🌅 At sunset
Sunset on Lion's HeadA 90-minute climb with chains near the top; come down with a torch and in a group.
✦ Your self-guided tour
Cape Town
Discover the city at your own pace, with your route and your trip essentials in one place.
5 stops · about 5 h 10 · audio guide12 languages
Highlights
5 stops · about 5 h 10 · audio guide
Photos
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (each author credited) and Google.
Cape Town: your route
Pay once. Access is saved on this device and sent by email.
5 stops · about 5 h 10 · audio guideTransport on the route: about ZAR 320.00
Included: the full route, audio guide in 12 languages and the travel tools. Not included: museum and monument tickets, transport tickets.
💡 Good to know in Cape Town
Practical tips before you step out.
Luggage
Leave luggage at the airport left-luggage desk or a partner storage point on the route (marked ★). Carry only essentials and your passport.
Internet
Outside EU roaming: buy an eSIM before you travel or a prepaid SIM at an official carrier shop (bring your passport).
Payments
Cards and contactless almost everywhere; MyCiTi uses the myconnect card. Carry little cash.
Tipping
Tip 10–15% in restaurants; give 5–10 rand to car guards and petrol attendants.
Water
Tap water is safe in Cape Town; use it sparingly, the region has droughts.
Safety
Use app or hotel taxis, keep your phone away in the street and avoid walking after dark in empty areas. Traffic drives on the left. Don't hike the mountain alone and use ATMs inside malls.
Sockets
Type M/N sockets, 230 V: bring an adapter.
Toilets
Toilets in malls, museums and cafés; some public ones charge a little and paper goes in the bin, not the bowl.
ⓘ Practical information compiled from official and public sources in October 2026. Not yet checked on the ground in this city — if something has changed, use “Report a problem”.
Safety in Cape Town
Emergency numbers, common scams and how to get help. Free for everyone.
Emergency10111
Ambulance10177
Emergency112
Tourist policePolice: 10111 · the CTICC and the Waterfront have their own security
Hospital and pharmacy search around the city centre — share your location for results near you.
Look for: Pharmacy (Clicks · Dis-Chem)
Common scams and risks
Phone snatching
Thieves on bikes or scooters grab phones from your hand. Step back from the kerb when using maps.
ATMs and money
Use bank ATMs, not independent ones, and always choose to be charged in the local currency.
Traffic on the left
Look right first when crossing. "LOOK RIGHT" is painted at many crossings.
After dark
Stay on busy, well-lit streets and use a taxi or ride-hailing app (Uber, Bolt) for longer trips at night. Keep phones and jewellery out of sight in empty areas.
Pickpockets
Crowded trams, metros and queues are their workplace. Bag in front and zipped; phone never in a back pocket.
👜 Watch your wallet in
Long Street · Train stations · City-centre ATMs · Isolated mountain trails
🌙 At night, take extra care in
City centre after shops close · Suburban trains at night · Empty beaches
Keep a photo of your passport on your phone, carry just one card and some cash, and stick to busy, well-lit streets.
ⓘ Practical information compiled from official and public sources in October 2026. Not yet checked on the ground in this city — if something has changed, use “Report a problem”.
General guidance. If you're in danger, call 10111 now. · Cape Town
Everything in Cape Town
All the useful things in one place.
🆕 Today in Cape Town
Friday 23 October · updated automatically every day
12° – 21°Little chance of rain
Experiences in Cape Town
Moments, fun and events, picked for you.
Your interests
🕐 Flexible — check opening times
Penguins at Boulders BeachA colony of African penguins on a boulder beach in Simon's Town.
🕐 Flexible — check opening times
Cape of Good HopeThe lighthouse, the cliffs and the Chapman's Peak drive on the way.
🕐 Flexible — check opening times
Wine in ConstantiaThe southern hemisphere's oldest wine estates, 20 minutes from the city.
🕐 Flexible — check opening times
The Noon Gun on Signal HillEvery day except Sunday the noon cannon fires, as it has since 1806.
🏛️ History & culture of Cape Town
How the city came to be, in a few minutes of reading.
Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the capital and largest city of the Western Cape, and the country's second-most populous city, after Johannesburg. The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.
The city is known for its harbour, its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Located on the shore of Table Bay, the City Bowl area of Cape Town, which contains its central business district (CBD), is the oldest urban area in the Western Cape, with a significant cultural heritage. The metropolitan area has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, which includes a northern section in the West Beach region, as well as the False Bay area in the south.
Read the full history
The written history of the area known today as Cape Town starts with its first mention by Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias in 1488. However, archaeologists have established that the Cape peninsula and the region along the Southwestern coastline of Africa was inhabited by various Khoe and San peoples, who mostly lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle. "There were independent Khoe farmers with large families, there was the relatively small group of Khoe who self-identified as ǁAmmaqua (Watermans) traders, there were the Sonqua line-fishermen who were a San offshoot joined by deserters and outcasts from Khoe groups, and there was also another San clan of herder-hunters inland known as the Ubiqua." The German anthropologist Theophilus Hahn recorded that the original name of the area was 'ǁHui ǃGais' – a toponym in the indigenous Khoe language meaning "where clouds gather."
💬 What travellers say about Cape Town
Tips, experiences and questions from people who've been there.