Best Things to Do in Cape Town

Very few cities pack mountains, penguins, vineyards and major museums inside a single municipal boundary. Balance the big outdoor sights with indoor back-ups for windy days.

1. Table Mountain. Ride the rotating cable car or hike up the stone steps of Platteklip Gorge for views over the City Bowl, Robben Island and the peninsula; go on the first clear, calm morning of your stay before wind shuts the line.
2. The Cape Peninsula and Cape Point. Set aside a full day with a hire car to loop past False Bay, the dual lighthouses at Cape Point and the cliffside curves of Chapman's Peak Drive.
3. Boulders Beach penguins. A sheltered granite cove outside historic Simon's Town where roughly two thousand endangered African penguins nest beside viewing boardwalks and a tidal swimming beach.
4. Robben Island. Cross Table Bay by ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway to the former maximum-security prison where Mandela spent 18 years, with cell-block tours led by former political prisoners.
5. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Set against the eastern cliffs of Table Mountain, devoted to indigenous proteas, cycads and fynbos, with a curved steel-and-timber walkway rising through the forest canopy.
6. Lion's Head or Signal Hill at sunset. Hike the spiral trail up Lion's Head for a 360-degree view over city and sea, or drive straight up Signal Hill with a picnic as the sun drops into the Atlantic.
7. Bo-Kaap and the Company's Garden. Spend a morning walking past brightly painted Cape Malay terraces, South Africa's oldest mosque, spice merchants on Wale Street and the shaded 17th-century park in the City Bowl.
8. Zeitz MOCAA. A 1924 harbour grain silo hollowed out into a sculptural concrete atrium holding six floors of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, ideal when high winds close outdoor sights.
9. Clifton and Camps Bay beaches. Four granite-ringed coves sheltered from the south-easterly wind at Clifton, followed by a wide palm-backed beach and tidal pool beneath the Twelve Apostles at Camps Bay.
10. Muizenberg to Kalk Bay. Take a beginner surf lesson beside Muizenberg's painted wooden bathing boxes, walk the railway sea wall past St James tidal pool, and eat fresh fish and chips on the pier at Kalk Bay harbour.
11. Constantia wine estates. South Africa's oldest wine valley sits 20 minutes south of the centre, where estates dating back to 1685 pour cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and sweet Muscat on shaded lawns.
12. Weekend markets at the harbour and Woodstock. Graze your way through the Oranjezicht City Farm Market by the V&A Waterfront or the Neighbourgoods Market inside the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock.