Cape Point and the Cape Peninsula Loop

A full loop down the Cape Peninsula takes you from suburban surf beaches to open ocean cliffs in a single day. South of the city, the mountain chain narrows into a wild, fynbos-covered finger of land ending in the sea cliffs of Cape Point and the rocky shore of the Cape of Good Hope, protected within the southern section of Table Mountain National Park.

Which way round the loop?

We suggest going anticlockwise down the False Bay coast in the morning and returning up the Atlantic coast in the late afternoon. That order puts you at Muizenberg and Kalk Bay for morning coffee, Boulders Beach before the biggest tour buses arrive, Cape Point around midday, and on Chapman's Peak Drive heading north into Camps Bay as the afternoon sun lights up the Atlantic cliffs.

Inside the Cape of Good Hope reserve

Wait times build at the main entrance gate by late morning in summer. The gate is 100 percent cashless: pay by physical credit or debit card at the lane, or buy your barcode ticket ahead of time on the SANParks website. Once through the gate, it is still a 15-minute drive across open plateau (keep an eye out for ostriches, bontebok and eland) down to the car parks.

• Cape Point and the lighthouses: the Flying Dutchman Funicular runs up from the main car park to the upper station, or you can walk up the paved path in about 20 minutes. From the old 1859 lighthouse at the top, follow the cliff path out toward the viewpoint overlooking the lower modern lighthouse, perched low on the rocks so fog doesn't hide its beam.
• The Cape of Good Hope sign: a separate road branches down to the wooden sign at the rocky beach. Or better still, hike the cliff-top boardwalk linking Cape Point to the beach (about 45 minutes each way), which looks straight down over the white surf of Dias Beach with a fraction of the crowd.

Baboons and Chapman's Peak

Chacma baboons patrol the car parks at Cape Point. They are wild, strong and learned long ago that backpacks and unlocked car doors contain food. Never carry food or even a paper bag in your hand outside the car, and lock your doors immediately.

On the drive back north between Noordhoek and Hout Bay, Chapman's Peak Drive ("Chappies") is a nine-kilometre toll road carved into the near-vertical red granite cliffs above the sea. It occasionally closes after heavy rain or rockfall warnings, so check the official Chapman's Peak Drive site on the morning you set off.