Simon’s Town

In an endeavor to avoid complacency with our weekend routine, some friends and I decided to take a trip to Simon’s Town, a small beach town on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. We had briefly visited Simon’s Town our first week in Cape Town as part of a Peninsula tour, and remembered it as quaint, picturesque and perfect for a weekend getaway. Conveniently, Simon’s Town is only about a 45-minute train ride from where we live, and the last leg of the journey comes with beautiful ocean views out the train window. The town is immediately charming, essentially consisting of a main road paralleling the ocean, bordered with shops and restaurants. We settled our things at the Backpacker’s we would be staying in that night (a very cheap and comfortable hostel chain) and wandered for a bit along the road before deciding to eat dinner at a restaurant promising a three course meal for150 rand (about $20). We ate on a balcony of the restaurant overlooking the water as the sun set, and I just felt so content.