Holiday Destination: Cape Town

Cape Town is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The city is famous for its harbour as well as its natural setting in the Cape floral kingdom, including such well known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is also Africa's most popular tourist destination. Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East. Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa.

Climate

Summer 17.5 °C (63.5 °F), Winter 15.7 °C (60.3 °F)

Tourist Season

October to May is best visiting Cape Town.

Accommodation

Hotels and Guest Houses.

General Information Of Cape Town

• Land Area: 191.78 sq mi (496.70 km2)
• Population: 8 Lakh.
• Capital City: Western Cape.
• Language: English.

Tourist Attraction in or Near by Cape Town

Table Mountain

Table Mountain, stands with her base firmly within the Table Mountain National Park, 1 086 metres above Table Bay. The imposing table top, more often than not draped in rich cloud that seems never to quite tumble from its sides, is a national monument and her shape has been adopted as a ubiquitous scribble for many a company logo of those working within her shadow. The mountain is sculpted from sandstone and her summit measures nearly 3km from end to end. Views from up here are remarkable and the panorama stretches from Table Bay to False Bay around the mountain to Hout Bay and Kommetjie. When skies are clear, one can see right across the Cape Flats to the Hottentots Holland Mountains. No surprise then, that the cable way is the most popular tourist destination in Cape Town.

Robben Island

Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. The island is composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks belonging to the Malmesbury Group. It is of particular note that it was here that Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent 27 years imprisoned during the apartheid era. Among those political prisoners was current South African President Jacob Zuma who was imprisoned there for ten years.

Cape Town Beaches

The Mother City has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and something to offer everyone. It is no surprise that South Africa was one of the first countries outside of Europe to earn blue flag status for some of her beaches there are three on offer in and around Cape Town. The blend of 2 oceans and hence 2 different styles of beach, divided by a 1000m high peninsula, leaves Cape Town an unrivalled holiday destination. Beaches here enjoy longer sunshine hours, than the False Bay side of the Cape peninsula. There is a spectacular selection of unspoilt beaches with seas that are usually 3 to 4 degrees colder than the Indian Ocean but this doesn’t seem to worry anyone soaking up the sun against the backdrop of blue skies and white sands.

Cape Point

Cape Point is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, which is a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north south for about 30 km at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in the Republic of South Africa. Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town are close to the northern extremity of the same peninsula. Although these two rocky and beautiful capes are very well known, neither cape is actually the southernmost point in Africa that is Cape Agulhas, approximately 150 km to the east southeast. Cape Point falls within the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site, and is the most southerly point within the Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park. The Cape Floral Region is one of the richest areas for plants in the world.

V&A Waterfront

One of Cape Town's biggest tourist attractions, the Waterfront evokes images of the early activities of the harbour. Much of its charm lies in the fact that this busy commercial harbour is set in the midst of a huge entertainment venue with pubs, restaurants, specialty shops, craft markets, theatres and movies. Situated between Robben Island and Table Mountain in the heart of Cape Town's working harbour, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront has become South Africa's most visited destination. Tourist attractions and museums in the city’s historic harbour. Construction for this harbour began as early as 1860, when Prince Alfred tipped the first stones for the breakwater, hence the attraction’s name, V&A after Queen Victoria of England and her youngest son Alfred.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is world renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch grows only indigenous South African plants. The Kirstenbosch estate covers 528 hec and supports a diverse fynbos flora and natural forest. The cultivated garden 36 hec displays collections of South African plants, particularly those from the winter rainfall region of the country. The Kirstenbosch Visitors' Centre includes an information desk and various retail outlets and a coffee shop. The Centre for Home Gardening has outlets for plants and other services to support the home garden.

Boulders Beach

Boulders Beach is a sheltered beach made up of inlets between granite boulders, from which the name originated. It is located in the Cape Peninsula, near Simon's Town towards Cape Point, near Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is also commonly known as Boulders Bay. It is a popular tourist stop because of a colony of African Penguins which settled there in 1982. Boulders Beach forms part of the Table Mountain National Park. Although set in the midst of a residential area, it is one of the few sites where this vulnerable bird can be observed at close range, wandering freely in a protected natural environment.

Cape Winelands

The fertile green valleys of the Cape Winelands are surrounded by proud mountain ranges. Towns and villages have many historic homesteads and monuments, and every so often fruit orchards are to be seen, whose produce may be found in all corners of the world. It is the Mediterranean climate and winter rainfall of the south western Cape that produces some of the best wines in the country. The rich, fertile soils along the Breede River Valley and especially the areas of Somerset West, Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, have become world famous for their whites, reds, sherries, ports and brandies.

Garden Route

The Garden Route is a popular stretch of the south eastern coast of South Africa. It stretches from Heidelberg in the Western Cape to the Storms River which is crossed along the N2 coastal highway over the Paul Sauer Bridge in the extreme western reach of the neighbouring Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant and ecologically diverse vegetation encountered here and the numerous lagoons and lakes dotted along the coast. It includes towns such as Mossel Bay, Knysna, Oudtshoorn, Plettenberg Bay and Nature's Valley with George, the Garden Route's largest city and main administrative centre. It has an oceanic climate, with mild to warm summers, and mild to cool winters. It has the mildest climate in South Africa and the second mildest climate in the world, after Hawaii, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Accessibility

Bus Terminal

City Sightseeing Cape Town

Outside Two Oceans Aquarium
Dock Road
Cape Town, South Africa

Park Inn Greenmarket Square

10 Greenmarket Square Road
Cape Town, South Africa

The Glen Apartments

Chilworth Road
Cape Town, South Africa

Airports

Cape Town International Airport: For international and domestic flight.

Railway Stations

Kalk Bay Rrailway Station

Cape Town, South Africa

RCJM Blue Train Cape Town Station

Adderley Street
Cape Town, South Africa

Rondebosch Rrailway Station

Station Road
Cape Town, South Africa

Soutrivier Rrailway Station

Voortrekker Road
Cape Town, South Africa