It is wild to me that I have been married for six months. But, this milestone felt like a good time to share our honeymoon, especially since I’ve had so many people share with me that they’re planning on going to South Africa or have always wanted to go. Also, I didn’t take notes about the trip like I usually do, so I want to write all about it while it’s still semi-fresh in my head. So let’s get started!

In typical fashion, our trip started out in pure chaos, almost missing our flight and sprinting 20 minutes through LAX with a complete stranger. The bright side of having to upgrade to first class to avoid missing the flight is that once you finally make it on the flight, you find yourself in first class. This was a new experience for me! I would like to say that the food we had on our honeymoon was the real star of the trip and our flight was no exception. We headed from LA to Amsterdam and finally landed in Cape Town almost a day later.

Since we landed pretty late, we headed to bed to rest for our first day of exploring. We also stayed near the V&A Waterfront district and I was very happy with the choice. Our rented flat for the few days was no frills, but it got the job done and we spent most of our time outside anyhow. The area was very safe and super easy to access Ubers, restaurants, etc. I’d definitely recommend this area if you’re visiting for the first time, but would’ve loved to stay by the beach in a warmer season!

Day 1

Hallo, Cape Town! We started off the first morning with a boost of energy from our lattes at Bootlegger Coffee Company and a delicious breakfast. Because I am a foodie, I’m going to annoyingly tell you everything we ate too, SO, my breakfast was bacon, potato rösti with a poached egg and creamy mushrooms. At the same time, Jack had an omelet because he’s, ya know, basic.

Once we were fueled up, we boarded the boat and crossed Table Bay to take us to Robben Island. Meaning “Seal Island,” Robben Island was once home to a prison and is famous for housing political prisoners and apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Govan Mbeki. Our tour guide was also once a political prisoner himself on Robben Island. Imagine being wrongly imprisoned for 10 or so years in your early 20s and then showing up to the same place for work every day. Mind-boggling. Fun facts: It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to some African penguins! We toured the island by bus and foot, learning about apartheid, the prisoners, and what life was like for them. And yes, I know, starting your honeymoon in a prison is an odd choice but a very educational one!

Since we had so much time left in the day, we headed to The Granary Café in The Silo Hotel and had lunch at the bar. Unfortunately, I did not get high tea on the trip, so I’ll have to try that another time. You know, because we’re in Cape Town so often. This lunch was our first lesson in both how absurdly cheap high-quality food is in South Africa and what glorious portions they give you as well. We accidentally over-ordered, but again, it was good fuel for our next venture—Table Mountain! (Food: butternut squash soup (they had so much of this everywhere we went), tomato soup, seared beef, a bowl of spiced nuts, curried chickpeas)

With overly stuffed stomachs, we headed up to Table Mountain. And by up, I mean we drove up a mountain and then took a rotating cable car even further to the top of the mountain. The panoramic views were stunning, even if the cable car ride was a little unsettling.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and we were fortunate enough to have a clear view all around us. Because it was winter, we did have to head back down the mountain relatively early ~4 PM, before it got dark. Somehow, this excursion helped us work up another appetite– and we needed it. Little did we know, we were about to eat a six-course meal for dinner. The Pot Luck Club was a chic little eatery located in an old biscuit mill. It was the first of our many multi-course meals of the trip AND unknowingly our first experience with load shedding.

For those of you who were completely unaware of this phenomenon (I’m not sure how else to describe it), load shedding is the name for the planned power outages by the power company in South Africa. The country has been experiencing load shedding since 2007, and each area has a provided schedule for when it will be happening and how long. This concept was so weird to us, especially for us trying to understand how normal people dealt with it. In touristy areas (and for businesses or individuals who can afford this experience), load shedding is usually just a brief power outage before the generators kick on and you can continue eating your dinner, cooking, charging your phone, and doing all of the other things you need electricity for. If you don’t have the fortune of being able to afford a generator or expensive gas, then you will be without power. The schedules vary, but for example, your area could experience load shedding between 4 AM to 6 AM, 12 PM to 3 PM, and 8PM -10 PM. During all of those times, you won’t have any electricity.

