Sights in Cape Town
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Boulders Beach
Some 3km south of Simon’s Town is Boulders, a picturesque area with a number of large boulders and small sandy coves, within which you’ll find Boulders Beach, home to a colony of 3000 jackass (African) penguins. Delightful as they are, the penguins are also pretty stinky, which may put you off getting too close.
There are two entrances to the penguins’ protected area. The first, as you come along Queens Rd (the continuation of St George’s St) from Simon’s Town, is at the end of Seaforth Rd; the second is at Bellevue Rd, where you’ll also find accommodation and places to eat. You can observe the penguins from the boardwalk at Foxy Beach and at Boulders Beach.
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Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Covering over 500 hectares of Table Mountain, overlooking False Bay and the Cape Flats, these beautiful landscaped gardens merge almost imperceptibly with the surrounding natural fynbos (fine bush) vegetation. The gardens were established by Jan van Riebeeck, who appointed a forester in 1657.
A group of shipwrecked French refugees on their way to Madagascar was employed during 1660 to plant the famous wild almond hedge as the boundary of the Dutch outpost (it’s still here). Van Riebeeck called his private farm Boschheuwel, and most likely it wasn’t until the 1700s, when the gardens were managed by JF Kirsten, that they got the name Kirstenbosch. Apart from the almond…
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Signal Hill & Noon Gun
Separating Sea Point from the City Bowl, Signal Hill provides magnificent views from its 350m-high summit, especially at night. Once also known as Lion's Rump, as it is attached to Lion's Head by a 'spine' of hills, it is officially part of Table Mountain National Park. To reach the summit head up Kloof Nek Rd from the city and take the first turn-off to the right at the top of the hill.
Signal Hill was the early settlement's lookout point, and it was from here that flags were hoisted when a ship was spotted, giving the citizens below time to prepare their goods for sale and dust off their tankards.
At noon, Monday to Saturday, a cannon known as the Noon Gun is fired from…
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Chapman’s Peak Drive
Whether you choose to drive, pedal or walk along this 5km toll road linking Hout Bay with Noordhoek, take your time as it’s one of the most spectacular stretches of coastal road in the world. Unfortunately the road is plagued by dangerous rock slides, so it often gets closed during bad weather. There are a few places to stop to admire the view and it’s certainly worth taking the road at least one way en route to Cape Point. Perched on a rock near the Hout Bay end of the drive is a bronze leopard statue. It has been sitting there since 1963 and is a reminder of the wildlife that once roamed the area’s forests (which has also largely vanished).
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Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, always just called the Waterfront is likely to be one of the first places you head to. It’s a great example of how to best redevelop a declining dock area into a tourist hot spot. The atmosphere is always buzzing and there’s plenty to do, including making a trip out to Robben Island, the infamous prison island that is now a fascinating museum.
The Alfred and Victoria Basins date from 1860 and are named after Queen Victoria and her son Alfred. Although these wharves are too small for modern container vessels and tankers, the Victoria Basin is still used by tugs, harbour vessels of various kinds and fishing boats. In the Alfred Basin…
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Table Mountain National Park
Covering some three-quarters of South Africa, Table Mountain National Park stretches from flat-topped Table Mountain to Cape Point. For the vast majority of visitors the main attraction is the 1086m-high mountain itself, the top of which can easily be accessed by the cableway, which runs every 10/20 minutes in high/low season.
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!Khwa Ttu
Don’t miss a visit to the very special !Khwa ttu off Rte 27 just south of Yzerfontein, 70km from Cape Town. Billed as the San Culture & Education Centre, !Khwa ttu is a joint venture by the San people and a Swiss philanthropic foundation (Ubuntu) and is the only San-owned and operated culture centre in the Western Cape.
Set within the ancestral lands of the San, !Khwa ttu is based on an 850-hectare nature reserve. There’s a good restaurant serving traditional South African cuisine and a wonderful craft shop. All the buildings operate on solar power, and a crèche has been built for the workers’ children. The land itself is sandveld, rising to renosterveld on the…
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Cape of Good Hope
Commonly called Cape Point, this 7750-hectare section of Table Mountain National Park, includes awesome scenery, fantastic walks and often deserted beaches. Some 250 species of birds live here, including cormorants and a family of ostriches that hang out near the Cape of Good Hope, the southwesternmost point of the continent.
Many people visit on organised bus tours but, if you have the time, exploring the reserve on foot or by bicycle is much more rewarding. Bear in mind, though, that there is minimal shade and that the weather can change quickly. Bookings are required for the two-day Cape of Good Hope Trail, a spectacular 33.8km circular route with one night spent at the…
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District Six Museum
If you visit only one museum in Cape Town make it this one. As much for the people of the now-vanished District Six as it is about them, this is a hugely moving and informative exhibition, and most township tours stop here to explain the history of the pass laws. Reconstructions of home interiors, photographs, recordings and testimonials build up an evocative picture of a shattered but not entirely broken community. The staff each have a heartbreaking story to tell. There’s also an excellent new annexe in the Sacks Futeran Building a couple of blocks away. Speak to staff about arranging a walking tour of the old District Six, for a minimum of 10 people.
