Cape Town Attractions

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Attractions

From museums and historic sites to scenic drives and beaches, Cape Town has plenty to offer visitors in the way of attractions and excursions. The open-top, hop-on hop-off Explorer bus operates two routes with 13 stops each at sights within the central city, as well as further afield in the suburbs, which is an easy way to see many of the city's top attractions in one day. The city centre is easy to navigate on foot, with Table Mountain and the gentle slope of the city toward the sea providing a point of reference and making it difficult to get lost. At the very least, visitors usually include a trip up Table Mountain in the cable car on their itinerary, and many make time for an outing to Robben Island, Cape Point, the Winelands and of course any one of the city's many magnificent beaches.

Summertime visitors rarely come to Cape Town without at least one day spent enjoying its Blue Flag-rated beaches, whether lounging with the bronze bodies in Camps Bay and Clifton, or snorkelling with penguins in Simonstown. There are many active pursuits available in Cape Town as well, from kayaking with whales in the Atlantic Ocean, to hiking up Table Mountain or in the Tokai forest, to paragliding from Signal Hill to Camp's Bay.

For those with a bit more time, there are many museums that offer a glimpse into the apartheid era such as the District Six Museum, and an increasingly popular tour is to one of the predominantly black townships which usually includes a look at community projects, a visit to a craft market and a drink at a local shebeen.

Table Mountain

Cape Town's most popular tourist attraction is also its most famous physical feature is the flat-topped mountain that stands sentinel over the city. Table Mountain has been proclaimed a nature reserve, protecting its diverse floral species, some unique to its slopes. The views from... see full details

Castle of Good Hope

South Africa’s oldest building, the Castle was completed in 1679 (replacing an earlier mud and timber fort built by the first Dutch Governor, Jan van Riebeeck). Situated adjacent to a parking lot and bus station in Buitenkant Street, its walls mark the original boundary... see full details

South African Museum and Planetarium

The imposing South African Museum, dedicated to natural history and the human sciences, contains a huge variety of fascinating exhibits from entire chunks of caves bearing rock art, to traditional arts and crafts from several African tribes. The natural history galleries are full of... see full details

Greenmarket Square

Situated in the Central Business District, near the main station, is Greenmarket Square, the perfect spot to observe South Africa's 'rainbow nation' in all its hues. Once the scene of slave markets, this is the site of one of the city's most vibrant... see full details

$St. George\'s Cathedral$

St George’s Cathedral

Cape Town's Victorian Gothic style Anglican Cathedral, founded in 1901, is situated in Wale Street and is historically significant for it is where the enthronement of South Africa's first black archbishop, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, took place. The Cathedral is unique in... see full details

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Five miles (eight km) south of the city centre lies the magnificent Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, covering a huge expanse of the rugged south-western slopes of the Table Mountain range. Kirstenbosch was bequeathed to the nation by mining magnate Cecil Rhodes in 1895, and today... see full details

Robben Island

South Africa’s most widely known tourist attraction is probably Robben Island, seven miles (11km) from Cape Town in the centre of Table Bay. For nearly 400 years this tiny rocky island outcrop was utilised as a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment for numerous categories of people... see full details

District Six Museum

Until the 1960s, District Six was a vibrant district of Cape Town, close to the city centre and the harbour. In 1966 the government declared District Six a 'whites only' area under the Group Areas Act and over 60,000 residents were forcibly moved... see full details

Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront

This working harbour, historical site and shopping and entertainment development has become one of Cape Town's most visited tourist attractions. The waterfront offers everything from shopping malls, and arts and crafts markets, to live music, cinemas, buskers and a variety of festivals throughout the... see full details

Bo-Kaap

Bo-Kaap, or the old Malay Quarter, was declared an exclusive residential area for the Muslim Cape Malays under the Group Areas Act of 1950 during the Apartheid years, forcing people of other religions and ethnicity to leave, and today is still closely associated with... see full details

Township Tours

The N2 highway that connects Cape Town International Airport to the city is lined with townships, consisting of a mixture of shacks and solid buildings. During the days of apartheid, people of colour were not allowed to live in the white suburbs and... see full details

West Coast Ostrich Ranch

The ostrich farm is home to over 220 ostrich species as well as other birds, including dwarf ostriches, black-necked ostriches, peacocks, emus, and rheas. Tour guides are informative, and a 45-minute tour (which can be conducted in English, Afrikaans, German or French) includes an... see full details

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