Blog - Cape Town Holiday Accommodation - Places to Stay in South Africa

1. Sundowners at La Med
For a totally chilled out summer cocktails by the sea experience head down to La Med in Camps Bay. It’s where pretty much anybody who’s cool in Cape Town hangs out every now and again and you’re never short of some fantastic eye candy. The odd impromptu parachute landing by locals throwing themselves off Lions Head only add to the cool factor of this Cape Town Sundowner institution.

2. Curry at Bukhara
There’s nothing quite like a curry and a few beers after a game. Head down to Church Street in Cape Town’s City Bowl to experience one of the best in Cape Town. Get a table on the Verandah and enjoy the hustle and bustle of Cape Town below but be warned it gets packed to the rafters every night so you’ll need to book in advance.

3. Shopping at the Waterfront
The Waterfront with it’s iconic picture postcard views has become the central tourist location in Cape Town. Only a few minutes from the Stadium at Greenpoint you can shop until you drop, take a trip on a Catamaran or even book a helicopter flip over the Peninsula.

4. Surfing at Muizenberg
When in Cape Town do as the Capetonians do. Muizenberg is the home of learning to surf in the Cape and in October 2009 grabbed the world record for number of surfers riding the same wave, a staggering 103. There’s plenty of surf schools just off the beach and for a few quid you can grab a board, wetsuit and an instructor for an hour.

5. Shark cage diving
You won’t get many locals promoting shark diving because of the alleged increased shark activity in the area due to companies artificially chumming the ocean so you get a glimpse of the 20 ft killers. However, if you fancy an up close and personal experience with a great white then here’s your chance.

6. Laze on the beach
The water in Cape Town is icy cold all year round and the swell is dangerous for all but the most experienced swimmers. The best way to enjoy the beach is from the comfort of your sunbed. Clifton’s 4 beaches are without doubt the busiest and coolest in Cape Town.

7. Hiking in Silvermine
Unknown to many Capetonians, Silvermine forms part of the Cape Peninsula National Park and has some of the best walks in Cape Town. Choose a trail of between 1 and 4 hours and you’ll get to see some of the most stunning scenery in the world.

8. The Old Biscuit Mill
An organic market in the same vein as Spittalfields in London. Lots of freshly made natural eats and treats as well as some pretty cool stuff to buy. It’s only a short drive from the Greenpoint Stadium in the up and coming area of Woodstock. If you want a taste of multi-culteral Cape Town then it’s well worth a visit.

9. Winelands tour
No trip to Cape Town is complete without a tour of the wine route. Crawl from wine farm to wine farm tasting their wares. Having done this several times myself the first two wine farms are fantastic … and you really savour the delicate differences between wine growers. After that it all becomes a blur.

10. Moyo for supper
Speir wine farm is one of the biggest in the Cape and also home to Moyo restaurant. Reserve a tree-top table and enjoy a truly African evening of fantastic food and great impromptu singing, drumming and dancing from the resident musicians. World Cup 2010 - 10 Things to do and see in Cape Town (between matches of course

There’s some confusion surrounding the ticket allocation and collection for the forthcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. There are two types of tickets. Individual match tickets for each of the 64 games and Team Specific Match Tickets (TSTs) which are a series of tickets to follow your national team and may include between 3 and 7 tickets. (Code TST5 = 5 games etc). If your team gets knocked out your TST ticket remains valid to follow the team that progresses into the next round of the competition.

You can only collect your tickets from the designated Ticket Collection Points in each of the 9 host cities in South Africa. You must be the person who applied for the tickets and must present the credit card used to pay for the tickets. You will also need another from of ID such as your passport. Tickets will not be delivered to your home address.

Tickets are still available for the tournament and yesterday Fifa announced another PMA (participating member association) phase of sales which will take place through the Fifa.com website from 9 Feb - 7 April, 2010. This will coincide with the 4th planned sales phase whereby match tickets will be available on Fifa.com and at branches of FNB Bank (in South Africa) on a first come first served basis.

Sales of World Cup tickets in the host country have so far been met with apathy. More tickets have been sold to watch England’s games than Bafana Bafana, the South African national team. This is no great surprise in a country where Man Utd and Liverpool are the two biggest supported teams. Having lived in South Africa for some time I wouldn’t be overly concerned by the lack of enthusiasm thus far. South Africans are notoriously laid back about committing to any event until the day before it’s due to take place. For more information about tickets for the World Cup visit Fifa.com.

Yes, but the prices vary wildly depending on when you travel. If you decide to stay until after the final on July 11th then you can fly home on the 13th for £2,698 or stay an extra couple of days in the Mother City and return on the 15th for only £472 with British Airways, a colossal saving of almost £2,200.

This pattern of volatile prices continues across the board and with most airlines. Emirates, however, are very consistent with return prices around the £2,800 mark … ouch! If money is not an issue and you’re looking for a direct flight then try either BA or Virgin. If money is an issue and you don’t mind traveling 15 - 20 hours then focus on SAA and other European airlines. From our research KLM is a good choice, lots of availability and fairly consistent prices of between £1,000 and £1,600 for a return flight during the World Cup. South African Airways is also a great option and with a travel time of only 15 hours (1 stop in Johannesburg) it’s possibly the best choice at the moment.

In general, aggregate sites are a great way to search. Try opodo.com or travelsupermarket.com. Once you’ve found an airline and roughly know your travel dates try searching cash back sites such as quidco.com. You can often shave up to 5% off the price of your flight by clicking through from one of these sites.

Our advice for travelers is to book early. Don’t hang around for a last minute bargain because chances are there won’t be any. As a regular traveler to South Africa myself, the closer to your departure you get the more expensive and less choice there is.

At nearly 2,700ft the Burj Dubai super skyscraper is the World’s (newest) tallest building. And it’s not just a few inches taller by means of a pointy bit on top, it’s gigantic. More than 1,000ft taller than it’s nearest rival, Taiwan’s Taipei 101. Here’s a few facts to make your eyes water.

• Temperatures at the top are up to 10C cooler than at the bottom
• 76th floor - The highest swimming pool in the world
• 158th floor - Plans for a mosque that will make it the most elevated place of worship in the world
• 3.5 times taller than Canary Wharf and twice as tall as the Empire State Building
• Estimated £1bn dollars to build
• Air-conditioning system requires equivalent of melting 12,500 tons of ice per day
• The double deck cabin elevators travel at 40mph
• Laid end to end the 31,400 tons of steel rebar would stretch a quarter of the way around the world
• The Burj Dubai will be visible 95km away
• 124th floor - The world’s highest observation deck
• 58,900 cu yd of concrete were used. The weight of 110,000 elephants
• Electricity usage in the tower will be the equivalent of having 500,000 100W light bulbs on at the same time
• Took 22 million man hours to complete

Dubai seems to have gone skyscraper crazy and is planning another super skyscraper, the Al Burj. Estimates of it’s height range between 700m and a staggering 1km. But the question however remains, with over 49 office floors largely unoccupied at the Burj Dubai, will these buildings also gain the titles of the world’s tallest white elephants?

Whatever happens, I love them. Role on the next battle for the World’s Tallest building with all it’s jaw dropping facts and stats.