Around the Cape to Cape Point

INTRODUCTION

If you have only a day or two in Cape Town, this route covers the greatest hits, all the stuff you really have to do if you want to say you’ve seen the Mother City.

Capetonians can be very smug. As someone once said, they know they’ve got it, others want it, and sometimes they don’t really feel like sharing. So now you don’t have to ask – here’s a summary of the best Cape Town has to offer. Of course there’s plenty more to do – whenever the route zips close to an attraction that’s really worthwhile, it gets a lightning mention so you can go back and explore at your leisure. Here’s hoping the Mother rocks you.

TIME: Two days
DISTANCE: Under 30km
on Day One, and 120km
on Day Two
THE ROUTE: With just a couple of days in the Mother City, here’s everything you have to see, from Table Mountain to Cape Point and all the good stuff in between.
BEST TIME TO GO: No matter the season, the city welcomes you all year. The beaches are packed in summer’s heat, tempered by blustery days thanks to the Cape’s notorious Southeaster. Winter’s become known as the secret season, when rainy days punctuate halcyon spells of sunny weather. But being Cape Town’s weatherman is no easy task – the city has a reputation for dishing up four seasons all

Before you go

In peak season, December–January, allow extra time in traffic, particularly along the Atlantic Seaboard (Camps Bay through Clifton and Sea Point) and False Bay from Muizenberg to Simon’s Town.

The timing can be quite tight for Robben Island in the afternoon, as the last boat for the day leaves at 15:00. (You can make the 3.5hr trip in the morning, but won’t be back in time for the Noon Gun.) Otherwise, spend longer on the mountain, and do the island another day.

If the Kirstenbosch concerts are on (from December to March, Sundays at 17:30), you may want to do Day Two in reverse.

Cape Town’s best

for sundowners – Table Mountain; Clifton Fourth Beach or Camps Bay beach (in fact any of the Atlantic Seaboard beaches); or La Med if you like the bar scene.

for afternoon tea – take high tea at the Mount Nelson and feel like a true colonial, or at the Table Bay Hotel in the Waterfront, looking at the water and Table Mountain.

for full moon – walk up Lion’s Head and watch the sunset and moonrise from the top. (It’s generally light enough to see your way down, but take a torch. And a bottle of wine.)

for quirky shopping – wander up Long Street for a mix of history, architecture, on-the-edge fashion and off-beat locals, or check out De Waterkant’s super-cool chic.

for concerts – the summer sunset concert season at Kirstenbosch, every Sunday from December to March at 17:30, where you take a picnic and watch from the lawns; or head to Stellenbosch for Spier’s starlight concerts – have dinner, then stroll to the amphitheatre.

DAY 1

Waterfront to Riebeeck Square – 5min

From the Waterfront turn right into Buitengracht (M62 Camps Bay), following cableway signs. At almost 1km turn left into Kortmark (Shortmarket Street) and park on Riebeeck Square – fee payable.

You can’t soak up the soul of a city from inside a car, so get out and up close to the people, with a few hours on foot. Heritage Square, with its interesting shopping and good restaurants, is right across the road.

Otherwise, a wander down Shortmarket Street will bring you to Greenmarket Square, a bustling curio market on every day of the week, where farmers once brought fruit and vegetables for sale. The Old Town House dominates the square. When proclamations were read from the balcony, the people of Cape Town were summoned by the bell on the roof. Today, the Old Town House is home to a display of Dutch and Flemish art, and you can grab a cup of tea and bite to eat in the leafy courtyard.

There are more curio stalls, street musicians and pavement cafés up St George’s Mall, with the graceful St George’s Cathedral (over which Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu presided) at the top, on the edge of the Company’s Garden. The latter, an oasis of green calm, birdsong and squirrels, was originally planted to supply passing ships by the first Dutch governor of the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck, in 1652. From the Slave Lodge, built to house the slaves who worked in the Company’s Garden and now a museum, stroll up Government Avenue past Parliament to the SA National Gallery (with the Jewish Museum and Holocaust Centre behind it) and the SA Museum and Planetarium. If you cross St George’s Mall you can wander down Adderley Street, where great old colonial buildings rub shoulders with modern malls. Walk past the flower sellers in Trafalgar Place, or turn into Darling Street to take you to the City Hall (which contains a huge organ with 3 165 pipes). Cross the Grand Parade to the Castle of Good Hope, built in the shape of a five-pointed star, which vies with the Posthuys in Muizenberg as South Africa’s oldest European building.