South Africa · Western Cape
Plan your Cape Town trip
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
City Bowl
Best for first-timers who want everything closeThe historic centre under the mountain, walkable, full of Cape Dutch and Victorian architecture, restaurants on Bree Street, and the Company's Garden at its heart. The best base for museums, nightlife and day-trip logistics.
A boutique guesthouse near Kloof Street
Kloof Street runs the restaurant and café strip right up to the mountain's edge — stay here and you can walk to dinner and to the cable car queue.
$$$A design hotel near the Company's Garden
Central to the museums, the old Slave Lodge, and an easy walk down to the Bo-Kaap.
$$Camps Bay & Clifton
Best for beach time and sunset drinksThe postcard Atlantic Seaboard — white sand, palm trees, the Twelve Apostles mountain wall as a backdrop, and sunset bars that fill up early. More expensive, more resort-like, and worth it for the view alone.
A cliffside boutique hotel above Camps Bay beach
Pay for the sea-facing room; the sunset from a Camps Bay balcony is a legitimate reason to choose this suburb over the City Bowl.
$$$$A self-catering apartment in Clifton
Clifton's four coves are quieter and better for actual swimming than the busier Camps Bay strip next door.
$$$Sea Point & Green Point
Best for value with a sea viewThe everyday version of the Atlantic Seaboard — a long promenade full of joggers and dog walkers, the same ocean without the resort pricing, and a short walk or Uber to the V&A Waterfront and the stadium.
A mid-range hotel on the Sea Point promenade
The promenade is free entertainment in itself, dawn to dusk, and puts you within walking distance of the Waterfront's restaurants.
$$Constantia & the Southern Suburbs
Best for wine lovers and longer staysOld-money, oak-lined, and quiet, on the other side of the mountain from the tourist strips. Wine estates on the doorstep, more space, and a slower pace — best if you have a car and do not mind being further from nightlife.
A guesthouse on a working Constantia wine estate
Waking up among vineyards fifteen minutes from the city centre is a genuinely different trip from a City Bowl stay.
$$$Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Table Mountain
The flat-topped sandstone massif that gives the city its skyline and its rules.
Tip Check the live weather cam before you leave your hotel — the 'tablecloth' cloud shuts the cable car with no warning and no refoundable warning window.
Robben Island
The former prison island where Nelson Mandela spent eighteen years, now a museum run partly by former political prisoners who lead the tours…
Tip Book the ferry days ahead online; it sells out, and rough seas cancel crossings without much notice, so build in a spare day if you can.
Bo-Kaap
Cobbled streets of candy-coloured houses on the slope of Signal Hill, the historic home of Cape Town's Cape Malay Muslim community since the days of…
Tip Take a walking tour led by a Bo-Kaap resident rather than just photographing the doors — the history is the point, and it funds the community that lives there.
Boulders Beach
A colony of African penguins nesting right on the sand near Simon's Town, close enough to watch from wooden boardwalks a few metres away.
Tip Arrive at opening time before the tour buses; the penguins are most active and least crowded-around in the first hour.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
One of the world's great botanical gardens, set against the eastern slope of Table Mountain with fynbos found nowhere else on earth.
Tip Come for the summer Sunday sunset concerts on the lawn — bring a picnic and a blanket, it is a proper local institution.
Chapman's Peak Drive
A cliffside toll road carved into the mountain between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, widely rated one of the most scenic drives on the planet, with the…
Tip Drive it in the late afternoon heading south for the best light, and pull over at the marked viewpoints — passing is dangerous on the blind curves.
Constantia wine estates
The oldest wine-producing region in the southern hemisphere, oak-shaded and gentle, fifteen minutes from the city centre.
Tip Book a tasting rather than just a cellar tour — the sweet Vin de Constance dessert wine was once famous across royal Europe and is worth the extra.
Neighbourgoods Market, Woodstock
A weekly warehouse food market inside the Old Biscuit Mill that is the single best snapshot of what young Cape Town eats, drinks and listens to on a…
Tip Go hungry and go early — by midday the good stalls have queues and the good tables are gone.
Day trips from Cape Town
Stellenbosch and Franschhoek
An hour into the Winelands, oak-shaded university-town Stellenbosch and the more French, more polished Franschhoek both cluster world-class estates…
Day tripCape of Good Hope and the Cape Peninsula
A full-day loop down the Peninsula past Hout Bay, Chapman's Peak, the penguins at Boulders, and on to the windswept cliffs where the Atlantic and…
Day tripHermanus
Roughly ninety minutes east along the coast, and the best land-based whale watching on earth between July and November, when southern rights come…
Day tripEverything to do in Cape Town
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around, and being honest about safety
Say it plainly: Cape Town is not a walk-everywhere city the way Paris or Lisbon is, and pretending otherwise does visitors a disservice. The City Bowl, the Waterfront, and beachfront strips like Camps Bay and Sea Point are safe and pleasant on foot in daylight and busy evening hours.
Flights
Compare fares into Cape Town and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Cape Town
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.