Your First South Africa Trip — The Itinerary We’d Give a Friend. So, you finally decided it’s time. South Africa has been sitting on your travel wish list for years, and now you’re ready to make it happen. If you were our friend (and you are), here’s exactly how we’d tell you to spend your first trip — no fluff, no tourist traps, just the good stuff.

Cape Town isn’t just a city. It’s a collision of forces: mountains and oceans, cultures and contrasts, past and possibility. One minute you’re surrounded by the world’s most dramatic landscapes — Table Mountain towering like a guard over the city. The next, you’re walking through streets where colonization, apartheid, and resilience still echo through the art, the language, the people. Cape Town is beautiful, yes — but more than that, it’s layered. And for any traveler, cre