The following is a day by day review of the Silversea Silver Wind cruise January 23 to February 2, 2010, Cape Town to Cape Town, South Africa.

January 23

We are in Cape Town, South Africa and will board Silversea Silver Wind for a 10 day cruise Cape Town to Cape Town visiting East London, Maputo, Richards Bay (overnight), Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Mossel Bay. Silversea is doing 3 of these trips and we are taking the one in the middle, with another leaving Feb. 2. Some background: We've sailed Silversea Silver Wind before and were thrilled when we saw this itinerary because we have always wanted to see South Africa. We flew from Dulles airport January 18 on KLM business to Amsterdam, then transferred non-stop to Cape Town. The total travel time was 21 hours - long, but uneventful. The plane arrived at 11 pm January 19, and the driver arranged by our hotel was waiting for us and took us the 20 minutes to our hotel, the Cape Royale in Cape Town. A word about the Cape Royale: We had researched hotels in Cape Town since booking the cruise (we're cruise only) and had considered the Cape Grace, Table Bay, One and Only and Mount Nelson. However, the Cape Royale is one year old and has recently become a member of Preferred Hotels. It had great reviews on Trip Advisor and a package was available, so we booked. The package included return transfer from the airport/ship, spa, full breakfast and a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. The room is about 1,100 square feet, has a large living room with flat screen tv , a dining area, two bedrooms, two full baths and a full kitchen with granite counters, Siemens appliances including a washer and dryer. There also is a large balcony with views of the stadium and waterfront. Other rooms face Table Mountain. There is a pool bar on the 9th floor which has 360 degree beautiful views of Cape Town. The hotel is located in Green Point, within walking distance of the waterfront, and directly across from the new stadium being built for the World Cup Soccer in Cape Town this year. The location is great and there are restaurants within the hotel - a steak house and a sushi house, and a good Italian restaurant with excellent pizza next door. Also, the waterfront restaurants are easily accessible and have wonderful food and views. The best part of staying here is that the hotel provides a car (Jaguar) and driver, who will take you anywhere within a 5 km radius within Cape Town, on call at all times. We found this very convenient to get us wherever we wanted to go in the city and back and eliminated the need to take taxis. Even though the hotel is not directly in the waterfront, we found it nice to be away from the bustle over there at night. This morning when we woke up, we stepped out on the balcony and saw the Silver Wind docked in the harbor waiting for us. We would definitely stay here again. Our first day in Cape Town, we slept late and had breakfast. We then had the car and driver take us to the waterfront, where we spent time shopping in Victoria Wharf. We enjoyed the Red Shed Craft market and other stores and saw the Aquarium. The waterfront is lovely with many great restaurants and stunning views of Table Mountain. We the called the hotel car and were driven over to the Green Market Square. This is a market square with stalls selling all kinds of crafts and souvenirs, directly in front of City Hall. After the market, we walked along Long Street, stopping into shops and enjoying the architecture of the city. We then called the car and returned to the hotel. We had a lovely dinner in 1800 degrees, the steak house in the hotel and were happy to get to bed to catch up from a bit of jet lag. The next day we had booked a private tour from Hylton Ross of the Cape and the winelands. Our tour guide Deon arrived promptly in a comfortable van and we left for the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We cannot say enough about Deon. He actually trains tour guides for the company and is exceptional in his knowledge and entertaining stories of Cape Town, South African history and the sites. We drove the entire Cape road, including Chapman's Peak, saw the 12 Apostles, Hout Bay, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Simon's Town and the African penguins and drove through Table Mountain Park. We saw baboons, ostrich, bok, and penguins on the trip as well as fascinating scenery, entertained by Deon's commentary. We then drove to Stellenbosch, in the winelands and spent the afternoon walking the town, having a lovely lunch, and tastings. Deon took us back to our hotel after a very full day, worth every second. We had salad and pizza at Bravo the restaurant next to the hotel and turned in early. Yesterday we visited Robben Island, the site where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 29 years. It is a very popular tourist site now, so it is necessary to book tickets beforehand - sometimes up to 2 weeks during busy times. The tour begins next to the clock tower in the waterfront and takes about 3-1/2 hours. We took the ferry for the 20 minute trip to the island where buses met us for a drive around the island with a guide who gave commentary on our sites. We then left the bus and were taken on a tour of the prison by a former political prisoner. It was a fascinating tour of a piece of the history of South Africa. We then spent some time at the waterfront, had late lunch at Den Anker and did some more shopping. Today we will visit a few sites and then board the Silversea Silver Wind about 2. Read more