10 great ideas for a family holiday in South Africa

Great for Families

Waiting for hol­i­days to simply 'hap­pen' when you have chil­dren is tan­tamount to expect­ing your fairy god­mother to make an appear­ance, wings and wand intact. The chances are that the hol­i­day, unless other chil­dren and a ream of activ­it­ies are 'on tap', could go hor­ribly pear-shaped and find you in the star­ring role of cir­cus ring­mas­ter respons­ible for a list of children's enter­tain­ment.  If you want 'down time' then a little plan­ning doesn't go amiss.

There are sev­eral child-friendly ven­ues in South Africa that cater for exactly this. Whilst not everyone's idea of a hol­i­day is get­ting cozy with a host of other couples with whom you have only  chil­dren in com­mon, gone are the days of 'hol­i­day camp' style ven­ues. These days some ven­ues man­age to cre­ate a won­der­ful bal­ance between keep­ing your child out of sight and barely in mind, and lay­ing on a num­ber of activ­it­ies that chil­dren and par­ents can do together ... Continued

Child-friendly, tea-toting garden nurseries in Cape Town

Child-friendly nurs­er­ies

If you haven't already taken up garden­ing since hav­ing a wee bairn, there is always time. Garden nurs­er­ies have under­gone a metamo­phosis in the last gen­er­a­tion as more and more of them cater for chil­dren and par­ents gasp­ing for five minutes' down time in an envir­on­ment that isn't a shop­ping mall. And, inbetween, you acquire a plant or two. It's a win-win situation.

My all time favour­ite nurs­ery lies in the pretty south­ern sub­urbs. Ferndale is a clas­sic for chil­dren, and doesn't suf­fer from the pre­ten­tion or the 'nurs­ery super­mar­ket' syn­drome that some of the lar­ger, cor­por­ate nurs­er­ies (like Bugz in the north­ern sub­urbs) have suc­cumbed to. It does sadly lack a cof­fee shop, how­ever, the reason for which I have never been able to estab­lish – it's not as if there isn't room for one, or absence of demand; the place, on the con­trary, cries out for one ... Continued

Adventure holidays for families with kids around South Africa

South Africa, land of per­petual sun­shine, incred­ible vis­tas, diverse land­scapes and a people who go to the nth degree to make one feel at home, is per­fect for fam­il­ies with chil­dren, who real­ise that hav­ing kids does not mean the end to adven­ture. All nine provinces have some­thing to offer ...

Learn to surf

The Western Cape province's beauty includes the wild Cape Agulhas coast, the Cape Winelands, windswept spaces of the Klein Karoo, Cape Town, and the con­stant reas­sur­ing pres­ence of moun­tains. The Mother City alone holds a host of activ­it­ies, like the Two Oceans Aquarium, the Cape Peninsula National Park, the Planetarium, the MTN ScienCentre, and Ratanga Junction.

Abseil Table Mountain, ride horses at sun­set on Noordhoek beach, learn to surf at Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, take a heli­copter flip over the city, go ostrich rid­ing in Oudtshoorn, moun­tain bik­ing in Langebaan, paraglid­ing in Porterville, and a wine cruise on the river in Robertson ... Continued

African Tapestry will explode onto the stage at the National Children's Theatre in September

African Tapestry

"I believe that chil­dren are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way" - Dionne Warwick

African Tapestry will explode onto the stage at the National Children's Theatre (NCT) in Parktown, with the intox­ic­at­ing beat of African drums, folk tales, music and dance from across the con­tin­ent, to weave the fab­ric for a fab­ulous inter­act­ive musical for chil­dren. This cul­tiv­ates a love for Africa and her many cul­tures and has as its under­ly­ing theme an aware­ness of envir­on­mental issues ... Continued

Creative ways to have fun in the snow

Build a snow man

Heavy snow­falls over parts of South Africa overnight have given many fam­il­ies the chance to enjoy fun in the white stuff. Here are some simple but cre­at­ive ways to enjoy snow that you may not have thought of before:

First things first!
Wrap every­one up warmly — I know it sounds obvi­ous, but chil­dren are not pen­guins and aren’t auto­mat­ic­ally enthu­si­astic about ven­tur­ing out into freez­ing con­di­tions! To per­suade them to have fun in the cold out­side they will need to feel very warm and toasty on the inside! Continued

What to do with the kids this winter in Cape Town – 10 great (mostly) indoor activities

Kids Winter holidays

What were they think­ing when they des­ig­nated five whole weeks to the June / July hol­i­days this year? This is the time of year when it rains and chil­dren end up on the couch in front of tele­vi­sion or before the com­puter screen, rather than out of doors where they would rather be. And par­ents end up tear­ing their hair, and each oth­ers', out.

