Cape Town and Peninsula

Cape Town and Peninsula Experiences

1. Cape Town City Top Sights

A half/ full day tour of a multicultural city heritage, Table Mountain, Waterfront & Robben Island

Cape Town is Africa’s Tourism capital – a fascinating mixture of people and cultures that sprung from Khoi herders, African slaves, Eastern exiles, European traders and settlers, under legendary Table Mountain. The city offers rich experiences for almost every interest – most within easy walking distance or seen via a sightseeing bus route. Here are some of our favourites:

  • Guests will be picked up in Cape Town central
  • Take a (weather-permitting) cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain, proclaimed one of the seven new Natural World Wonders. From here, see the Peninsula coastlines, and their surrounding mountains 50 kilometres away.
  • The Grand Parade is the city’s oldest meeting place. It was once just off the Bay’s original shoreline, where ships moored to provision with produce from the nearby Dutch Company Gardens. It’s also where Nelson Mandela first addressed South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’. Some of its history is explored at the nearby Castle of Good Hope, the Slave Lodge and District Six Museums, to name a few of 25 key sites in the city.
  • If you prefer to quietly absorb Cape art, architecture or ‘living’ heritage, stroll up to the ‘Malay Quarter’ of colourful Bo-Kaap; browse the streets and market near Greenmarket Square, sample local food in the cafés of vibrant Victorian Long Street, or view the art collections of the National Gallery near the SA Parliament.
  • Downtown on Table Bay visit the V&A Waterfront with its many port-side experiences – from the Two Oceans Aquarium to a cross-bay ferry tour of Robben Island – for centuries, a prison for dissenting voices like Mandela, who spent 18 years there.

2. Cape Town Township Visit 

A visit to the Cape Flats to discover the real life of an African township through its people   

Cape Town’s townships are its heart and soul. Spread across the Cape Flats, they’re home to most of its citizens. Meet these people and communities personally, as they welcome you into their own environments, homes and daily lives. Discover African culture, custom, craft, music, food and ‘Ubuntu’ – common ‘neighbourly’ care for ALL people – no matter who they!  Every Township visit is unique, with different places, people and sensations, depending on what’s happening on any day in a community. Here are some kinds of experiences your visit might include:

  • Guests will be picked up in Cape Town central
  • Enjoy a casual ‘walk-and-talk’ through a typical community with one of its respected residents, to see shops, taverns and small business – run from homes, sidewalks or even converted shipping containers – where you can get anything from cabbages and cell phones to the latest African hairstyle.
  •  Sample a traditional meal with a family in the area. Or grab a fresh street-side snack, like corn on the cob or ‘amagwinya’, a type of donut. Visit a local butchery, choose your meat, then relax with a beer, some ‘Kwaito’ music and local residents in the eating area of its ‘Shisa nyama’ (meaning barbecued meat) while your purchase is prepared over an open fire.
  • Meet women from a local empowerment project who do beautiful traditional beading and sewing. Or some of their children at one of the area’s kindergartens, where you can chat to the teachers and have some fun with the kids.
  • Foremost in every African’s mind are the futures of its children, and there are unique education and skills development projects to discover. Visit one like the Mzamomhle Stichting, whose happy little crèche is now no longer housed in a ‘make-do’ wood and iron structure thanks to sponsorship by the Stichting.  Perhaps you’d like to find out how you can assist fundraising to help them build another brick and mortar building or assist with any one of a number of other needs.
  • Chat to a local family that once lived in a shack dwelling and now owns a permanent home, to learn how housing developments like these are transforming communities. Wherever you are, you’ll find that despite hardship, Township people are always warm, friendly and willing to share with you. It’s part of the African way of ‘Ubuntu’ –“I am, because we are”. This embracing spirit always makes an Ukubona visit a life-affirming and sometimes, even life-changing experience.

3. Cape Peninsula Grand Tour

A full-day nature lovers’ round trip through the Cape Peninsula’s unique coastal and marine reserves  

The rocky Cape Peninsula jutting into the Atlantic was an island until about 60 million years ago. Today its rare mountain, coastal and ocean biomes are part of a World Natural Heritage reserve that runs from the city to Cape Point. This round trip experience is a ‘must’ for nature lovers. Here are a few of its many optional highlights.

  • Guests will be picked up in Cape Town central
  • From the city, drive along the mountain spine of the 12 Apostles past the beaches of Clifton and Camps Bay en route to the fishing harbour of Hout Bay, where you can take an optional boat cruise to see Cape fur seals, or enjoy a local seafood snack.
  • Pause for a photo-opportunity on the heights of breathtaking Chapman’s Peak Drive, before moving on past the wide beaches of Noordhoek and the coastal settlements of Kommetjie and Scarborough.
  • Visit Cape Point, Africa’s south-westernmost point and its lighthouses. Early European mariners called this Cabo Tormentosa (Cape of Storms) and the coastline has countless wrecks and marine legends.
  • The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve is home to original coastal flora and fauna. See troupes of baboons, bontebok, eland, mountain zebra and bird species like ostrich, which you can also see up-close at an optional visit to an ostrich farm nearby.
  • Your drive back along the beautiful False Bay coast also offers a stop at the African Penguin Colony, near the naval port of Simonstown. Along the coast during summer, there are chances to spot Southern Right whales in the bay, or see the landing of fresh fish at Kalk Bay harbour.
  • Returning to the city, inland through the green Constantia Valley, a trip to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain allows you to explore the wonders of the Cape floral kingdom, the smallest and richest in the world.