Keep your kids entertained during the 2014 holidays

The school holidays offer you the chance to spend some quality time with your kids, and let them enjoy themselves on their own for when you need some time off. You just need to know where to go and what to do. Luckily, the Mother City is a child’s dream come true. In Cape Town, you can have an amazing time without having to spend armfulls of money. With beaches, boardwalks and prominades along the shore, animal parks, theme rides and beautiful gardens, you have a smorgasbord of ways to keep your kids entertained. These are just a few of them:

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront

Exciting boat cruises for the kids at the V&A Waterfront

The V&A Waterfront has a variety of thrilling activities all year round, including the popular Two Oceans Aquarium, boat rides to Robben Island, stalls, malls, themed restaurants and great seafood, burgers and pizzas – all firm favourites with most kids.

Also, the Nelson Mandela Civic Centre Legacy Exhibition will be open until April 2014, even on public holidays. This is a wonderful and educational opportunity for you to spend the day with your (older) kids learning about the life of Mandela, with video clips and over 200 photographs on display.

Ratanga Junction

Exciting everyone from young children to the grown ups too, Ratanga Junction is a large theme park your kids are going to love. Adventure awaits anyone who enters there, with a range of different rides, games and animal shows perfect for the whole family.

At R172.00 for those over 1.3 m and R85.00 for smaller children, it’s one of the most affordable, exciting places to visit when you consider how much fun will be packed into one day.  An all-day tickets allows you to go on as many rides as you want all day long, with the exception of the slingshot, which isn’t for kids anyway.

School holiday theatre

Theatre is a wonderful way to expose your children to entertainment and culture while keeping them captivated. Skip the cinema in favour of one of the shows running at a local theatrehouse. Prices vary from R70.00 to R400.00 depending where you go, when you go and where you’d prefer to sit.

·         The Baxter Theatre has a musical showing of Hansel and Gretel until January 11th, 2014, and Marc Lottering’s Scrooge until January 25th. Whether you’re looking for a fairytale favourite or would rather see the adaption of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale, you are in for a great time.

·         The Artscape Theatre is showing Sleeping Beauty on Ice until February 9th. You’ll be treated to the talents of 26 Championship ice-skaters dancing gracefully to the incredible music of Tchaikovsky, with Olga Sharutenko as Princess Aurora.

Holiday camps

If your kids are ready to do something on their own these holidays, what better way to encourage them than with the adventure a holiday camp will offer?

·         SunScene Fun Days – Offering up an Adventure Course for children, as well as 3-day programmes and one-day trips; this camp is all about fun in the sun with sandboarding, foofie slides, paintball target shooting, balance beams, rope activities and green beach crafting (making art out of discarded refuse).

·         Sporting Chance – For kids aged 4-13, with a passion for sport, Sporting Chance offers workshops for all seasons in sports like rugby, soccer, cricket and hockey.

·         Buffalo Drift – For kids between the ages of 8 and 13, this camp is based on a farm in Porterville. It’s a great choice for energetic children, offering a range of activities that includes night fishing, survival skill training, archery, river-trips, races, biking and working with farm animals.

Now you know how to keep your kids entertained with these fun activities, it’s time to take them there. The next item on the to-do list is to book a vehicle with car hire Cape Town to ensure you’re able to explore the area freely and safely.

With all of these fun things for your kids to do, there’s no need for them to lounge around getting bored these holidays.