Holidays 2026

shine166 said:

ArmchairAddick said:

Somewhere in March, probably Malta.  Last years October excursion got binned due to family issues, so desperate to get away 

Nearly went to Denia for a week's cycling in February but couldn't really justify the cost of both, didn't fancy explaining to the other half why we couldn't go away in March.

If you're looking at Malta, try Gozo. We went a couple of years ago and its a beautiful Island right next to Malta. 

palarsehater said:

going to berlin for valentines weekend and seeing the Kooks on the Sunday night so there early sat - Mon eve. 

any recommendations on what to see/do/eat, considering heading to the Hertha berlin vs Hannover 96 match on the Saturday although they are 2nd division still get crowds of 50k upwards. 

bobmunro said:

PrincessFiona said:

AllHailTheHen said:

Got a couple of days in Gibraltar in March and a long weekend in Florence in April. Week booked at a villa in Javea in August. Lastly have 3 nights in Lapland in December (staying in Pyhä) which my kids dont yet know about. Its been good to read people's views on that today!

Ditto re 3 nights in Gibraltar in March

Gib is fantastic for a short break - love it there.

JohnBoyUK said:

CheshireAddick said:

We're heading to Cape Town in March for my birthday. Any suggestions for trips, restaurants etc would be great fully appreciated. We are doing research ourselves but would welcome any suggestions from your experiences. 

Some people have said how dangerous the place is and obviously we will be vigilant but again any experience with this would be appreciated too. 

Cheers

We went last Easter (for the second time) and out there again for a wedding in the next 18 months (I'm doing the photography woo hoo!)

Restaurants, got a whole heap to give you, depending on what you like/don't like.

Day trips - we hired a driver with a minibus and he was bloody brilliant (who was recommended by our AirBnB host!)  I'd thoroughly recommend him as he can take you on a number of tours, including all the way over to Stellenbosch so you can go and enjoy the wine tasting without having to worry about driving.

You need to go and do the coast drive, go to see Chapman's Peak (one hell of a road to drive built into the cliffs), then onto the Cape Peninsular and the Cape of Good Hope, then Boulders beach to see the Penguins.

We stayed in Camps Bay.  Its the real 'posh/glamour' part of Cape Town, equivalent of Malibu using a LA reference.  An Uber into central Cape Town, 15 mins away was working out about £3-4 at the absolute most.  Ubers ridiculously cheap.  One day we decided to go back to Stellenbosch direct from the V&A waterfront one lunchtime as the weather was poor and it cost us £35 return which was staggeringly cheap.

Its virtually impossible to spend money in Cape Town/South Africa.  We went as a party of 9, 2 families of 2 adults and 2 young kids and the Mother In Law (we went for her 80th!). All of us sitting down in a michelin standard restaurant with 3 courses, 3-4 bottles of the most expensive wine on the menu and some beer and G&Ts was coming out at £200-250 for all of us.  It's bonkers its so cheap.  Its obviously expensive to get there but bloody hell its as cheap as chips when you are there.

You might want to check out Newlaands if you're into your cricket.
The Cape Town Aquarium is good if the weather is naff.  You get to see Sharks!
The V&A harbour is worth a look around.

The national parks are good (as mentioned above).

My favourite restaurant recommendation to give you is the Pot Luck Club.

Wine tasting... you cannot go Cape Town without going Stellenbosch, you need to go to Boschendal, the wine and food is awesome.   You need to go the Delaire Graff estate without fail.  Beyond all else, the view of the mountains you get from the car park cant be bettered anywhere.  The wine is stunning and so is the food.  If you want a purely wine tasting without any of the faff and the best wine anywhere in South Africa, go to Meerlust.  You sit in a courtyard and its so quiet you can here a pin drop.  The Meerlust Rubicon is the best red wine you will taste anywhere in the world.