My sis­ter always has a back-up plan. A list the length of her arm of options she can do with her kids at the drop of a hat. I con­fess, I tend to leave a lot of this up to inspir­a­tion. And on the desired after­noon, a I've-been-infront-of-the-computer-working all morn­ing stupor usu­ally pre­vents my addled brain from com­ing any­where close to cre­at­ive, and my attempt at com­pet­ence falls flat on its face... Continued

Holiday Fun at Emperors Palace

Holiday Fun

If you are a par­ent with a child at school you will be well aware of the long school hol­i­day that has been set dur­ing June and July. You may be pan­ick­ing slightly about how you will keep your kids enter­tained, because inev­it­ably you will hear the words “I’m bored” dur­ing this time.

If the World Cup is not your child’s thing and you would like a safe and fun envir­on­ment for them, then Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Gauteng has come up with a few options. They have a super child­care facil­ity, Jupiter’s, which is both run and man­aged by qual­i­fied and exper­i­enced child­mind­ers. They provide a safe, fun and stim­u­lat­ing envir­on­ment for young chil­dren. Your child can be cre­at­ive in the art room or get the cre­at­ive juices flow­ing in the play room or dis­cover new things in the edu­tain­ment room. Teens are not for­got­ten at Emperors Palace and they can play arcade games at the Magic Company with some of the latest video and arcade games. Perhaps they can even chal­lenge Mom and Dad to a round or two? Continued

101 Things to Do with Kids in Cape Town

Kids wish list

As much as your kids will tell you they can’t wait for the school hol­i­days, the words "I’m bored," will inev­it­ably cross their lips when the hol­i­days are longer than a week or 10 days. So we've com­piled a list of "101 things to do with kids in Cape Town", revis­it­ing pop­u­lar kid-friendly ven­ues and includ­ing a few new finds to help you keep them busy. We hope our list will inspire a few out­ings or per­haps give you some fresh ideas for school holidays ...

Have fun explor­ing new places and revis­it­ing old favour­ites with your kids and we hope the 'kid' inside you will enjoy these out­ings too ... Continued

Things to Do with Kids in the Cape Town City Bowl

Open-top bus

... things to Do with Kids in the Cape Town City Bowl
We start our fun out­ings in the Cape Town City Bowl where there are a num­ber of activ­it­ies to delight chil­dren of all ages. A fun activ­ity is to catch the double decker open-top bus (#1) for a 2 hour guided trip around the Mother City. The tour includes the Waterfront and city centre, stops at Table Mountain and con­cludes with a coastal drive back through Camps Bay. It's a hop-on hop-off type tour so you can jump off any­time (plan ahead and park your car some­where close by) or make like tour­ists and take the full two hour tour! It’s a great way to see our beau­ti­ful city.

An altern­at­ive is to “hop-off” at Table Mountain and take your kids up to the top of Table Mountain in the Cable Car (#2). Whilst kids may not appre­ci­ate the views quite as much as adults do, the floor of the cable-car rotates 360 degrees on the ascent and des­cent (which takes 5–10 minutes) and the exper­i­ence of the ride is sure to impress. Continued

Things to Do with Kids on the Atlantic Seaboard

The Blue Train

... things to Do with Kids on the Atlantic Seaboard
Moving on to the Atlantic Seaboard, head to Mouille Point for a day of fun for the little ones and the 'big kids' too. Riding the Blue Train (#12) is a fun activ­ity for chil­dren from one year old and up. Have a little trip on Cape Town's only mini­ature train with a view of the sea, passing ships and Robben Island.

