For the Families

The thinking

Children who have flown overnight from Moscow do not want a city, a museum or a schedule. They want to stop moving and get outside.

So we do not stay in Cape Town at all on the first day. We collect them at the aircraft door and drive ninety minutes down the coast to Hermanus, where two houses are waiting with the sea below them and a garden to run in.

The day, hour by hour

On landing

Met at the aircraft door

A Russian-speaking assistant meets the family as they step off and walks them through a private channel. No queue, no arrivals hall, no hour on their feet with tired children.
+90 min

Down the whale coast

Out of the city and along the coast road past Gordon’s Bay, with the mountains on one side and False Bay on the other. Children fall asleep; nobody minds.
Afternoon

Two houses above Walker Bay

Six bedrooms in each, a garden, and the sea directly below. No corridors, no lifts, no neighbours. The children are in the pool within four minutes of arriving, which is the correct way to end a twelve-hour flight, and they stay in it until somebody makes them come out for supper.
Late afternoon

Nothing at all

The pool, the garden, and the sea below. After a night in an aeroplane that is the whole of the plan.
Evening

The first braai

A fire in the garden and food cooked on it, which is how South Africans eat and how children like to be fed. Marshmallows afterwards. Everybody is asleep by nine, including the adults.

Who is where

John Sparks	With the family every day, from the aircraft door to the aircraft door.
Russian trip guide	Guiding throughout, in Russian.
Driver	Professional, so both can be with the guests rather than the road.

Guests	Up to 14
Transfer	By road, about 90 minutes
Accommodation	Two private villas, Hermanus — night 1 of 3

The thinking

The day, hour by hour

Met at the aircraft door

Down the whale coast

Two houses above Walker Bay

Nothing at all

The first braai

Who is where