I looked at all my favourites: Hermanus, Stanford, Paternoster, but then somewhere much closer to home caught my eye… Just 30 minutes from Cape Town, with a quaint harbour, beautiful views, nice places to eat, one of my favourite beaches nearby… I booked right away at the Simon’s Town Quayside Hotel.
“Keenan, you need to wake up because we’ve got a big day ahead of us!” While Keenan showered and got dressed, I secretly packed a bag and as we got into the car, told him we were heading to Cape Point for a long walk. “Let’s stop for an ice cream in Simon’s Town”, I said casually.
After we’d checked into the Quayside Hotel, we headed downstairs to Bertha’s for oysters and G&T’s with a view of the harbour. I had no idea Simon’s Town was so peaceful and pretty. We watched the little boats in the harbour before taking a walk to the Naval Museum just up the road. Obviously we had to stop for ice creams along the way. The ice cream shop in the main road makes AMAZING ice cream. I had cassata and rum & raisin.
The museum was cool, if a little bit boring. Mainly because I don’t understand any Navy terms and also because there was a lot of history about ships and almost none about belly buttons. After this we went back to the hotel for a quick three hour power nap.
The rugby was on so we decided to have a beer at the local bar, Two & Sixpence before a dinner of fish and chips at The Salty Sea Dog. I spent R36,00 on two Black Label draughts and my fish & chips was a huge portion for only R58,00! Simon’s Town is way underrated in the value for money department.
In fact, all-in-all we ended up spending what we would probably have spent on a night out in town – dinner, drinks, cabs, cover charge and bar tab – while getting out of town, relaxing and spending some quality time together.
We woke up to an amazing sunrise on Sunday morning and took a slow drive through Kalk Bay, stopping for breakfast along the way. We took a walk through the harbour and bought some fresh fish which had been caught that morning for dinner.
It was just what we needed and if you’re looking for a nearby spot to escape to this winter, I think you’d really like Simon’s Town.
