What to do in Cape Town

Last updated April 19th, 2023.

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What to do in Cape Town – what a question!

I can say without hyperbole that Cape Town is one of the finest cities I’ve ever visited. I love the place.

Cape Town warrants as much time as you can give it. There’s its commanding location between Table Mountain and the cape that gives it its name. There’s its history as South Africa’s Mother City, and an extraordinary post-apartheid resurgence.

Here are a mere handful of suggestions of what to do in Cape Town. Where something new and innervating (or old and humbling) seems to await around every corner.

Reach for the summit of Table Mountain

There’s frankly no hiding from Table Mountain when in Cape Town. Views of its magnificent bulk are available from pretty much every corner of the city.

The (almost) flat (and often chilly) top might be a bit of a let-down if it wasn’t for the epic panoramic views on offer. But for me getting there is the most enjoyable part.

It’s routine to grab a ticket for the rotating cable car that drifts effortlessly up and down the mountainside. It does this most days – winds permitting. However, there are also a number of hiking routes to the summit. They get you closer and more in tune with Table Mountain’s flora and fauna.

You won’t see elephants, though you will encounter the region’s unique native fynbos. You’ve a good chance to meeting a rock hyrax (called dassies in South Africa) too.

The ‘standard’ trail to the top when using your own two feet is the Plattekilp Gorge trekking route.

But if you’re up for a little bit of scrabbling and ladder climbing, it has to be the more adventurous India Venster trail. At three kilometres in length it might not be the longest trek you ever complete. Even so, I reckon it will be the one that sticks in the memory for the longest time.

I cover both in my pick of the best Table Mountain hiking routes.

If you’re not up for that, a great alternative is a tour of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Located on the landward side of Table Mountain’s slopes, it dates to the first arrival of Europeans in South Africa.

Indeed, one of many highlights in the gardens is a section of hedge planted by Dutchman Jan Van Riebeeck in the 1660s.

Another is the Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway. Also known as the Boomslang (after the highly-venous snake), this twisting walkway slips through the garden’s arboretum at leaf level.

Become a culture vulture at the continent’s newest gallery

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa was built in a decommissioned grain silo. Rising 57 metres, it’s located on Cape Town’s prestigious Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

Zeitz MOCAA is the largest gallery of contemporary art on the continent. It contains the biggest collection of African contemporary art in the world. You can skip the line by pre-booking your ticket, or explore as part of a tour of the city’s other contemporary art spaces. You can even stay on the complex, at the magnificent looking Silo Hotel.

Zeitz MOCAA also has space for a shifting schedule of temporary expositions. These help explore what it means to be African in the modern world.

Alternatively, for a more historic perspective head to the Iziko Slave Lodge museum. One of the city’s oldest structures, the museum delicately explores the history of slavery in South Africa.

The Slave Lodge is throughly modern inside, combining interactive and video display alongside historic artefacts. A small courtyard protects several intriguing stone carvings.

Explore Nelson Mandela’s legacy on Robben Island

It’s a startling fact that South Africa’s population has such a young demographic that the majority of South African citizens were born after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1991. This makes his time as a prisoner on Robben Island all the more important to remember and re-live.

Thankfully, that’s easy to do. Vessels usually ply the waters between the island and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront several times a day.

Tours escort visitors across the largely uninhabited island. There’s time to check out its wildlife (including tortoises, oystercatchers, and penguins) before heading to the high-security prison itself.

After a short introduction, visitors can see the gravel quarry where inmates including Mandela were forced to break rocks. Then you’ll move on to the cell the great man occupied for so many years.

It’s a sobering reminder of what South Africa used to be like under the racial segregation of apartheid. It also shows just how far this country has come in the interim. If you can, I’d suggest reading Mandela’s mammoth biography, Long Walk to Freedom, beforehand, to get the most our of your visit.

But if the waters are looking too choppy for your tastes, the sheer day-to-day horror of apartheid (for South Africa’s non-white majority) can be experienced at the District 6 Museum.

The mixed community of the district was deliberating relocated. (Buildings were then demolished. Significant parts of the area remains waste ground to this day). The museum helps to record those times from the personal voices and memories of those who experienced it first-hand.

Visit colourful Bo-Kaap

Meaning ‘Above the Cape’ in Afrikaans, Bo-Kaap sits at the bottom of Signal Hill. It was previously called the city’s Malay Quarter.

Its distinctive colourful houses amid steep cobbled streets developed as a way of demonstrating an owner’s liberty. The structures had been plain white when rented to the slaves they were constructed to house in the 1760s. On becoming free, residents demonstratd their new status with the bright colours which remain typical of the area.

Bo-Kaap today is a vibrant and multicultural society that has continued links to its origins, with roughly 60% of its residents Muslim. A great way to discover it is with a Malay cooking class and lunch.

The oldest surviving residential neighbourhood anywhere in the city, it is also home to the largest number of structures built prior to 1850 anywhere in South Africa.

Picnic in Company’s Garden

The Company’s Garden is another link to Cape Town’s past.

The oldest park in South Africa, it was first set out in the 1650s by the first Europeans to settle on this stretch of coastline. Members of the Dutch East India Company, they gave the park its name.

Full of monuments and historically-important plant specimens, the garden is yet another piece in the jigsaw of South African heritage.

Stretching towards Table Mountain from City Hall, Company’s Garden is a much cherished green space in the heart of Cape Town. The Iziko South African Museum and National Gallery back onto it at one end.

Beyond the larger than life bronze of Cecil Rhodes (pointing towards Africa’s interior and not giving a Nazi salute apparently), it has plenty of benches and picnic spots. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find it hard to tear yourself away from a sunny spot.

What to do in Cape Town – final thoughts

There’s so much to do in Cape Town a ‘what to do in Cape Town’ article could fill a book. Hopefully this small insight gives anyone considering a trip to South Africa’s Mother City an idea of what to expect!