Something else to consider.  Safari.  If you arrange it before you go, there are a number of private game drives within driving distance of Cape Town. It'll mean you have an early start one morning, (usually about 4-5am for a 2hr drive) but its well worth it.  We went Aquila when we was there last time and it was great.  Not as good as the safari we spent 4 days on the Eastern Cape 7 years beforehand but it was very good, the kids and the MIL saw everything that day apart from the Cheetahs.

If you want some details of restaurants, the driver etc, just drop me a DM, more than happy to help.

(oh meant to say, safety-wise, as long as you stick to the main areas and don't go off piste and rely on Ubers, you'll be absolutely fine.  Treat it like you would treat London!)

AllHailTheHen said:

PrincessFiona said:

CheshireAddick said:

We're heading to Cape Town in March for my birthday. Any suggestions for trips, restaurants etc would be great fully appreciated. We are doing research ourselves but would welcome any suggestions from your experiences. 

Some people have said how dangerous the place is and obviously we will be vigilant but again any experience with this would be appreciated too. 

Cheers

The hop-on hop-off bus is worth doing, there is even a small wine tour in Constantia. 

Re security, just check out the areas that are a no-go and don't go there! Camps Bay and Hout Bay and Chapman's Peak are all great but there are plenty of other places. How long do you have, do you have anything organised and how far are you prepared to go/will you hire a car?

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens near Newlands are definitely worth a visit, as is Hermanus for whale watching. And Stellenbosch is only an hour away, if you have time - a little further you have the Franschhoek Wine Tram!

A lot of these are stops on the hop-on hop-off bus.

Will have a think about restaurants, but a few years since we've been there, so things may have changed. But we had a few favourites

Echo a lot of these and went to most of the same places. Cape point/Cape of good hope as well. Drive down to it via the back of Table Mountain is lovely. Penguins at Boulders if you did a loop around. 

One of my favourite ever meals was at La Colombe in Constantia. That was years ago and its moved to a new location but a quick look on Google and its still very highly rated.

CheshireAddick said:

PrincessFiona said:

CheshireAddick said:

We're heading to Cape Town in March for my birthday. Any suggestions for trips, restaurants etc would be great fully appreciated. We are doing research ourselves but would welcome any suggestions from your experiences. 

Some people have said how dangerous the place is and obviously we will be vigilant but again any experience with this would be appreciated too. 

Cheers

The hop-on hop-off bus is worth doing, there is even a small wine tour in Constantia. 

Re security, just check out the areas that are a no-go and don't go there! Camps Bay and Hout Bay and Chapman's Peak are all great but there are plenty of other places. How long do you have, do you have anything organised and how far are you prepared to go/will you hire a car?

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens near Newlands are definitely worth a visit, as is Hermanus for whale watching. And Stellenbosch is only an hour away, if you have time - a little further you have the Franschhoek Wine Tram!

A lot of these are stops on the hop-on hop-off bus.

Will have a think about restaurants, but a few years since we've been there, so things may have changed. But we had a few favourites

Thank you PrincessFiona, it is appreciated. 

We've heard of a few of these places so will defiently be adding them to our itinerary. We are there for 12 days so hopefully will be able to do most things as a leisurely pace. We may hire a car for a few days if there is much to do or see a bit further afield . 

If you do have any restaurant suggestions then that would be appreciated, we can review them. Any further suggestions welcomed .

Thank you again.

PrincessFiona said:

PrincessFiona said:

CheshireAddick said:

PrincessFiona said:

CheshireAddick said:

We're heading to Cape Town in March for my birthday. Any suggestions for trips, restaurants etc would be great fully appreciated. We are doing research ourselves but would welcome any suggestions from your experiences. 

Some people have said how dangerous the place is and obviously we will be vigilant but again any experience with this would be appreciated too. 

Cheers

The hop-on hop-off bus is worth doing, there is even a small wine tour in Constantia. 