(Food: linefish sashimi, crispy squid, pork belly, fish sliders, braai’d linefish and mussel chowder, seared tuna in tom yum broth, asparagus, and assorted desserts)

Anyhow, the power did briefly go out during dinner, but we were still able to enjoy (and photograph) every course, as you can see above. Every bite was better than the last, and I did NOT want the meal to end.

Day 2

The next day, we grabbed breakfast at a small cafe called Lola’s, where I had my first hummus toast for breakfast. We spent the morning walking around the Bo-Kaap neighborhood and back to the V&A district for lunch. Boo-Kaap was very colorful, but it was a quick walk through before exploring other parts of Capetown. After lunch, we went to Boulder Beach to see the penguins! Leading up to the trip, I was super excited to see penguins because I’d never seen them in the wild before and also, they’re in every David Attenborough documentary ever, so it felt like a must!

The penguins were very cute, and one of them was very naughty! You can see the penguin above, who apparently has a reputation for coming through the barrier and trying to befriend people. We spent a lot of time here and I got some awesome shots of the nests, eggs, babies, and even the awkward teenagers that had half their baby fluff still left on them. It was pretty rainy at this point, but I think I could’ve spent the entire day watching them waddle around, swim in the water, and interact with each other. I also saw a sneaky mongoose creeping around, trying to steal eggs from the nests.

Day two was pretty rainy, so we headed to dinner shortly after this in Camp’s Bay. We ate at The Bungalow, where we had another incredible meal inside this cozy restaurant as the storm raged on. (Food: mussels, tomato salad, chickpea curry)

Day 3

I know that this blog post is getting a little absurd, but it’s pretty hard to cover everything and share all of the fun pictures, so this is definitely going to be even more of a multi-part post than I originally thought. Hopefully, I didn’t lose anyone, and you’re all still eating through this post with me. Next stop, breakfast at MRKT, and then off to Cape of Good Hope. While we’re on the topic of breakfast, we pretty much had tea non-stop during our trip. While the winter we experienced in Cape Town and the other parts of South Africa we explored weren’t as cold as our recent Maine winters, it could still be very chilly and rainy, especially. in the mornings. We had local, rooibos to keep our bellies warm, which was a nice change of pace from our normal lattes.

Cape of Good Hope is one of most southern points of Africa. It was crazy to look out into the rough waters of the Pacific and Indian Ocean crashing into each other and know that the next land mass we’d bump into was Antarctica. We had an awesome local driver named Simon during most of our time in Cape Town, who walked around with us at Cape of Good Hope and stopped to show us the beauty of Chapman’s Peak. By the way, Ubers are very cheap in the area. I’m talking fifty cents or less for most rides. So a private driver was a fantastic and inexpensive way for us to safely see so many different parts of the city and surrounding area without the headache of renting a car, while also having a local’s perspective and knowledge.

Anyhow, back to COGH. The cliffside hike itself was stunning. From the treacherous turqoise waves contrasting with the surrounding greenery to the impressive rock formations along the coastline, it was breathtaking in boths it beauty and slightly difficulty at times. On our trek, we also saw some wild animals that looked like a mix between a deer and a cow, and even ostriches! Thankfully, we avoided the baboons in the park. Apparently, they’ve become very aggressive from people feeding them and will now attack you if they don’t get food. There were many rangers patrolling the area to keep them away, but we did catch a glimpse of them running on the drive out and boy, are they FAST. After the hike, we took a short funicular ride to the old lighthouse, where we had a 360 degree view of the area, including Table Mountain, Robben Island, and the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

To wrap this day up, we grabbed drinks and watched the sunset at the top of the Radission RED in the V&A Waterfront district before heading to The Test Kitchen fledgelings for another stunning meal. I’d like to point out that I was able to book most of these restaurants last minute and even day-of, but that’s likely because we came in the off-season. If you come in summer, be prepared to book way in advanced, or you’ll miss out! There were still some places we weren’t able to get into because they were all booked up, but I was honestly thrilled with our entire dining experience from where we could go. Another hot tip, if you’re going on your honeymoon, tell every place you make a reservation! It was so much fun getting complimentary champagne, wine, dessert, and just having the opportunity to celebrate every day.

We had an INCREDIBLE five course meal paired with a phenomenal selection of local wines as you can see below.

So here we are, the end of our first three days on our honeymoon with almost 12 to go! Stay tuned for more of our South African adventures and mediocre pictures of everything we ate!