The following is a guest post by Mohamed Khazma.
Cape Town, South Africa is a populous city that’s a hub for both business and tourism. Here are some of the best activities for visitors to Cape Town, both inside and outside.
INDOORS
The City Centre
Sitting on an ideal location between mountain and sea, The City Bowl (city centre) connects nightlife, hotels, restaurants and entertainment, the waterfronts, as well as Cape Town’s notorious blue flag beaches. Hop-on, hop-off bus tours provide an ideal way of viewing Cape Town’s canvas. If a full day’s shopping is desired, The Canal Walk shopping centre serves any shopaholic right; Africa’s third largest shopping mall brings with it the Ratanga Junction theme park to make the visit for those who don’t enjoy shopping a little more bearable.
Museums
Cape Town hosts a number of interesting heritage-filled museums. The Gold of Africa Museum situated in the city centre holds 350 West African gold artifacts together with gold from the ancient civilizations of South Africa. Home to the drama of the world’s first human heart transplant, The Heart of Cape Town Museum shows the fascinating and epic development in medicine by reconstructing the procedure on replica silicone models. Other notable museums and galleries include The South African National Gallery, Two Oceans Aquarium, and District Six Museum.
Wine Estates
Cape Town’s location and climate serves a great environment for producing some of the world’s best wines and beers. Stellenbosch is one of the best known wine estates in the region along with Constantia, Franschhoek, Paarl and Wellington, and Robertson. Most wine estates offer accommodation for a romantic getaway with stunning scenery.
OUTDOORS
Skydive Cape Town
Interested in the best views of Cape Town and its vast landscapes? Skydiving offers the ultimate perspective. The adventure begins with a 40-minute drive to the north of Cape Town where small Cessna aircrafts climb 9,000 feet before unlocking their doors allowing eager divers to plummet over the Cape Peninsula for roughly 30 seconds before opening their parachutes.
Table Mountain
Exploring Cape Town’s landscape on foot is the best way to experience most of what the city has to offer. Its most significant structure is Table Mountain, a flat-top terrain overlooking Cape Town’s central business district. It opens its landscape to abseiling, biking, and for a hearty workout, there’s a choice to hike on foot – with Platteklip Gorge being the most popular route.
Langa Township
The Langa Township provides an alternative tour of the historic black Cape Town. The township, developed in 1923 for the Xhosa tribe, hosts guided local tours to experience its history, art, food and drink, music, education and social issues. Gugus’thebe Arts and Culture Centre is the focal point of the town and represents its rapid socioeconomic development.
Robben Island
Taking tourists back to the 17th century, Robben Island housed a prison, where Nelson Mandela spent his jail-term, and a training/defense station used in World War II. The island, accessible by a 7 km boat ride from Cape Town, provides guided tours of the derelict prison by ex-inmates – guaranteeing a first-hand account. Tours last approximately 3.5 hours long and include a 45-minute bus ride of the island. The penguins surrounding Robben Island make the visit that little less haunting.
About the author: Mohamed Khazma is a freelance travel writer for My Destination–locally informed, globally inspired.
Photo credit: Martin Power
Cape Town|South Africa
