The Twenty-Something Series: Exploring Cape Town and my must-see attractions

Unless you've muted me on social media, you'll know I recently spent some time in Cape Town on the set of the sequel for The Kissing Booth. Which was completely incredible, of course.

A lot of you asked me to talk more about what it was like to be in Cape Town - the culture, sightseeing, the food, and all that jazz - so I'm going to do my best at sharing my highlights from my visit!

Feel like I do need to be upfront with a lil disclaimer: both of my trips to Cape Town, my accommodation has been sorted for me through the producers/Netflix and a company called Blue Ice Africa, and this time they also paid for my travel, too - but any sightseeing I did was organised by myself or friends. So - no gifted experiences or ads in this post. 

I also want to say that both of my trips were mostly taken up with actually being on set, so I didn't get a lot of time to explore - so the places I'll mention in this post are both from this trip and my visit in 2017.

Table Mountain

Oh, man. My hotel room just had the most gorgeous views of Table Mountain - which you'll know from my Instagram, and the million selfies I took in front of it. Back in 2017, my dad and I took a trip up to Table Mountain. We grabbed tickets to one of the open-air double-decker bus tours, which drops you off at the base, and we got the cable car up to the top.

The views are simply breathtaking, so make sure you've got plenty of charge on your phone to take aaaaaall the photos! There's a café at the top and wild animals around called 'dassies' which are just so heckin' cute. One climbed up onto our table at the café, actually - and while it's harmless, you're under strict instructions not to feed them! This was a great place to spend a couple of hours, although when we went, the queue for the cable car was pretty long - and waiting in the sweltering Cape Town summer heat with no shade was a bit of a struggle, I won't lie - so make sure you've got plenty of sun cream!

The open-air bus tours

My parents and I did a bus tour in New York, too, and I really think it's just a great way to see the city and get around. It's pretty cheap and you get an audio guide as you go around the city, so it's also a great way to learn more of the history and culture of the city. There are a few different routes, too, so you can really explore a lot this way - and it's so easy to hop on and off.

Camps Bay

When we took the bus from Table Mountain, we got off at Camps Bay. Another gorgeous location, although this one did feel a little more tourist-y than the rest of Cape Town and was much busier. There were a lot of people selling jewellery, t-shirts, art, and so on, around the beach, so be ready for that. There are some great restaurants in Camps Bay, and if you're lucky, you'll get a table with the view of the beach!

Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point

Now this one wasn't organised off my own back - I tagged along with some friends. Carson (who plays Elle's younger brother, Brad, in the movie) and his family were heading out for the day and invited me along with them (thanks, guys!).

Cape Point is the southernmost point in South Africa. Well. In Africa, period. There's a sign you can take a photo with, which is obviously pretty packed with toursits, but there are so many beaches around and it's an incredible location.

The Cape of Good Hope is a similar tourist attraction in the same sort of area, where the main attraction is some lighthouses up on the mountains - and the amazing views from being up there! You can actually also see the two oceans meet - which is nuts. How often do you get to see something like that?

You'll definitely need a car or tour bus of some kind to get around, as everything is so far apart. Keep an eye out on the road for wild animals - especially ostriches and baboons! 

Boulders Bay and the penguins!

PENGUINS. In South Africa! I didn't know this was a thing until people asked me on my first trip if I was planning to see the penguins. If you head to Boulders Beach, you can go down onto the shore where there will be penguins right around your feet. 

But if you don't fancy paying (which, on the day, we decided we didn't), you can take a stroll along the boardwalk and spot dozens of penguins on the other side of a fence, around the little nests that have been built for them. There's also another beach at the end of the boardwalk that's free to go on and can have penguins on it too - but there weren't penguins the day we went, so no guarantees there.

The V&A Waterfront

OH MAN. This place has so much to offer. The hotel I was in had a free shuttle bus every two hours to the Waterfront and back, which was really handy. My dad and I went the first time I was in South Africa and spent a few hours wandering around and seeing what was on offer, and I went again with Carson and his mom on my first night of this trip.

The Waterfront has a mall (grocery store - super handy; MAC and LUSH stores - home away from home; the homeware and gift shops - LOVE THEM) and so. many. damn. restaurants. You definitely won't be short of places to eat or options for different cuisines. I'd definitely recommend Willoughby's, the sushi place. 

Mojo Market

Okay, so I never would've found this place if not for the cast. A few of them came out for my last night in Cape Town to hang out for some drinks and food, and this was a place they suggested. It's basically an indoor market with a bunch of different food stalls, a bar, and live music. The atmosphere was brilliant - lively without being too loud to have a conversation - and the food and drinks were really affordable. 

Best part was the variety on offer: everyone could grab some of whatever they fancied and bring it back to the table, or buy enough to share. (The poke was great. I meant to go buy sushi and totally messed that up by just going to the wrong stand and ordering without question, but the poke we got instead was brilliant.)

Honestly, I would love to go back to Cape Town again.

The reason I went was to visit set, so the vast majority of my trip both this time and in 2017 was spent on set rather than exploring - but I know there's so much more to do in South Africa that I haven't been able to do (yet). 

If you've been to Cape Town, what did you love most about it? Is it a city on your travel bucket list? Let me know in the comments, or Tweet me @Reekles! 

And if you want to see more from my trip, head over to my Instagram, where you can find me @authorbethreekles.