Cape Town, the oldest city in South Africa, lies in the ‘bowl’ that is formed by majestic Table Mountain, its flanking peaks Lions Head and Signal Hill, and the broad sweep of Table Bay. Suburbs and satellite towns sprawl southwards over much of the scenically spectacular 60km long Cape Peninsula, which extends all the way to Cape Point, where it is believed the warm Indian Ocean meets the cold Atlantic Ocean.
Among Cape Town’s top attractions are Table Mountain with its rotating cableway, Robben Island where former president Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for most of his 27-year imprisonment, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Point Nature Reserve, Boulders Beach with its penguin colony, a wide variety of excellent restaurants and bars, world class hotels, superb sandy beaches, and the Peninsula’s unique mountain and coastal scenery.
The city centre itself holds some points of interest like the Castle of Good Hope, the District Six Museum, the Bo-Kaap Museum, the National Gallery, South African Museum and Planeterium, the Great Synagogue and Holocaust Museum, Greenmarket Square with its colourful traders, eclectic Long Street, and the Company’s Gardens, which started out as the first Dutch settlers vegetable patch in the 1650’s.
Bordering the city and harbour is the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, an enormously popular feature which includes the Two Oceans Aquarium and a wealth of restaurants, bars, top hotels and retail stores. The ferry to Robben Island also departs from here, at the specially designated Nelson Mandela Gateway.
We recommend spending a leisurely day driving along the Cape Peninsula’s coastline. Stop off at the quaint fishing villages of Hout Bay, Kalk Bay and Simonstown, home to the South African navy. Spend a relaxing afternoon wandering through Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, with its herb and fragrance gardens of indigenous plants. Kirstenbosch also hosts an open-air music festival during the summer months, which features local and international artists in probably the most spectacular natural setting in the world.
During the hot summer months, the fashionable beaches of Bantry Bay, Clifton, Camps Bay and Llandudno are particularly popular. White, sandy beaches washed by the turquoise waters of the cold Atlantic Ocean, attract holidaymakers and locals who turn up in their thousands to soak up the African sun.
For the more adventurous and active holidaymaker, Cape Town also offers a wide variety of outdoor activities that include world-class golf courses, abseiling, helicopter flips, coastal cruises, caving, cycling, scuba diving, deep sea fishing, horseback riding, jetskiiing, kayaking, kloofing, microlighting, paragliding, quad biking, sandboarding, kitesurfing, skydiving, Harley Davidson tours and much more...
The Fairest Cape boasts breathtaking scenery, a pleasant climate, and a rich history and culture to go with its famed tourist attractions.
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