Robben Island Guide: Ferry, Prison Tour and Tickets

Eleven kilometres across Table Bay from the harbour sits Robben Island, a low, windswept strip of land used for nearly four centuries as a place of banishment, a leper colony and, under apartheid, a maximum-security prison for political detainees. Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years here, alongside leaders such as Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Robert Sobukwe, who was held in isolated confinement on the island.

How the visit works

You can only visit on an official Robben Island Museum tour, which lasts about three and a half to four hours in total, including the half-hour ferry crossing each way. All ferries depart from the Nelson Mandela Gateway beside the clock tower at the V&A Waterfront, typically with three or four sailings a day from the morning onwards (check the current timetable on the official site).

Once you step off at Murray's Bay Harbour on the island, the tour splits into two parts. One half is a guided bus loop around the island passing the lime quarry where Mandela and his fellow prisoners laboured in the glare, the Kramat (a Muslim shrine built in memory of an exiled 18th-century prince), the old leper graveyard and the house where Robert Sobukwe was kept alone. The other half is a walking tour inside the Maximum Security Prison, led by a former political prisoner who shares first-hand accounts of daily life, censorship, secret study classes and the small concrete courtyard outside Mandela's cell in B Section.

Booking, ID and weather cancellations

• Book well ahead on the official site: in summer (November to March), ferries regularly sell out weeks in advance. Book directly through the Robben Island Museum website or ticket office rather than third-party resellers that add heavy mark-ups.
• Bring your passport: every passenger must carry the passport or official ID document entered during booking; staff check names at the boarding gate.
• Book for early in your stay: Atlantic swells and high winds cancel sailings fairly often. If your ferry is cancelled, the museum offers a reschedule (if seats exist) or a refund, so having spare days left in Cape Town gives you a second chance.
• Sea sickness and wind: the crossing across Table Bay can be choppy; sit on the lower back deck and take motion tablets ahead of time if you are prone to seasickness.