Having lived in Cape Town and now living on its doorstep for many years, my husband and I realised that we had become complacent and had never taken the kids, who are 7 and 4, to see the sites that this amazing City, and indeed the entire Peninsula, have to offer.

In fact, I realised that I had only ever gone up Table Mountain once – and that was about 12 years ago!

So – in January of this year we planned a holiday in Cape Town and spent a week camping in Simons Town and explored ourselves silly!

The Scratch Patch, the Toy Museum, Just Nuisances statue, Boulders Beach, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, a trip on the train just for the fun of being different – it was wonderful!

But the highlight would have to be the day we took to explore Cape Town on the City Sightseeing bus.  We parked at the Waterfront and jumped on the bus, getting prime seats right at the front on the top.

The kids loved it and I particularly loved the kids commentary that explained what we were seeing in a fun and educational way.

Although we would have loved to hop off at a few places, we had set our sights on the mountain and so we hopped off at the Table Mountain stop so that we could go up the cableway.  It was VERY busy which was the only drawback and we queued for ages before getting onto a jam-packed cable car and ascending to the top – only to discover an icy cold breeze up there and us, stupidly without warm tops!

But – it was still wonderful to show the kids the view from up there and after a walk around, some drinks and ice creams we headed back down and jumped back on the City Sightseeing bus which then took us back to the waterfront where we spent hours at the Two Oceans Aquarium learning all about our underwater treasures.

(I was really nervous about missing the bus but it was as easy as anything – the bus arrived minutes after we did, we climbed on board and before we knew it we were on our way again – seamless, smooth and quick!)

All round it was an amazing – and BUSY – day out but one that I would do again in a heartbeat!  Only – next time we will hop off at the Company Gardens and visit the South African Museum and feed some squirrels.  Or perhaps we will hop off in Camps Bay and go to the beach, drink some cocktails with the gorgeous people that frequent the street cafés, or maybe we will do the Blue Mini Peninsula Tour and go to Kirstenbosch and Hout Bay, and, and, and…so much to see!

Things we learnt:

• Firstly – Cape Town is amazing – we really do live in a beautiful, world class city!
• Remember to wear a hat and sun block if you sit up top on the City Sightseeing bus
• Remember to ALWAYS take a warm top with you up Table Mountain – no matter how hot it is at the bottom
• Give yourself loads of time to explore Cape Town city itself – more than a day is needed ideally as there is so much to see!
• Adults – tune into the kids commentary for a few moments so you can enjoy how cleverly it has been done and how interesting it is
• The Peninsula can be windy!  So be prepared for that – and again, warm tops need to come along as that wind can be chilly!
• The toy museum in Simons Town is well worth a visit and will have most moms and dads feeling nostalgic for their childhood

The City Sightseeing bus is great fun and makes exploring Cape Town so easy, whilst all the time adding to the adventure for the kids who just love climbing onto the big red double-decker bus!