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Suggested Itinerary

If you are a first-time visitor to Cape Town, South Africa you may be rather overwhelmed by the vastness of the region and the enormous choices available to you. You want to see as much as possible, but are limited in time perhaps. You may not have friends in the country to help you and visiting tourist information bureaus can make the whole venture more daunting when you are confronted with 1000s of glossy brochures all vying for your attention.

Here is a suggested Cape Town Tour Itinerary which incorporates a Cape Winelands Tour. This will narrow down your list of ‘must-see’ places while ensuring that you don’t miss out on the best attractions the Cape has to offer.

You can obviously adjust this Cape Town Tour Itinerary to suit your time constraints and personal interests.

Cape Town Tour – First Leg

If you give yourself a week in Cape Town you should be able to fit the following in.

Day 1 and Day 2

A drive around the spectacular peninsular offers breath-taking views from Cape Town city, past the Atlantic Seaboard with the beautiful beaches of Camps Bay and Clifton, then on the Llandudno, a secret beach paradise, and on to Hout Bay. Then one of the most magnificent sections of the tour is the Chapman’s Peak Drive which takes you across to the lush horse-lovers’ village of Noordhoek. From here you can continue on to Kommetjie, a quaint fishing village, and via the untamed beauty of Scarborough eventually arrive at the Cape Point Nature Reserve. After enjoying the scenery at the tip of Africa, you can continue through the charmingly old-world naval village of Simon’s Town, stopping to visit the Jackass Penguin Colony at Boulders Beach. The drive continues along the False Bay Coast through Glen Cairn, Fish Hoek, the arty harbour village of Kalk Bay, St James and Muizenberg, before you head inland back to the Cape Town city centre along the freeway. If you are wanting to stop often en route for shopping, meals, a swim or to explore you may need to do this tour over 2 days.

Day 3

Another day can be spent at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, where you can park and walk everywhere within the complex. Here you can indulge in extensive shopping, find every kind of eatery from fast food chains to luxury restaurants, trendy cafes, pubs and wine bars all offer food and drinks in convivial, fun, relaxed or vibey atmospheres – truly something to appeal to everyone. A boat trip across to Robben Island is as moving as it is educational. Visiting Nelson Mandela’s prison cell and hearing the history of the island is claimed by many visitors to Cape Town as a highlight of their tour. The Robben Island Tour takes 3 hours.

Day 4

The city of Cape Town lies at the foot of one of the world’s most instantly recognizable landmarks- Table Mountain. Set aside a morning to climb up one of the paths that start in the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens – themselves worth dedicating some hours to exploring – and after lunch with one of the best views in the world enjoy the experience of the Table Mountain Cable Car as it revolves and descends slowly down the side of the mountain.

Day 5

There are many townships in and around Cape Town and going on a guided Township Tour is an experience that will make you aware of the way of life of the majority of Cape Town's population. Don’t expect to be met with ‘doom and gloom’ however – despite the poverty and hardship you will see, you will also experience the vibrant spirit of the South Africans you meet here. Your guide will ensure you get to meet local residents and business owners, and you have to end up in a township bar, known as a ‘shebeen’, for local beer and great atmosphere. It is not advisable to attempt a self-drive township tour as it is vary easy to get lost, and some areas are unsafe.

Day 6 and Day 7

The Cape Wine Route extends right across the Cape from Constantia in the southern suburbs and Tableview in the northern suburbs, across to include Paarl, Stellenbosch, Franshoek and then up the coast to Hermanus in the ‘Onrus’ region.

If you only have one or two days to dedicate to a tour of the Cape winelands, we recommend that you stick to Stellenbosch and Franschoek. These neighbouring towns offer over 200 wine farms. The best-loved ones include Spier, where you can picnic in the exquisite grounds and if you over-night in the winelands at one of the farms or B&Bs scattered all around the area you can also enjoy a fabulous dinner at Moyo, the largest outdoor restaurant in South Africa.

Other popular wine farms worth visiting, for tours and wine tastings, include Blaauwklippen and Rust-en-Vrede.

On your second day in the winelands enjoy the picturesque village of Franschoek with its Huguenot history it has retained a charming ‘French’ ambiance. Farms to visit here include Bellingham, Boschendal, Clos Cabriere and La Motte.

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