Cape Town is the best place to go on a long-haul holiday – from your wallet’s perspective.
That’s the finding of the latest Post Office Holiday Report, which gives South Africa’s ‘Mother City’ top spot for a budget getaway to a far-flung destination ahead of 32 other popular places, including Tokyo in Japan, Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, and Florida, US.
The report covers a basket of costs, including meals at restaurants, a pint of beer, bottle of water, suncream and a cup of coffee. It’s clearly a great time to go, especially with sterling booming against the South African rand – a pound is now worth 23 rand, a third more than seven years ago.
On top of this, you can book a budget flight with Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic. Return fares from London start from as little as £481 whereas it costs about £920 with British Airways.
Here, we visit Cape Town and compare the costs with another warm, popular winter destination: Miami in Florida.
Choose between breathtaking Cape Town and Table Mountain…
… and Miami’s lively South Beach
Getting there
It’s an 11 hour 35 minute flight from London to Cape Town – to Miami it’s just over ten hours. But the time difference with South Africa is only two hours ahead, whereas it’s five hours behind in Florida, so there’s less jetlag.
Cape Town: London Gatwick to Cape Town from £481 return (flynorse.com).
Miami: London Heathrow to Miami from £486 return (virginatlantic.com).
Car rental
As public transport can be tricky in South Africa, renting a car definitely makes sense.
Cape Town: Six-day rental of a Volkswagen Polo from £73 (europcar.co.uk).
Miami: Six-day car rental from £446 (sixt.co.uk).
Eating out
For such a cosmopolitan, internationally renowned city, Cape Town is astonishingly cheap, even at the popular V&A Waterfront complex and the vibrant Time Out Market in the Old Power Station, a buzzy, communal food hall with 13 kitchens run by celebrated local chefs.
Cape Town: 12-inch pizza £9.50; 500g T-bone steak £13.60.
Miami: Pizza £14; 500g ribeye steak £62.
Enjoy a drink
Make a beeline for the V&A Waterfront complex, which is home to some brilliant bars including Den Anker, with a lovely terrace facing Table Mountain, and Quay 4, an ever-popular tavern serving local ales and cheap South Africa wines by the glass and bottle. Outside the V&A and the Time Out Market – where the Cultivar Wine Bar recently opened offering 120 different wine bottles – head for the run of lively bars on Long Street in downtown.
Cape Town: A pint of local lager (Brewers) £2.10; a glass of crisp chenin blanc wine £2.15, or £7.50 for a bottle.
Miami: Bottle of Peroni beer £7; glass of house white wine £11.
Classic attractions
You can take a gondola to the top of Table Mountain – or walk up if you prefer
You’re spoilt for choice for things to do in Cape Town: days out on the beach, trips to the top of Table Mountain, tours of Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years), among much else. There’s a lot going on in Miami, too, but you pay more for most outings.
Cape Town: Table Mountain return cable cars £16.80; ferry/tours of Robben Island £27.20.
Miami: An eight-hour tour of the Everglades wetlands preserve on an airboat £90.
Hotels
The President spa hotel in Bantry Bay has doubles from £142
Expect excellent value in South Africa, even at hotels by the ocean in and around Cape Town.
Cape Town: Ten minutes by taxi from the V&A Waterfront, the President spa hotel, a member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts group, is set in Bantry Bay with large, immaculate rooms. Doubles from £142 (thepresidenthotel.co.za).
Miami: Doubles from £199 at the well-located, similar standard Royal Palm South Beach Miami (marriott.com).
Wildlife excursions
A penguin takes a stroll along Boulders Beach in South Africa
The marine life of the South Atlantic is amazing, with whale-spotting off the coast, penguin colonies, dolphins and seals.
Cape Town: See a spectacular colony of endangered African Penguins at Boulders Beach; admission £8.60 (bouldersbeach.net) or watch whales for free from the coast at Hermanus.
Miami: Hard to make a direct comparison, though tickets to Miami Zoo cost £18.10.
Vineyard visits
A vineyard in the famed Stellenbosch region outside Cape Town
Cape Town: At the Jordan estate, a first-class lunch costs £20 a head, with a bottle of house wine for £12; tours with wine tastings from £30 (jordanwines.com).
Miami: Tours of Miami’s Schnebly Redland’s Winery, with wine tastings included, from £36pp.
The tally
This is far from being perfect science, but adding up the cost of flights to both Cape Town and Miami, a rental car (for a week), a steak meal with two glasses of wine (each day for a week), a trip to Robben Island/ Everglades, staying at a smart, four-star hotel (for a week), a wildlife excursion, plus a vineyard visit, the tally worked out like this…
Cape Town: £1,206 per person.
Miami: £2,138 per person.
The verdict
This is a rough comparison – and some travellers may spend slightly more, or less, depending on preferences – but as a rule of thumb, a holiday in South Africa, taking one of the new Norse flights, can work out at half the price of a trip to Florida.
With Cape Town’s summer running from now until March, when temperatures average 28C, now is a great time to go.
Travel facts
Norse Atlantic flies from Gatwick to Cape Town from £498 return (flynorse.com). For more information: southafrica.net, wesgro.co.za, whalewatchsa.com, sidecars.co.za.
