Tag Archives: Kirstenbosch

Franschhoek: From Gourmet Town to ‘Ghost Town’?: the effect of the Corona Virus pandemic!

 

News 24 published an article this weekend about the plight of businesses in Franschhoek. It paints a horrific picture of the once famous Gourmet Town, known for its top Restaurants and boutique wineries, to what one business owner speculated could become a ‘Ghost Town’ if tourists do not return to it soon.

Franschhoek, like many other towns and cities in our country, has been hard hit by the Corona Virus pandemic, the South African one-year anniversary of its Lockdown to be ‘celebrated’ later this week. The new South African Virus mutation has made our country very unattractive to visit by international tourists, which probably are the type of tourists South African tourism businesses would love to see return. Continue reading →

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 48 of Level 3, 18 July 2020.

 

Saturday 18 July 2020, Day 48 of Level 3, after 66 days of Levels 5 and 4. 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for another ‘summer’ day today, even though a little cooler than the beautiful day yesterday; for a trip to the Southern Suburbs, wanting to check out Quince Restaurant in Diep River; for meeting Facebook Friend Colleen de Villiers for the first time, and Friend Louisa Andrews Stroebel for lunch, chatting away whilst eating healthy salads; for checking out Constantia Emporium for the first time, its brewery restaurant being a member of the Facebook Food Delivery & Collection Group, and for meeting Duane and Anastasia of Beer’d Food Truck, also a Group member, who generously offered me a lovely portion of hake and chips to take home, as a thank you for the work done for the Group, amazing 🙏; for a quick shop for German treats at Hartlief at High Constantia; for a good walk through Camps Bay, for bumping into Lisa Hayden and her dad Jonathan, with an amazing small world of connection between Jonathan and one of my sisters, for bumping into saxy George Sax; for seeing the Camps Bay restaurants doing well this weekend, especially Tigers Milk, and for Ocean Blue having reopened today, having announced its permanent closure previously; for the lovely sunset; for seeing a new set of 10 chicks of the Egyptian Geese family; for shopping at Pick n Pay, so busy that we had to stand in a queue as in pre-Lockdown; for another lovely concert by Daniel Hope of Hope @ Home on Tour from Lübeck and its Bach ending in particular; for looooong chats with Jenny Stephens at the beginning and end of the day; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

Jonas Blue’s ‘Perfect Strangers’ hit music video puts Cape Town on the tourism map!

perfect-stranger-lions-headIt was in the UK in July that I saw the music video for ‘Perfect Strangers’ by record producer Jonas Blue for the first time, and I could not believe that all of it was filmed in Cape Town, doing an amazing tourism marketing job for our city, as the song edges closer to the top of international music charts!

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Cape Town drops 10 places in Top 25 TripAdvisor 2016 Travelers’ Choice World Destination!

TripAdvisor cape-townCape Town has dropped to the 20th position in the TripAdvisor 2016 Travelers’ Choice Top 25 World Destinations list, from 10th last year, despite the extremely favourable exchange rate offered to tourists by our city. No explanation for the massive ranking drop is provided. and may be due to the stringent Visa Regulations!

The TripAdvisor 2016 Travelers’ Choice Awards World Destinations list has just been published: Continue reading →