Re security, just check out the areas that are a no-go and don't go there! Camps Bay and Hout Bay and Chapman's Peak are all great but there are plenty of other places. How long do you have, do you have anything organised and how far are you prepared to go/will you hire a car?

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens near Newlands are definitely worth a visit, as is Hermanus for whale watching. And Stellenbosch is only an hour away, if you have time - a little further you have the Franschhoek Wine Tram!

A lot of these are stops on the hop-on hop-off bus.

Will have a think about restaurants, but a few years since we've been there, so things may have changed. But we had a few favourites

Thank you PrincessFiona, it is appreciated. 

We've heard of a few of these places so will defiently be adding them to our itinerary. We are there for 12 days so hopefully will be able to do most things as a leisurely pace. We may hire a car for a few days if there is much to do or see a bit further afield . 

If you do have any restaurant suggestions then that would be appreciated, we can review them. Any further suggestions welcomed .

Thank you again.

One restaurant we really enjoyed every time we went to Cape Town was Harbour View. I'll try and think of a few others. Food & drink really is good value in SA, partly due to the exchange rate but also due to staff not being paid much, so we tipped well when appropriate which really was most, if not all of the time

Another highly recommended is Dash - great steaks, but more than the average for SA. SA is great for steaks and meat in general

Also Test Kitchen. We had some of the best pizzas we've ever had in a place in Hout Bay near Chapman's Peak Hotel - just checking for the name

DA9 said:

I will be in Frankfurt for a couple of days at the end of January, my partner is a spuds ST holder and has a ticket for their champions league game at Eintracht Frankfurt, I will be watching in a bar.
On the day of the game in the morning we will be visiting Bad Nauheim and Ray Barracks which is where Elvis lived and his barracks where he soldiered for the 17-18 months he was in the army (1958-1960)

JohnBoyUK said:

DA9 said:

I will be in Frankfurt for a couple of days at the end of January, my partner is a spuds ST holder and has a ticket for their champions league game at Eintracht Frankfurt, I will be watching in a bar.
On the day of the game in the morning we will be visiting Bad Nauheim and Ray Barracks which is where Elvis lived and his barracks where he soldiered for the 17-18 months he was in the army (1958-1960)

If you need a ticket, give me a shout.  I know enough people to be able to get hold of one, especially given the way we are playing at the moment lol.

DA9 said:

JohnBoyUK said:

DA9 said:

I will be in Frankfurt for a couple of days at the end of January, my partner is a spuds ST holder and has a ticket for their champions league game at Eintracht Frankfurt, I will be watching in a bar.
On the day of the game in the morning we will be visiting Bad Nauheim and Ray Barracks which is where Elvis lived and his barracks where he soldiered for the 17-18 months he was in the army (1958-1960)

If you need a ticket, give me a shout.  I know enough people to be able to get hold of one, especially given the way we are playing at the moment lol.

Thanks for the offer fella, but I rather fancy testing out the local German beer in the warm, she's the sadomasochist in this relationship!

SouthWest_Addicks said:

DA9 said:

I will be in Frankfurt for a couple of days at the end of January, my partner is a spuds ST holder and has a ticket for their champions league game at Eintracht Frankfurt, I will be watching in a bar.
On the day of the game in the morning we will be visiting Bad Nauheim and Ray Barracks which is where Elvis lived and his barracks where he soldiered for the 17-18 months he was in the army (1958-1960)

My mates and i have been loads of different England away matches, club away matches in Europe etc and we all agree without doubt the area around Frankfurt station is the biggest hole in Europe. 

ForeverAddickted said:

Thanks for the advice and tips on the Lapland Holiday everyone. From the options I've looked at, Enontekiö is where we'd be heading @Stig - I think likewise for me the rest of the 3-night trip would be the fun and interesting part especially getting to see the Northern Lights, rather than the Santa bit, which as said could be done anywhere here in England.

I presume when visiting in mid-December / close to Christmas that its going to be dark that far North the entire time?