Experience

Table Mountain and the City Bowl

Up the front of the mountain in a cable car that turns as it climbs, then down into the bowl it stands over: Bo-Kaap's painted streets, the Company's Garden, District Six, and Signal Hill for the last of the light.

At a glanceOn land

How longOne dayOne day, and the mountain decides which half

How hardModerateA cable car, city walking, and a hard walk up if you choose it

SeasonYear-round, wind permittingClear and windy in summer, greener and wetter in winter

The mountain is the whole argument for the city. It stands flat-topped and grey behind the buildings with two oceans off to either side, and everything in Cape Town is oriented to it whether it means to be or not. On a clear morning the cable car goes up the front face with the floor rotating slowly under you, so a single ride gives everybody the whole view without anyone having to fight for the window.

The top is flatter and bigger than it looks from below: paths across it, dassies sunning themselves on the rocks and paying you no attention, and viewpoints looking down over the bowl on one side, the Atlantic seaboard on another, and the long spine of the peninsula running away south. The cloud that pours over the top edge on a south-easter has a name here, and if it arrives while you are up there the whole world goes white in about four minutes.

Down in the bowl, Bo-Kaap runs up the slope of Signal Hill in painted terraces of lime, magenta, cobalt and mint, on cobbled streets, with the call to prayer going out over them. It is the historic Cape Malay quarter and the colour is the least of it: this is a community with a long and complicated claim on the ground it stands on, and the small museum on the street tells it properly.

Then the Company’s Garden, laid out to feed passing ships and now a long green avenue of oaks through the middle of town, with the national gallery and the museums along it. And, if you have the appetite for it, District Six: the neighbourhood that was declared white, bulldozed, and whose people were moved to the sand flats. The museum is made largely of their own testimony. It is a quiet hour and it recalibrates everything else you will see in the Cape.

The scheduled morning tour does the civic half of the city in one go. It starts at the Castle of Good Hope, the Dutch fort usually described as the oldest colonial building still standing in the country, then takes in Parliament, City Hall and the Grand Parade in front of it, and the Slave Lodge. District Six comes up on the way to a walk through the Company’s Garden, and the Walk to Freedom morning gives it the museum and the time it deserves.

After a stop to watch a diamond cutter at work, the drive runs out along the Atlantic side, past Sea Point, Clifton and Camps Bay, and leaves you at the lower cable station. That is where the tour ends and the mountain begins, if the wind allows.

Finish on Signal Hill with the sun going into the Atlantic. The next day belongs to the Winelands or to Robben Island, both of which read differently once you have done this one first.

Good to know

The cableway closes for wind, and it is decided on the day. Book the mountain early in your stay and keep it movable.
A layer, always. The top can be far colder and windier than the car park.
Walking up means Platteklip in full sun with no shade. Boots, water, early, and not on a hot afternoon.
Bo-Kaap is people’s homes. Ask before you photograph a doorway.
District Six is a short visit and a heavy one. Leave the afternoon soft afterwards.
The city tour finishes at the lower cable station, and the ride up is a separate ticket. Cableway hours, museum days and guide fees change, and we confirm yours in writing.

The scheduled city tour runs daily with pick-ups between about 07:35 and 08:30 and ends at the lower cable station around 12:30; the cable car is paid separately and depends on the wind, anyone going up makes their own way back afterwards, and anyone not going up is driven back to the hotel. Cableway days and hours, museum opening days, guide fees and driver rates are set locally and change daily in the mountain's case. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.

The cloud comes over the top edge and pours down the face like something spilt, and they call it the tablecloth.

Where to do it

Where we arrange table mountain and the city bowl

These itineraries already include it. Any of them can be rebuilt around your dates.

South Africa

A steep street of brightly painted houses in the Bo-Kaap, Cape Town

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9 nightsPrice on request

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Or browse every itinerary andthe rest of the experiences.

Questions we are actually asked

What happens if the cableway is closed?

It happens, and it is decided on the morning by the wind rather than in advance. That is the single reason we put Table Mountain early in a Cape stay and keep the rest of the days movable: given three or four days in the city, almost everybody gets up.

Can we walk up instead?

Yes. Platteklip Gorge goes straight up the front and it is a genuinely hard climb in full sun with no shade, not a stroll: good boots, a lot of water and an early start. Lion's Head beside it is the shorter, more popular climb and is often the better answer.

How much of the city can we do in the same day?

Comfortably: the mountain in the morning, Bo-Kaap and the Company's Garden after lunch, and Signal Hill at the end for the sunset. Or turn it round, with the scheduled city tour in the morning and the cableway at midday, where the tour ends. Add District Six if you want the city's own history rather than its view of itself, and it is the part people remember.

Is Bo-Kaap somewhere we should be walking?

It is a residential neighbourhood that happens to be photographed constantly, so walk it as a neighbourhood: ask before pointing a camera at a doorway, and go with a guide from the area if you can. There is a small museum on the street that is worth the half hour.

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