West Cape Travel Guide For Kids
Cape Town is the capital city of West Cape in South Africa and a popular destination for tourists. A trip to the top of Table Mountain which is easily done via a cable car called Table Mountain Aerial Cableway or If you are feeling really energetic, you can hike up it in about 4-5 hours. If you are in Cape Town, you really should do this as the views are excellent. If the weather is not very good or it is windy the cable cars will not be operating, so watch the weather.
If Table Mountain is not an option you could visit Simon’s Town penguin colony at Boulders Beach. You can wander around in your shorts and t-shirt looking at hundreds of penguins who you thought live in really cold places like Antarctica.
If you want to see some of the famous wildlife but don’t have time to do a safari you can visit the Drakenstein Lion Park near Cape Town. There are about 30 lions in the park and it is well worth a trip out here.
Several hours drive from Cape Town is the Knysna Elephant Park at Plettenberg Bay. Here here you can hand feed and sometimes pet the elephants.
Down on the coast is the Tsitsikamma National Park which is a great place to have a picnic and, if you are lucky, watch whales out at sea.
While in Plettenberg Bay you could visit Monkeyland which is a wonderful primate sanctuary which takes care of monkeys. This award winning zoo lets you get up close with the monkeys as they roam around the land and trees.
Just next door to Monkeyland is Birds of Eden which is the world’s largest aviary. This 2 hectare/20,000m2 netted dome is an excellent opportunity for budding photographers to get some incredible photos.
One thing which everyone seems to know about in South Africa is that lots of white sharks live here. If you are feeling brave, like superman brave, and are over 12 years old, you can go in a cage and be dropped over the side of a boat right next to white sharks. Those under 12 can only watch from on board the boat.
For those of you in South Africa for a longer time, The Kruger National Park is famous for its safaris. It is a long way from Cape Town and most people go to stay there for a few days. At Kruger you will see all of the wild animals and ‘big game’ in their natural surroundings, even though it is now enclosed and protected. A safari trip is typically the main reason for families to go on vacation to South Africa, so be really nice to you parents and make sure it gets put on the itinerary.
If a safari is not within your schedule you can still visit the Johannesburg Zoo which is in Gauteng Province. The zoo gives kids the chance to admire 320 over species of animals. The Zoo houses everything from the Big 5 to record holding animals like the Fennec Fox – the smallest canid; and the Andean Condor – the largest predatory bird.
In need of a little adrenalin rush, you could try out a cave tour through a network of tunnels and caves or visit Jozi X. Jozi X is designed to give everyone from 5 to 75 an adrenaline rush like never before. The activities at the adventure centre include mountain boarding, slacklining, jungle swings and trapeze, and the awesome ‘Face Offz’ where you try to knock your friend off a 4m high beam!