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Iziko Slave Lodge
This museum, mainly devoted to the history and experience of slaves and their descendants in the Cape, also has artefacts from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Far East on the 1st floor.
One of the oldest buildings in South Africa, dating back to 1660, the Slave Lodge has a fascinating history in itself. Until 1811 the building was home, if you could call it that, to as many as 1000 slaves, who lived in damp, insanitary, crowded conditions. Up to 20% died each year. The slaves were bought and sold just around the corner on Spin St.
From the late 18th century the lodge was used as a brothel, a jail for petty criminals and political exiles from Indonesia, and then a…
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Company’s Gardens
What started as the vegetable patch for the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC, or Dutch East India Company) is now a shady green escape in the heart of the city. The surviving 6 hectares of Jan van Riebeeck’s original 18-hectare garden are found around Government Ave, with gates next to the National Library of South African and off both Museum and Queen Victoria Sts.
As the VOC’s sources of supply diversified, the grounds became a superb pleasure garden, planted with a fine collection of botanical specimens from South Africa and the rest of the world, including frangipanis, African flame trees, aloes and roses.
The squirrels that scamper here were imported to…
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Iziko Michaelis Collection
On the south side of Greenmarket Sq, the city’s second-oldest public space after the Grand Parade is the beautifully restored Old Townhouse, a Cape rococo building dating from 1755. It now houses the impressive art collection of Sir Max Michaelis, donated to the city in 1914. Dutch and Flemish paintings and etchings from the 16th and 17th centuries (including works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Anthony van Dyck) hang side by side with contemporary works – the contrasts between old and new are fascinating. The cool interior is a relief from the buzzing market outside on Greenmarket Square, while the relaxed Ivy Garden Restaurant in the courtyard behind is worth considering…
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Iziko SA National Gallery
The impressive permanent collection of South Africa’s premier art space harks back to Dutch times and includes some extraordinary pieces. But it’s often contemporary works, such as the Butcher Boys sculpture by Jane Alexander, looking like a trio of Lord of the Rings orcs who have stumbled into the gallery, that stand out the most. Also check out the remarkable teak door in the courtyard, carved by Herbert Vladimir Meyerowitz with scenes representing the global wanderings of the Jews. His carvings also adorn the tops of the door frames throughout the gallery. There’s also a good shop with some interesting books and gifts.
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Irma Stern Museum
The pioneering 20th-century artist Irma Stern (1894–1966) lived in this house for almost 40 years and her studio has been left virtually intact, as if she’d just stepped out into the verdant garden for a breath of fresh air. Her ethnographic art-and-craft collection from around the world is as fascinating as her own expressionist art, which has been compared favourably to Gauguin’s. To reach the museum from Rosebank station, walk a few minutes west to Main Rd, cross over and walk up Chapel St.
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Kommetjie Beaches
A focal point for surfing on the Cape, Kommetjie offers an assortment of reefs that hold a very big swell. Outer Kommetjie is a left point out from Slangkop Lighthouse at the southern end of the village. Inner Kommetjie is a more-protected, smaller left with lots of kelp (only at high tide). They both work best with a southeasterly or southwesterly wind. For breezy beach walks, it doesn't get much better than the aptly named Long Beach, accessed off Benning Dr.
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Silvermine Nature Reserve
This reserve is named after the fruitless attempts by the Dutch to prospect for silver in this area from 1675 to 1685. Today its focal point is the Silvermine Reservoir, constructed in 1898. It’s a beautiful spot for a picnic or leisurely walk around the reservoir on a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk. The reservoir waters are tannin stained and although there are signs forbidding swimming, you’ll often find locals taking a dip here. On the southeastern edge of the reserve is Peers Cave: a trail leads here from a marked parking spot on the Ou Kaapse Weg. The cave, which is actually an overhang, is named after Victor Peers, who with his son Bertie, started excavating the…
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Tokai Forest Reserve
This wooded area, south of Constantia, is a favourite spot for picnics and walks, the most challenging of which is the 6km hike up to Elephant’s Eye Cave within the Silvermine Nature Reserve. The zigzag path is fairly steep and offers little shade as you climb higher up Constantiaberg (928m), so bring a hat and water.
At the walk’s base you’ll find the Tokai Arboretum, a planting of 1555 different trees representing 274 species, begun in 1885 by Joseph Storr Lister, the conservator of forests for the Cape Colony.
