The city boasts attractions for every kind of tourists. We tried our best to put all of them together - this is the first part of a travel guide that still hasn't been completed yet!
1) Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Found on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch is one of Cape Town’s most visited attractions. These stunning gardens are characterised by sprawling lawns, beautiful streams and a seemingly endless amount of plant species (more than 22,000 different species in fact) including the rare fynbos plant and a giant baobab tree. To get the best out of a visit to the gardens, simply take one of the numerous designated walks. The gardens also have great dining facilities thanks to the Silver Tree restaurant, which serves a la carte meals.
2) Castle of Good Hope
Built in the late 15th century, this pentagonal fortress is the oldest surviving building in the whole of South Africa. The castle is still the regional headquarters to the South African Defence Force, although the abundance of tourists are the only invaders they are every likely to encounter these days. Get to the castle before 10am to see the Key Ceremony between Monday and Friday, which is the equivalent to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
Whilst here, you may want to further your interest by visiting the Military Museum and also the William Fehr Collection. Fehr was an avid collector of paintings and materials which document the story of the early colonists to the country and how they changed the way people lived in the Cape. Some of the paintings are shockingly mesmerising, such as Thomas Baines’s ‘The Greatest Hunt in Africa’, which portrays the slaughter of 30,000 animals to honour the arrival of Prince Alfred.
3) Robben Island
note: Tours of Robben Island are only available through booking via the Department of Arts who limit the visitors to the island at any one time due to the delicate ecosystem of the island.
To get to Robben Island, you take a high speed catamaran out of the harbor (which dons fantastic views of Cape Town and Table Mountain), which takes around 25 minutes. Once on the island, you take a 45 minute bus tour of the very island and prison where many political prisoners were jailed during the time of apartheid – most famously Nelson Mandela. Sights along the way include the lepers church and graveyard, Robert Sobukwe’s house where he was held under arrest for many years and a variety of antelopes, ostriches and African penguins which are all native to the island. The famous lime quarry where so many of Robben Island’s prisoners laboured is a haunting sight in its own right before you head to the prison itself. An ex-political prisoner conducts the tour of the prison and gives a first-hand account of what it was like to be jailed here, before leading you to the tiny cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years at Robben Island. The tour concludes with a visit to the Robben Island Museum, which offers a detailed history of the prisoner’s personal and political struggles via artifacts and pictures.
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