You can also spend qual­ity time in the safe park, play­ing on a jungle gym and other play items. The train oper­ates every day from 9am until sun­set, weather per­mit­ting. Afterwards head over to the Putt Putt Course (#13) for a round of mini­ature golf. You can choose between play­ing two dif­fer­ent courses. Each course con­sists of 18 holes of vary­ing dif­fi­culty. Each round of 18 holes takes about 30 — 45 minutes to com­plete depend­ing on the amount of time you spend on each hole. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in False Bay

Penguins at Boulders

... things to Do with Kids on the False Bay Coast
On the other side of the Cape Peninsula, the False Bay coast offers some favour­ite activ­it­ies of Cape Town's kids. All the moms we asked recom­men­ded spend­ing time at Boulers Beach in Simons Town. We've pub­lished lots of art­icles about the Boulders Beach Penguins (#36) so check out "To Boldly Go ... why swim­ming with Penguins at Boulders is so great" for a first hand report if you haven't tried this yet!

Take a dip in the warmer waters of the Indian Ocean and find your­self swim­ming with the Penguins — its great for kids of all ages, you will enjoy it too! At the Simons Town Scratch Patch (#37), star­ted in 1970, you and the kids can have lots of fun “scratch­ing” for your favour­ite tumble-polished gem­stones from thou­sands of pol­ished stones that cover the floor. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in the Southern Suburbs

Climbing wall

... things to Do with Kids in the Southern Suburbs
Heading ind­land to the Southern Suburbs, an ever pop­u­lar favour­ite with Capetonian moms is Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (#48), in the Newlands / Claremont area. All the moms we asked for help with this "list" had Kirstenbosch in their top 10 and agreed that it's a won­der­ful place for kids. There are plenty of spots ideal for fam­ily pic­nics and lots of explor­ing for little ones to do.

CityRock (#49) is Cape Town's centre for all things related to Rock Climbing. Their facil­ity fea­ture a large top rope and lead climb­ing area with Introductory les­sons taught numer­ous times every week. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in Blaauwberg

Blouberg beaches

... things to Do with Kids in Blaauwberg
Continue the school hol­i­days with a day in Blaauwberg and enjoy a very spe­cial exper­i­ence — get a group of 8 (kids and par­ents) and take them for a "behind the scenes" tour at SANCCOB (#67). It's highly edu­ca­tional, inter­est­ing and very mov­ing to see the work that is done here. It costs R45.00 per per­son (kids under 1 year go free) and lasts about 45 minutes to an hour.

After the tour at SANCCOB, take your beach buck­ets and spades to Bloubergstrand Beach (#68) for a day of fun and sun, and all of the usual beach activ­it­ies so pop­u­lar with kids. Or try Small Bay Beach — pro­tec­ted behind rocks, there is a play park halfway along the beach spe­cially for the kids. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in the Northern Suburbs

Cool Runnings

... things to Do with Kids in the Northern Suburbs
Heading to the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town, the Play Park at Stodels (#73) in Bellville offers a delight­ful enter­tain­ment area, com­plete with tram­po­lines, sand­pits and an animal farm. Parents can keep a watch­ful eye from the out­side decks of the res­taur­ant while kids get to pet and feed the goats, bun­nies, duck­lings and pig­lets. Another kiddie's delight in Bellville, Jimmy Jungles (#74), is a premier Indoor Adventure Playground that offers super­vised, secure facil­it­ies for tod­dlers and chil­dren from 6 months up to a max­imum height of 1.4m. Jimmy Jungles provide a safe and clean envir­on­ment where chil­dren can learn and have fun at the same time. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in the Cape Helderberg

Build a Bear

... things to Do with Kids in the Cape Helderberg Region
In Somerset West, kids (and grown-up kids) can cre­ate their very own, love­able teddy bear. At "Build a Bear" (#80) little 'bear build­ers' assist in build­ing a 'beary' cute friend start­ing from the wide selec­tion of a basic bear char­ac­ter; to choos­ing and inser­tion of its sig­na­ture giggle, growl / per­sonal mes­sage sound-chip, it's red satin heart place­ment, final seal­ing stitch and bar­cod­ing, to it's ward­robe selec­tion and then it's inter­na­tional nam­ing and all the way home! Continued