We arrived at Protea Fire & Ice Hotel in Cape Town well before check-in time, but the reception personnel told us to have a seat while she contacted housekeeping to arrange for us to go to our room early.
While waiting, I asked a staff member about places to go in the area. She handed me a map and marked a few sites in walking distance plus more distant places that would require transportation to reach.
A flyer for City Sightseeing's Hop-On/Hop-Off Bus showed a Red Line Route that would hit those recommended highlights, including beautiful beach areas like Camp's Bay.
At that moment, however, we were still recovering from long flights from Philadelphia.
After a 7+ hour trans-Atlantic flight, we took a break in a nice hotel at London Heathrow Airport, catching a few hours of sleep before boarding our 11+ hour flight to Cape Town.
Both of those flights went well, but it's a long haul.
On those plane rides, I didn't find particularly good movie choices, though it turns out a few among that garbage were Academy Awards nominees (and now winners) despite despicable premises,
The only intriguing flick available --- other than a handful I'd previously watched --- was Classified. I primarily found this spy adventure appealing because it was filmed in Malta, the island nation that had been the highlight of our fall Mediterranean cruise. I easily recognized where most of the scenes were filmed.
Upon arriving at Cape Town Airport, we found banners and signs greeting members of the G20, who huddled in Cape Town on approximately the same days we were in the city. The USA did not send a representative for this meeting, presumably because of the cyclone of activity in the new Trump administration.
In the airport we found a counter dedicated to helping new arrivals link up with legitimate taxis and were soon on our way with a polite, professional driver.
On the ride from the airport, we passed a shanty town of corrugated metal buildings. I wondered if that would be common in Cape Town, and it was not. Cape Town for the most part is a modern city, with some truly posh sections where undoubtedly G20 ambassadors lived lavishly. However, it is not limited to the busy downtown area. It stretches many miles into diverse regions in the countryside, more on the scale of a large county than a city, somewhat like Los Angeles County.
We arrived at our hotel in a part of downtown that had one time been where escaped and freed slaves lived. Interestingly, according to the pre-recorded Hop-On/Hop-Off narrative we heard later that day --- confirmed the next day by our Gate 1 Tour guide Anni --- the Dutch brought in Asian slaves to serve them in Africa.
Our first order of business upon being granted early check-in at Protea Fire and Ice Hotel was to take a short nap in our chic, spacious room. It was not atypical in terms of quality and style from rooms in other hotels under the Marriott brand umbrella
We had a nice view of Table Mountain from our window from our room on the second floor.
Hotel staff had told us it would be safe to walk to the City Sightseeing Tours office about 20 minutes away, but they also warned that the same would not be true by early evening. During our stay, we heard the same exhortation from our packaged tour guide Annie when we met her the next day.
As mentioned, Cape Town is a modern city with many different neighborhoods, and while ours was not unsafe by day, apparently it can be quite dangerous at night for people who, as we were told applied to us, had "Tourist" stamped on our foreheads. Gangs can also be tough on locals, too.
Long Street, where City Sightseeing storefront is located (stop 5 on the linked map), seems a lot like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, with plentiful bars, restaurants and souvenir stores.
In the Victorian Age, the British added verandas to Dutch buildings, adding to the NOLA feel.
Cape Town has Safety Officers on every block, it seemed. Early on, a smiling officer stopped me to instruct me to conceal my cell phone, which was visible in a special pocket in my cargo shorts that is designed to make the phone more accessible. He said that was not acceptable in Cape Town.
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| This picture was at the end of our hotel room's hallway. |
I thanked him and moved on. We received directions and other advice from them over the next few days.
Be aware that as evening approaches, the subdued day-drinking ambiance kicks up a few notches as sunset approaches.
Against the advice to not risk sidewalks in the evening, we did find ourselves walking back to the hotel a few minutes after six a couple of times. The later we walked, the more scantily clad women we passed. More young men in small groups accumulated, and apparently among those would be found some gangs who prey on locals and tourists alike.
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| The chic, modern airport puts many in America to shame. |
We received many warnings from our guide, who said South Africa is a corrupt country, despite being a wonderful country of primarily good people who are religious and kind (90% self-identify as Christian).
Don't flash a wallet with money in it. Better to have a few smaller bills tucked in a place where you can easily reach them.
Don't tap credit cards or go to ATM machines, because many have scanners to rip off your information.
If you insert a credit card and it disappears entirely inside the reader, it is stealing your information.
Sounds terrible?
Actually, Cape Town is in fact a beautiful city with lots of great highlights within easy reach. Prices are very affordable, like going to a first world country and having third world pricing. Everyone we spoke with proved to be not only friendly but well-educated and professional.
City Sightseeing staff, for example, are the best of any we have encountered anywhere in the world.
Our hotel staff including the lounge and restaurant crew members were all superb.
In short, this is a land of sharp contrasts. Apparently, living there is no less potentially victimizing. Our guide Anni told us that once upon returning home from a weeklong tour, she found her entire house had been cleaned out by gangsters, a term she often used to describe the criminal element.
I think perhaps she went over the top with warnings lest anyone be victimized and claim they weren't aware of the potential dangers.
Other than a diner who probably accidentally gave our room number on a restaurant bill (reversed by the staff upon my calling attention to the error), our group escaped without harm, so Anni's warnings worked.
Once again, let me emphasize that despite the crime, South Africa is an incredible place to visit.
