Really tasty, hot-off-the-teppan surf and turf is enough of a draw for the Japanese crowd without the cartoonish samurai chef.
I guess thatās reasonable.
My friend and I always said weād eat teppanyaki more often if we didnāt feel like we had to laugh when the chef does his āegg rollā joke.
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most electronics chargers just need a cheapo adapter now, they can handle the voltage and donāt need a power converter.
This
Last time I went to Europe, I just brought a single adapter and a standard power strip so I could plugin multiple things at the same time using the standard 'Merican plugs. I still think itās a pretty big brain move.
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Thatās brilliant. Iām going to do that for my upcoming trip.
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For photo spots, Signal Hill (close to town) and Kloofs corner (Table Mt) are some pretty good, standard shooting spots. Surfboard rock on the Kasteelspoort Trail (table mt) is popular for that instagram shot! Bo Kaap is a colorful neighborhood to wander around in. Camps Bay tidal pools are nice. So many spots! On False Bay people like to shoot the beach huts at St James beach in Muizenberg and Boulders Beach near Simons Town for some penguins.
I liked spending a night at Simons Town, pretty place and there was an awesome walk-in Scuba dive spot to see 7 gilled cow sharks in the kelp forest. You can also dive/snorkel with the seals.
Hermanus is also really pretty and thereās some nice stops on the way. Driving anywhere on the coast is spectacular, more fun than relaxing in the wine region imo. I had to do the great white shark cage ādiveā. Itās not really a dive, just a cage next to the boat that you wear wetsuits and snorkel gear into while they bait the sharks to come next to your boat. Itās freezing cold, low vis, and a pretty long ride out there, but I think itās good for a once in a lifetime type thing!
For Kruger I hope you really like safari stuff! 5 nights is way too much for personally (3 would be plenty for me) and Iād spend more time on the Panorama route and a little trip into Swaziland is kinda cool. But some people absolutely love the safaris and canāt get enough, so to each their own.
Also, do not speed on the Panorama route! Thereās some small town police force out there trying write you these BS pay on the spot tickets for going a few KMs over the limit!
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This is such a relief. I really didnāt want to have to deal with the anxiety of testing to not get stuck for an extra week.
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Thanks for the great info. Not sure weāll do a night in Simons Town, but I have considered two day trips out of Cape Town to properly cover the peninsula, rather than what I imagine is a fairly rushed 1 day.
I do quite enjoy safari. Thereās something I just find magical about being amongst the animals. We did 8 or 9 nights in Tanzania, so 5 will probably feel relatively quick. I also like the idea of self-drive, so weāre doing that for a couple of days/nights, before moving to the private lodge.
Obviously, thereās Bourbon St. Take a look, get horrified, then leave. Kidding, kind of, but it can be fun with a crowd of people who have never seen it. Off of Bourbon in the French Quarter is much better. Carousel Bar is a great hotel bar, Chart Room is a fun dive, and Tableau is a good restaurant and bar right next to Jackson Square. Frenchmen St. is nearby as well with tons of bars and music. Those two hubs are generally the biggest suggestions made by people who have been here, but donāt live here.
My favorite restaurants currently are Maypop, Gris Gris, and Peche. Those are all either Warehouse District or on Magazine St., which are both two commercial areas I spend a lot more time in than the French Quarter. Of the old school-type places, Brennanās (French Quarter), Commanderās Palace (Uptown), and Clancyās (way Uptown) are all good too. Thereās also a good cluster of breweries (Urban South, Miel, NOLA, and Courtyard) I spend a lot of time in that many people do in a day if youāre into craft beer. The Rusty Nail and associated courtyard restaurant Sidecar is my personal local spot.
I donāt spend a ton of time in parks and museums, but both City Park and Audubon are nice. WW2 Museum is world class. Oak St. (around the Maple Leaf Bar) is another fun spot but is far from Downtown. Being that itās the dead middle of summer, many hotels (Ace, Virgin, NOPSI, among others) have public rooftop pools that get very crowded. Harrahās exists, but is slated for a major renovation so itās not going to be a particularly nice casino.
Really though, I would just make a few reservations to have in hand and then pick a neighborhood or two and bounce around there. The city is great for tourists because most of what I just listed is walking distance or a very short Lyft ride away and thereās tons of other stuff around it all. Let me know if you have any questions; thereās tons of more touristy shit that I have long since given up on but lots of people still do.
Oh, and keep an eye on hurricanes. Those have been known to fuck up a good time.
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Oh, speaking of said touristy shit. Some of the more tolerable stuff:
- St. Charles streetcar to look at old mansions. Columns and Chloe hotels are on that route too.
- Grabbing a six pack then going to Crescent Park right on the Mississippi River can be fun to watch huge ships go by, but really itās probably going to be too hot for that nonsense.
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My favorite memory of New Orleans is a shrimp po boy. So good.
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I was a fan of the beignets myself.
New Orleans has some hella good food.
Muffuletta is top tier sandwich.
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True, but there are a lot of bad muffulettas out there. All the bad ones Iāve had have been outside NO, so this is probably solid advice for Chris.
Thought the muffuletta was overrated.
I suppose it is possible that I had a bad one but to me it was basically a hero sandwich on a different roll.
I like muffulettas but Iām never ordering one over a decent poboy. there are so many places in NO that have killer poboys and theyāre all better than the best muffulettas Iāve had. shrimp, oyster, roast beef, catfish, I donāt care, Iāll eat them all. I used to really like R&O on the lakefront, they had a killer soft shell crab parmesean poboy that was just fucking otherworldly but they never were the same after katrina
Just got flights for 4 to UK to visit family in August. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
Iāve probably had just as many bad poboys as muffulettas. Also all outside of NO, though, so not really relevant.
Iād agree that poboy>muffuletta in NO. Outside it might be the other way around, because the bad poboys Iāve had were truly awful, where as the muffulettas were at least edible.