the cape with warm enough waters to swim (still pretty cold) as it is so sheltered and shallow there. Its safe for the little ones. My dd loved it there we have a picture of her paddling right next to a baby penguin. The penguins do pong a bit but it is such a good day out!

make that the BEST day, not the NEST day!

innorway - hope you don't mind me asking - how much is your trip going to cost you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I know that is a very personal question. We were going to go last Easter to visit some friends but I accidently fell pregnant and was due Easter so we have had to put trip off. Now when we go it will be with 3 kids. I was going to put trip off until baby was much older but you have encouraged me going with kids the ages yours are. Just wondered how much I was looking at approx.

Hi Poppiesinaline! - been out of mumsnet a couple of days now; but our trip is costing us too much! I live in Norway, so I guess the flights add up to a bit more than they do direct from UK - but the flights are about 20K for the 5 of us (baby doesn't have a seat) - accommodation prices are OK for the quality of what you get (clean smart interiors, most with access to a pool) - we're mostly looking at B&B but also s/c - and we're finding places are going to cost us between £40-£60 a night. But of course this is peak season, and mostly short term stays (1 day here, 3 days there, plus one stay of 10 days) but - out of season, prices can drop by 50% or more. However we thought it would cost less!! but tickets are booked and I'm really looking forward to it! However what makes it expensive is the fact it's multiplied by 20 for total length of vacation. We're not too good at budgeting - though, and car hire for the 3 weeks is about £600 in addition! Not the cheapest holiday we'll ever take, but maybe one of the best!

We also thought about delaying (youngest 2 will obviously remember nothing!) - but you never know what's going to happen in 2 years time to your own life, and you can always go again then anyway if it suits. Plus I reckon it will just continue to rise in price (it was a lot cheaper 3 years ago). But good luck with the pregnancy. We've travelled a lot with small babies (our youngest was 3 months old when we went to the Azores, others have been 5 months on long haul to Barbados, and oldest was 5 months old when she took her first foreign holiday). Now our youngest is partly weaned, but still 60% breastfed - but if breastfeeding, travelling when 100% breast fed is ideal - plus they are usually small enough for a skycot/bassinet. Our youngest although within the age limit, is too heavy! We just call her chunky monkey!

We were so lucky with the whales - we went at the very end of October and for the week that we were in Simons town, we saw whales every day that we were out in the car - didn't matter which side of the peninsula we were on.