Here, too, is the very pleasant Lister’s Place Tea Garden, where you can pick up a map of walks in the area; excellent accommodation at Wood Owl Cottage;…
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South African Jewish Museum
The fascinating history of Jews in South Africa is recorded in this imaginatively designed museum, incorporating the beautifully restored Old Synagogue (1863). Downstairs you’ll find a partial re-creation of a Lithuanian shtetl (village); many of South Africa’s Jews fled this part of Eastern Europe during the pogroms and persecution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There’s also a computerised system where you can trace Jewish relations in South Africa, and excellent temporary exhibitions. Across the courtyard from the museum’s exit is a good gift shop and the kosher Café Riteve. Within the complex it’s also possible to visit the beautifully decorated Great…
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Guga S’Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre
Brilliantly decorated with colourful ceramic murals, this is one of the most impressive buildings in the townships, if not in all of Cape Town. A host of community classes are held here, including beadwork and the making of traditional garments and pottery. Performances by local groups are often held in the outdoor amphitheatre. While here also check out the wonderful mosaic-decorated plinths along the street outside. Each side of the four plinths has a different theme, one of which is the only memorial to the Mendi, a troop ship that sank in the English Channel in 1917 drowning 607 members of the South African Native Labour Corps. The huge mural painted on the building…
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Long Street
This busy commercial and nightlife thoroughfare once formed the border of the Muslim Bo-Kaap, so you’ll find several old mosques along the street, including the Palm Tree Mosque (185 Long St), dating from 1780 and one of the city’s oldest. By the 1960s, though, the street had fallen into disrepute – Pieter-Dirk Uys’s play Karnaval was inspired by the goings on in one of the many whorehouses that lined the strip – and it remained that way until the late 1990s, when savvy developers realised the street’s potential.
The most attractive section, lined with Victorian-era buildings featuring lovely wrought-iron balconies, runs from the junction with Buitensingle St…
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Green Point Stadium
Shaped like a wavy cloud and wrapped with a glass-fibre membrane designed to catch and reflect natural light, the 68, 000 seat, 258m-tall Green Point Stadium is Cape Town’s most striking piece of contemporary architecture. Find out more about the new stadium and South African soccer at the adjacent Visitors Centre built in the one-time presidential suite of the old stadium – the only part of it still standing. One-hour tours include a visit into the construction zone (and eventually finished stadium) as well as a photographic and model exhibition and the one-man play The Greensman, an energetic performance aimed mainly at kids that explains the history of Green…
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Solole Game Reserve
It's hardly Kruger National Park, but there's much to recommend in this game reserve, which covers 350 hectares on the way to Kommetjie, not least the cheeky irreverence. For example, a 45-minute game drive costs around R30 unless you're an 'ill-disciplined brat' and then its around R5000! Kids both big and small will enjoy riding up the mountainside in an open cart tugged by a giant tractor.
You'll view nine different species of buck, buffalo and the lone black rhino, Mokwena, the first to be returned to the Cape in several centuries. Guided walks (around R90) are also available, or you can game spot for free at the hide by the excellent restaurant Mnandis. The package…
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Rhodes Memorial
Modelled after the arch at London’s Hyde Park Corner, the impressive granite memorial to the mining magnate and former prime minister stands on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Rhodes bought all this land in 1895 for £9000 as part of a plan to preserve a relatively untouched section of the mountain for future generations.
Despite there being a sweeping view from the memorial to the Cape Flats and the mountain ranges beyond – and, by implication, right into the heart of Africa – the statue of Rhodes himself has the man looking rather grumpy. Behind the memorial there’s a pleasant tearoom, the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant, in an old stone cottage. The exit for the…
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Prestwich Memorial
When construction of new apartments started in 2003 along nearby Prestwich St, many skeletons were uncovered – these were the unmarked graves of the unfortunate slaves and others executed by the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries on what was then known as Gallows Hill. The bones were exhumed and a decision taken to create this memorial building and park, which includes an ossuary – a place where bones are stored.
At the time of research the R8-million building, with its attractive facade of Robben Island slate, was completed but not open to the public. In the park you can see the outline of tram tracks – horse-drawn trams once used to run past here along Somerset…
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Groote Schuur
Cecil Rhodes bequeathed this historic house and its surrounding estate to the nation. It was home to a succession of prime ministers, culminating with FW de Klerk. The beautifully restored interior, all teak panels and heavy colonial furniture, antiques and tapestries of the finest calibre, is suitably imposing.
The best feature is the colonnaded veranda overlooking the formal gardens, sloping uphill towards an avenue of pine trees and sweeping views of Devil’s Peak. The tour includes tea on the veranda. You must bring your passport to gain entry to this high-security area; the entrance is unmarked but easily spotted on the left as you take the Princess Anne Ave exit off…
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