Cape Point Explorer Tour

Highlights

• Full day tour around the Cape Peninsula
• Boulders Beach and its thousands of African penguins. Entrance to the Boulder Beach Penguins is excluded from the pass.
• Hike to the Cape of Good Hope inside the Cape Point Nature Reserve
• Funicular to the Cape Point light house

Description

The Cape Point Explorer is a guided day tour to Cape Point in a luxury air-conditioned coach, operated by City Sightseeing South Africa. You will explore this spectacular nature reserve (part of the Cape Floral Kingdom World Heritage Site), with a stop at Boulders Beach, home to a colony of African penguins. This day tour to the Cape of Good Hope is a must-see for visitors and locals.

The Cape Point Explorer leaves Cape Town in the morning and starts with a scenic drive to Boulders Beach, through Muizenberg and Fish Hoek. The guide highlights the different points of interest along the way and is at hand to answer any questions you have about the route, Cape Point and Boulders Beach.

Boulders Beach is home to a colony of endangered African penguins, so this is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to come within metres of them in a natural environment. The pristine beach surrounded by impressive granite boulders is part of Table Mountain Nature Reserve.

After visiting the penguins, your next stop is Cape Point, where you can enjoy a bite to eat before exploring further. The Cape Point Nature Reserve offers some of the most breathtaking mountain and ocean scenery in the world. Using the Flying Dutchman funicular to the viewing point below the lighthouse, you can admire the views across False Bay. There is an optional hike from the Cape of Good Hope to the top of Cape Point. At Cape Point, you can also follow the footsteps of early Portuguese explorers Vasco Da Gama and Bartolomeu Dias, and enjoy a number of short walking trails leading to beautiful beaches and viewpoints.

After a day spent exploring, you can enjoy the coastal drive back to Cape Town via Scarborough and Kommetjie, with spectacular views from the Ou Kaapse Weg mountain pass.

History

Cape Point lies within the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve which forms part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest of the world’s floral kingdoms and one of the most diverse. The point was named the Cape of Storms by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, as it was so dangerous to navigate. Frequent violent storms and harsh winds were famous for forcing ships to run aground on the rocky coastline. The area was made safer in 1859, with the addition of a landmark lighthouse, which is now used as a central monitoring point for all other lighthouses on the coast of South Africa.

Practical information

Using your City Pass iVenture Card, your Cape Point Explorer tour includes:

• Transport to and from Cape Point in a luxury air-conditioned coach
• Visit to Boulders Beach
• Entrance to Cape Point Nature Reserve
• Enjoy the Flying Dutchman Funicular at Cape Point
• Live guided tour (in English)

Lunch and entrance to Boulders Beach and the Flying Dutchman Funicular is not included.

The Cape Point Explorer runs daily from 1 October to 30 April and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 May to 30 September, with staggered departure times from 9:45 from select hotels and stops in Camps Bay, Sea Point, Green Point and the city, as well as City Sightseeing tour offices at stop 1 (V&A Waterfront) and stop 5 (Long Street). Go to the “Opening Times” tab on this page to open a complete time table. The return time is approximately 17:30.