South Africa : Where we stayed & ate

We spent nearly two weeks in South Africa during October 2013. Here’s a roundup of all they places we stayed and most of the spots we ate at during our vacation! Read all our adventures in South Africa…

First Stop: Hluhluwe, South Africa [ Photo Safari ]

See photos from our safari adventures…

WHERE WE STAYED:
Zulu Nyala Heritage Safari Lodge

We spent two nights in the tents, which is only about 15 minute ride from the Game Lodge and has beautiful dining areas, a wonderful staff and beautiful views of the savannah. I laid in bed with the door open one afternoon between photo safaris to watched a heard of zebra’s graze across. I can check that off my bucket list! At night it was crazy windy, which only added the fun of staying in the tents! The wifi here was waaay better here than at the Game Lodge.

WHERE WE STAYED:
Zulu Nyala Game Lodge

Set on top of a high peak that overlooks miles of savannah reserve land, the Game Lodge was wonderful! The dining and bar area below is were we had all our meals. Dinner time was especially beautiful with all the string lights and stars, and a fun time to dine with our fellow safari crew. The pool is better at the Game Lodge because it has an awesome view. Lots of nyalas and a few warthogs made themselves at home within the grounds of the lodge, and there are also a bunch of adorable, colorful lizards called skinks. A funny name that we frequently mispronounced after a few drinks at dinner, “Hey Erika, look! It’s a skank!” followed by lots of immature giggling!

Second Stop: Stellenbosch, South Africa

See all the vineyards we visited in Stellenbosch…

WHERE WE STAYED:
Coopmanhuijs Boutique Hotel
33 Church Street, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa

I highly recommend this place! The beds are super luxurious, everything was super clean, staff was always helpful, wifi was great, the location was perfect for us and their breakfast is seriously to die for! I ordered the egg royal back-to-back morning is it was so delicious. You can see photos of their breakfast below. It was our most expensive place we stayed on our trip, but worth every penny! The beginning of this video is us sitting on the front patio drinking wine and listening to beautiful opera music off the street!

WHERE WE ATE IN STELLENBOSCH:
Every place we ate at was amazing and super affordable! And the wine, is of course, delicious too!
(Click on the photos to be taken to each place’s website)

Neat place on the second story of a little building within walking distance of our hotel.

On the same block as our hotel and our first meal in Stellenbosch. We ate two delicious pizzas, drank a bottle of pinotage for only 22 USD!

We ate breakfast every morning at our hotel, because it was delicious and buffet style. I ate way too much, especially those danishes. I would’ve dumped the whole trays worth into my purse, but Erika told me no. I was going danish crazy.

Midway through our wine tasting tour in the Stellenbosch area, our guide stop here for lunch. On the right is a carrot risotto, white chocolate sauce and blue cheese foam. Sounds totally weird and potentially disgusting, but I went for it and nearly licked my plate clean it was so yummy.

Third Stop: Cape Town, South Africa

WHERE WE STAYED:
Protea Hotel Fire and Ice!
200 Bree St, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

This was our least favorite place of our trip, not bad, just not for us. We picked it because it was affordable, centrally located in Cape Town and had parking for the car we rented. Our first room was tiny, but with a very revealing shower right in the middle, which was a bit odd. Erika and I have been friends forever, but you know, a gal needs a bit of privacy. The common areas of the hotel have a very avant garde decor vibe, especially the crazy elevators. Our stay here was hit with a bunch of hiccups, but I will say the staff was extremely helpful, well intended and ultimately upgraded us for free to a nice big room overlooking Table Mountain for the rest of our trip, which made our time there much nicer! (I forgot to snap pics of this room) Overall, it was an okay stay. I think it was weird going from our parisian style boutique in Stellenbosch (above) to this place. Just wasn’t our vibe.

WHERE WE ATE IN CAPE TOWN:
(Click on the photos to be taken to each place’s website)

The photo on the right was our actual view while we dined on lots of sushi and wine, rainbow and all! The food was tasty, but our waiter was a bit odd. His first words to us was, “Welcome back!” with loads of enthusiasm. We laughed and said it was our first time here, he schmoozed talked about how we looked so familiar and said he’d come back for our order in a bit. We chuckled thinking that was strange and dove into the menu. A few minutes later we overheard him drop the same line on the table next to us. We cracked up laughing.

Coincidentally, one of our friends was spending a few nights in Cape Town for business during the same time we were there, so went out on for dinner and drinks on the Waterfront! They ordered ostrich and kudo, and I got seafood stew, which was good, but huge! One thing I loved about every outdoor restaurant in the Cape Town area, was they had individual blankets at every chair in the evenings! As a freeze baby, it was awesome!

I LOVED this place! It’s a big warehouse space with a bunch of different vendors selling everything from delicious dim sum (which I ordered) to gourmet chocolates to ostrich jerky (Erika bought this, but they took it away at customs because you can bring food back into the US. Oops.) to pizza by the slice to delicious coffee and beer! We came back here our second evening in the Waterfront and ordered two beers and watched people take photos with the bigger-than-life Nelson Mandela sculpture only a few yards away. It was good entertainment, there was a lot of handholding.

– We visited South Africa in October 2013 –
See our full trip!