giovana

Believe it or not I only have a very short weekend to see all that I can in Cape Town. Any suggestions from those who have been there? Don't care about fine dining. Do care about seeing the visual beauty and feel of the place.
Thanks in advance to anyone responding.

thit_cho

Table Mountain, Robben Island and V&A Waterfront I would say are "must sees", but there's a lot more to see in Cape Town and there are many on this site much more familiar with CT than I am. I also enjoyed the walk during the day along Long Street (filled with Victorian gingerbread buildings and lots of inexpensive, casual restaurants) into Company Gardens and end at Mount Nelson Hotel. I think that would nicely fill up 2 days.

Kavey

Will you additionally have any time in the winelands or is this the total time in the whole area?

tashak

When I was in Capetown I did a full day tour down to Cape Point (in a minivan, with a driver/guide) that covered alot...some nice sightseeing in the city first including Green Point(we even saw whales in Table Bay, amazing) down to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (driver stayed in the vehicle, I walked around alone and it was really beautiful), then a drive down to HoutBauy, where I took the boat trip out to Duiker Island to see the Cape fur seal colony. Then we cut back over to Fish Hoek and Simonstown (with time to walk down to the Penguin colonies ). Beautiful area! Then on down to Cape Point...walk around the beach for a while...a very late lunch at Cape Point, then a drive through the Cape Point Nature REserve (where you can check off a few more antelope species)...and then back to Capetown.

It was a great day, and covered alot. It would be well worth doing a guided day trip like this on one of your days, because you cover so much, and with a driver, you don't have to hassle with directions, parking, etc. I'm sure your hotel (or travel agent) can arrange-- can't recall the name of the tour company I used, but its a "standard" tour. I'm a big fan of do-it-yourself, but when you have time constraints, organized tours like this are great.

Then on the other day, you can do Table Mountain, Robben Island, and enjoy a bit more of things around town.

I do hope you have some extra time for the Winelands, they are beautiful. But I can't imagine going to Cape Town and missing Kirstenbosch, the coastal drives and Cape Point.

giovana

Many thanks for your reply and great suggestions!

Kavey

In an ideal world you'd have three days in the area -

one for Cape Town itself (to include Table Mountain, Robben Island and some time at whichever of the numerous city sites that interest you the most),

a day spent driving down the peninsula to Cape Point, to include (as Tash said) Kirstenbosch Gardens, Boulders Beach, various coastal towns such as Hout Bay and the Cape Point Nature Reserve

and one day spent touring the winelands area to include, according to your interests, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch and Paarl areas.

ddgattina

Since you are time limited, you can also do the WAterfront at night. The waterfront itself is safe but you will need to take cab there and back if your hotel is not in the area. (Your hotel can arrange a cab, and you can probably arrange a pickup time so that cab meets you at an appointed time and place for the trip back. That makes it super-easy and no waiting around later at night.) I didn't find any restaurants that were special (though others may have suggestions) I just liked sitting outside on the water and watching the boats. Shopping areas are open in the evening too. So its a nice way to relax, see the Waterfront and squeeze a bit more into a day.