Cape Town is the best place for go on a long-term vacation – from a wallet perspective.
This is the conclusion of the latest report on postal holidays, which gives South Africais Tokyo's top city for a budget-friendly getaway to a far-flung destination, ahead of 32 other popular locations, including Tokyo in JapanSharm el-Sheikh to EgyptAnd FloridaWE.
The report covers a range of expenses, including restaurant meals, a pint of beer, a bottle of water, sunscreen and a cup of coffee. It's clearly a great time to go, especially with the pound sterling soaring against the South African rand – a pound is now worth 23 rand, a third more than it was seven years ago.
In addition to this, you can book a budget flight with the Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic. Round trip fares from London start from as little as £481 while it costs around £920 with British Airways.
Here we visit Cape Town and compare costs with another warm and popular winter destination: Miami, Florida.
Choose between Cape Town and breathtaking Table Mountain…
…and Miami's bustling South Beach
Getting there
It's an 11 hour 35 minute flight from London to Cape Town – to Miami it takes just over ten hours. But the time difference with South Africa is only two hours ahead, while it is five hours behind in Florida, so there is less time difference.
Cape Town: London Gatwick to Cape Town from £481 return (flynorse.com).
Miami: London Heathrow to Miami from £486 return (virginatlantic.com).
Car rental
As public transport can be tricky in South Africa, renting a car makes perfect sense.
Cape Town: Six-day rental of a Volkswagen Polo from £73 (europcar.co.uk).
Miami: Six-day car hire from £446 (sixt.co.uk).
Eat outside
For such a cosmopolitan and internationally renowned city, Cape Town is surprisingly inexpensive, even at the famous V&A Waterfront complex and the Old Power Station's vibrant Time Out Market, a bustling community food hall with 13 kitchens run by celebrity chefs local.
Cape Town: 12-inch pizza £9.50; 500g T-bone steak £13.60.
Miami: Pizza £14; 500g rib eye steak £62.
Have a drink
Head straight to the V&A Waterfront complex, home to some great bars, including Den Anker, with a lovely terrace facing Table Mountain, and Quay 4, an ever-popular tavern serving local beers and South African wines. South inexpensive by the glass and in the bottle. . Aside from the V&A and Time Out Market – where the Cultivar Wine Bar recently opened and offers 120 different bottles of wine – head to the many lively bars of Long Street in the city centre.
Cape Town: A pint of local lager (Brewers) £2.10; a glass of crisp Chenin Blanc wine £2.15, or £7.50 a bottle.
Miami: Bottle of Peroni beer £7; glass of house white wine £11.
Classic attractions
You can take a gondola to the top of Table Mountain – or walk up if you prefer
You're spoiled for choice when it comes to things to do in Cape Town: beach days, trips to the top of Table Mountain, visits to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years), among others. There's also a lot going on in Miami, but most things cost more.
Cape Town: Table Mountain return cable cars £16.80; ferry/Robben Island tours £27.20.
Miami: An eight-hour tour of the Everglades Wetlands Reserve on an airboat £90.
Hotels
The President Spa Hotel in Bantry Bay offers double rooms from £142
Expect excellent value for money in South Africa, even at oceanfront hotels in and around Cape Town.
Cape Town: A ten-minute taxi ride from the V&A Waterfront, the President spa hotel, a member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts group, is located on Bantry Bay and offers spacious and immaculate rooms. Doubles from £142 (thepresidenthotel.co.za).
Miami: Double from £199 at Royal Palm South Beach Miami, good location and similar standard (marriott.com).
Wildlife excursions
A penguin walks along Boulders Beach in South Africa
The marine life of the South Atlantic is amazing, with sightings of whales off the coast, colonies of penguins, dolphins and seals.
Cape Town: Discover a spectacular colony of endangered African penguins at Boulders Beach; entry £8.60 (bouldersbeach.net) or watch whales for free from the coast at Hermanus.
Miami: It's hard to make a direct comparison, although tickets to Zoo Miami cost £18.10.
Wine tours
A vineyard in the famous Stellenbosch region outside Cape Town
Cape Town: At Jordan Estate, a first-class lunch costs £20 per person, with a bottle of house wine for £12; tours with wine tastings from £30 (jordanwines.com).
Miami: Schnebly Redland's Winery tours in Miami, with wine tastings included, from £36 per person.
The countdown
It's far from a perfect science, but adding up the cost of flights to Cape Town and Miami, a rental car (for a week), a steak with two glasses of wine (every day for a week), a trip to Robben Island/Everglades, a stay in a stylish four-star hotel (for a week), a wildlife excursion and a wine tour, the countdown went like this…
Cape Town: £1,206 per person.
Miami: £2,138 per person.
The verdict
This is a rough comparison – and some travelers may spend a little more or less, depending on their preferences – but generally speaking, a holiday to South Africa, using one of the new Nordic flights, can work out to half the price of a trip to Florida.
The Cape summer extends into March, when temperatures average 28Cit's the perfect time to go.
Travel Facts
Norse Atlantic flies from Gatwick to Cape Town from £498 return (flynorse.com). For more information: sudafrica.net, wesgro.co.za, whalewatchsa.com, sidecars.co.za.
