As part of our trip to the South Pole, we returned to Cape Town for the first time since 2015. Back then, we’d arrived in South Africa from Reunion after crossing the Indian Ocean in Dirona, and spent two months in country before sailing on to Barbados via St. Helena. As our plane banked over the familiar coastline, it felt strange that we’d spent so much here, in a place so far from home, and yet had never seen the airport.

We made up for that on this trip though, making three sets of arrivals and departures into Cape Town International Airport over the course of 17 days. On our first arrival from Qatar, we spent one night in Cape Town before flying out for a four-night safari at Sabi Sand Nature Reserve. We returned to stay for three more nights before departing to spend a week in Echo Camp, Antarctica and travel to the South Pole. And after that trip, we spent two more nights in Cape Town before finally returning to Seattle via Qatar.

While in Cape Town, we stayed at the Commodore Hotel near the V&A Waterfront. This made a good base for us. We had the same room for each three stays, with a balcony that had sweeping views to Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront. We could even see the berth where Dirona was moored all those years ago. The trip to Sabi Sand and Antarctica were both luggage-constrained, with differing size and weight limits and gear requirements, so we conveniently stored at the hotel the bags and gear we didn’t need while away.

We enjoyed our time in Cape Town this time as much as the last. The V&A Waterfront is full of excellent restaurants and we returned to several of our old favorites and tried some new ones. Jennifer particularly enjoyed returning to Belthazar for another whole baby kingclip. We also met up with Knut Hildebrand & Christine Weibel, former owners of Nordhavn 47 Wofanu, who’d taken us on a wonderful Winelands tour the last time we were here. We’ve kept in touch since, and it was great to see them in person again.

Cape Town is especially alive during the holiday season, with decorations, street performances, and lots of people.

And any time of year, Cape Town is a vibrant city with lots to see and do, particularly around the V&A Waterfront. We had a fabulous return trip and likely will be back again soon.