Tips on how to look after your baggage
when touring Cape Town.

When traveling to a foreign country your holiday or stay can be marred by the first person you meet at the airport. Entering any country from abroad is always stressful as you never know what will happen in the customs section. You could get an official in a bad mood and he could treat you very rudely or if you are lucky be extremely helpful.

A recent trip to an Indonesian Island was quite traumatic as I was one of the last persons to get through customs. When I arrived to claim my baggage a number of porters accosted me and of course wanted a tip for carrying my baggage.

Being a South African abroad I had dollars with me and when this was converted to the islands local currency I had no idea as to the value of the notes I was given. The result was that I refused the porters help and carried my own bags as I was not prepared to be taken for a ride by the islanders.

The above is obviously experienced by many people arriving in South Africa and I would like to allay some of your fears in this regard. If you are part of a tour group you should be met by a local tour guide who once he has gathered all his passengers together will check that everyone has his/her luggage. If your luggage has not arrived or been tampered with it must be reported to the airline officials before you leave the airport. Your guide is there to assist you to do this.

Most passengers collect a trolley for their luggage before passing through customs and then wheel it through to the terminal building where they are met by their guide. Don't expect your luggage to get to the coach by itself. Ensure that you stay with it and that it is loaded onto the coach.

Your guide will be watching and counting the number of bags loaded as it is his duty to see that the same number of bags that get loaded onto the coach come off when you reach your hotel. It is not necessary to tip the porter loading the coach as this will be done by the guide. On arrival at your hotel the guide will supervise the unloading of your luggage but you should be there to identify it before it is whisked away to your room.

There are many pitfalls that can occur with luggage especially when a tour guide does not tip porters at a hotel. Luggage although not missing will be dropped into someone else's room to embarrass the guide for not paying the porterage.

At the end of the day retrieving your luggage yourself and keeping an eye on it will ensure that it gets to your hotel room.

What to do in Cape Town once you have settled in.

There are many day tours available with the main one being the grand tour of the Cape Peninsula where you visit Cape Point and stop off at various places along the way.

A second tour which is always enjoyed is a trip to the winelands where there are many estates and many wines to taste. These tours include cellar tours in some instances.

Township tours are also very interesting as in them you will experience a lifestyle that you are not likely to see anywhere else in the world.

The West Coast tours are also good especially in September when all the flowers start blooming. The stunning beauty of the Langebaan lagoon, the fossils at the fossil park and the Mykanos Casino are just some of the attractions on this tour.

To add some tranquility to your Cape Town holiday a visit to the Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens is a must. In this small tract of land most of the Cape's Floral Kingdom is on display and if you did not know, there are more species of plants in the Cape Floral Kingdom than in the whole of the British Isles.

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Cape Peninsula
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