CAPE TOWN TO CAPE TOWN QUESTION

[scorpiony3358]

I'll be sailing on the Voyager Dec 28th then staying onboard for the Cape town to Rio sailing. I'm looking for recommendations for excursions for these itineraries. Also, some of the excursions say no cell phones and would like an explanation. 

[mj_holiday]

We did Cape Town to Cape Town last year. I seem to remember reading the limitation, but it didn’t impact me. I looked at an upcoming Cape Town itinerary and saw for an excursion to an elephant park, t Food hat guest should not use cell phones. What do you think would happen if the cell phone started ringing, while you were next to a herd of elephants, I think that’s the reason you’re not supposed to use cell phones, don’t want to disturb the animals. 

[irishwitchy]

Also,  if you have location services turned on and start loading up pics to social media, poachers will use this information.  Obviously, no one wants that to happen.  
 

I may not be an elephant, but I don’t want to hear your phone either!  Bring a real camera, you will be happy you did.  

[newlondon]

The elephant park excursion is outstanding!

[makai 7]

We did this last year and one of our neighbors will be on both the December 28 cruise and the next to Rio.  Here is the information that I shared with them…

 

we did the included 3 day pre cruise Winelands and Wildlife.

 

If you can arrive a day or two early, we stayed at Southern Sun the Cullinan.

 https://www.southernsun.com/the-cullinan.  This was the hotel used by Regent for the 3 day pre-cruise, and we booked an additional night pre-cruise to get over our jet lag.

 

The rates are reasonable, it is a very nice hotel, and they have an excellent pub/restaurant with great food at very reasonable prices - with lovely staff too.  They also have a great deal where if you join their rewards program before you book you get 10% off their food and hotel rates.

 

They had a free shuttle bus to the Victoria and Albert waterfront that we took advantage of.  On our first full day there we walked up to the Cape Town Helicopters booth at the waterfront and booked the 1 hour full peninsula helicopter tour - and it was just the two of us...https://www.helicopterscapetown.co.za/

 

Jarat Tours is the company that Regent used for our transfer from the airport to the hotel, and we booked a private car and driver (His name was Kevin and he was fabulous!)  for a tour the day we disembarked the ship - sightseeing in Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, visiting wineries, a chocolatier, etc.  We had a really nice lunch at Glenelly Estate and eventually ended up at the airport in plenty of time for our 6pm-ish flight.

Regent eventually (2 days prior to the end of the cruise) offered an included 'day tour' on a bus that ended up at the airport - but by that time we had already booked the private tour, and we were tired of being on buses with all these same people.  We wanted to do something on our own.

https://www.jarattours.co.za/

https://glenellyestate.com/

https://www.spiceroute.co.za/

 

For tours, since we did the pre-cruise package, we had a "safari game drive" and decided not to pay to do any others.  I think it would have been worth it to do one or two in some of the ports, as ours was kind of sad...So if game drives or seeing the "Big 5" are on your bucket list, definitely go for it!

 

In Walvis Bay we cannot say enough good things about the added cost ($49 pp) Seals and Pelicans cruise.  my husband says this was the best tour of the entire trip.  And the oysters were amazing!

We were going to do the Moon Landscape and Welwitchia tour on the second day, but Dune 7 was CLOSED to visitors, so leaving at 7am was not worth it!  Otherwise we still would have gotten up at that too early time to see Dune 7.

 

In Port Elizabeth we were going to the Addis Elephant Park tour - but the ship cancelled the port due to weather.  We were very disappointed as this was our only opportunity to see elephants.

 

We ended up not going ashore in Durban - my husband wasn't feeling well.  The Chef said it wasn't worth going in town, not safe.  Other passengers really enjoyed their excursions out into the countryside.  Some of the tours looked interesting.. We originally were going to do the valley of a thousand hills.

 

Maputo is a dirty, poor city.  We did the walking tour, which was interesting if you like old Railway stations.  It would have been much better with a different guide as he rushed us through the market and we really couldn't look at anything or buy anything at all.  We also had a problem with one of the people on the tour who couldn't walk, but was on a walking tour... so we lost about 45 minutes.  It was extremely hot on the day we went.  The highlight was coffee and the Portuguese custard tart...

 

In Richards Bay we did the St. Lucia Wetlands Nature Reserve (boat ride).  It was an interesting (long) bus ride out and back.  If you want to see hippos in the wild, this is definitely the tour to take.  We enjoyed it.

 

I was sick when we arrived at Mossel Bay (I got my husband’s cold...) and just couldn't face a bus ride that day.  We were going to do the scenic mountain passes.

 

 Hope this helps!

[scorpiony3358]

Thank you for the information. I was told that the pre cruise was not available due to Christmas. I am doing the post cruise in Rio. I just finished 14 nights on the Voyager Istanbul to Barcelona and have 3 cruises back to back on the Voyager 34 nights Antwerp to Belfast to Barcelona to Athens. 

[ToxM]

Thanks for this info, we are on the Cape Town to Rio in Jan so this is very useful! 

[1rochelle]

Thanks for the great information.  We're taking this cruise Dec 28.  Any tips for clothing or any other important items we should consider?  Thanks again

[makai 7]

I would suggest bringing layers.  Some days were brutally hot, others were cool, wet, and windy.  Lightweight pants for any trips into the bush like a safari or hiking.  Insect repellent, just in case.

make sure you notify credit cards (and your bank if you plan on using an ATM).  Even so, the first ATM we tried didn’t work.  Also make sure you can use your cellular plan in South Africa.
We discovered quickly that patience was an asset.  There is a different rhythm and pace compared to the USA.  Think “island time”.  We also found that a polite “no thank you “ usually kept the more aggressive vendors at bay.

Definitely keep your Regent local contact information handy.  We needed it upon arrival as our flight was delayed and luggage collection took over an hour, so or Regent arranged transportation was no where to be found.  
 The local chocolate was wonderful, and prices were very reasonable.  Be adventurous with food!  We had springbok loin as an appetizer at Glenelly, it was delicious.

 

if you have specific questions, I will do my best to answer.

Here are some hippos for your entertainment 😊

[Lonedaddy]

Anyone do the Dumazulu tour?  Any good or just a staged performance.  Debating that or the Thula thula out of Richards bay as they don't seem to offer the shakaland one anymore for dec 24.   

I saw the input about from Maputo and most of the tours don't look that interesting.  I saw on other tour sites they offer trip to the special reserve and another to Ithaca/Portuguese island.  They were all private and somewhat pricey as opposed to any small group type tours.  The only regent one that seemed interesting was the tour and beach but at 236 pp I may as well treat it as a sea day.  Anyone find anything interesting to do there?

[1982CruzStart]

When we were at Richard's Bay a number of years ago we did the St. Lucia Wetlands tour and really enjoyed it. Mind you i am facinated with hippos and there were so many of them. 

[cwn]

The wetlands tour is very interesting, worth the time. Personally we don’t like the staged performance type of ships tours.

[Lonedaddy]

48 minutes ago, 1982CruzStart said:

When we were at Richard's Bay a number of years ago we did the St. Lucia Wetlands tour and really enjoyed it. Mind you i am facinated with hippos and there were so many of them. 

we are signed up for that one on the first day DW likes the hippos too.  Just trying to figure the second day

[1982CruzStart]

13 minutes ago, Lonedaddy said:

we are signed up for that one on the first day DW likes the hippos too.  Just trying to figure the second day

We were there only 1 day so no further suggestions. It was too long ago to remember what other people enjoyed.  Have a wonderful cruise. We loved our time in Africa.