Scenic Table Mountain/City Tour.
Our Table Mountain tour is usually combined a city tour creating a full day tour. We can design it as you want it to be.
A visit to Table Mountain is always weather dependent.
You can take the cable car up or we can arrange a guide so you can walk up the face of the mountain. See below for more info on the walking options.
You can allocate about 2.5 hours and up depending how long you choose to be on top to see the mountain including return transfer time from your hotel.
This may vary with the crowds as the tramcars only can handle a limited amount of people each time.
Some folks go up look around and come down.
Others go up and explore further as there are many quite places to walk and sit, take in in the view, and enjoy the quite space.
Alternatively you can get something to eat on top
Take food with you and picnic away from the crowded areas.
Sunset time is a nice time to go up.
Table Mountain tour options
There is a option to walk up the mountain as well. This is a combination trail and step hiking about 2hrs depending on your fitness to get up.
When you are ready to descend you can take the tramcar down . You can purchase the ticket on top or before you go up.
We can organize a guide if you want that to walk with you. As well there are so many walks across and on top of Table Mountain….ask me for details.
We usually combine the tour of Table Mountain with the half day Cape Town City Tour that includes:
- Colorful houses of the bo kaap,
- Cape Malay cooking in a locals home eat what you made.
- District 6
- Cape Castle History
- Signal Hill viewing area.
- Green Market Square art and craft market plus walk the vibey Long Street
- Company Gardens and houses of Parliament.
- V&A waterfront – integrated shopping/restaurant/hotels complex in the Cape Town Harbor.
Ask us for details re the guided or self guided walk up Table Mountain.
This is a full day orientation tour to Cape Town.
Central Cape Town city sights
• The Company Gardens – The establishment of a garden was the main reason for the European settlement at the Cape. Now the vegetable garden for scurvy-stricken sailors has become a botanical garden for indigenous trees, a rose garden and a new attractive casual restaurant. When strolling down Government Avenue next to the Gardens you’ll be able to see the Houses of Parliament, Cultural History Museum, South African Museum and South African National Art Gallery.
• The Castle of Good Hope – houses the Military museum and the William Fehr Collection of antiques, artefacts and paintings of early Cape Town. The Castle was built by the Dutch between 1666 and 1679 to replace their original mud-walled fortress. Open Monday to Saturday at 11:00, 12:00 and 14:00 (except on Sundays). The Key Ceremony is at 10:00 and 12:00 (Mon to Fri) followed by the firing of the Signal Cannon.
• Cape Malay Quarter – spend some time walking the narrow cobbled streets of the picturesque Malay Quarter with its colorful flat roofed houses dating from the 17th century. This area was originally settled by former slaves who came to the Cape from Indonesia, India & Malaysia. Located on the slopes of Signal Hill above and to the west of Buitengragt Street (e.g. Wale Street, Rose Street, Dorp Street). The Bo-Kaap museum gives a glimpse into the life of the Cape Malay family in the 19th century at 71 Wale Street. Open Mon to Sat 10:00 to 17:00
• Greenmarket Square – is a colorful African craft market selling a range of goods. It’s great fun to browse around the market but be aware that pickpockets find this a paradise!
Local museum information:
• South African Museum and Planetarium – at the top of the Company Gardens. It has an exhibit on the different African people of South Africa, their history and culture, as well as a natural history section. The Planetarium has daily shows for children. (See their website for what’s on). 25 Queen Victoria Street. Open daily 10:00 to 17:00
• The South African National Gallery, also in the Company Gardens, has a display of contemporary South African Art and Craftwork. Open daily 10:00 to 17:00. www.iziko.org.za/museum
• Koopmans-De Wet house – shows the typical colonial interior of a Cape Town House in the late 18th/ early 19th century, and houses a superb collection of antiques, carpets, paintings and porcelain. 35 Strand Street between Long and Burg Streets. Open Mon to Fri 10:00 to 17:00
• The Gold of Africa Museum – comprises a workshop, design library, wine cellar, sculpture garden, museum shop and a gold boutique. It houses over 350 African gold artefacts from the 19th and 20th centuries from West Africa.
• Martin Melck House, 96 Strand Street. Open Mon to Sat 09:30 to 17:00
• District Six museum – is a small museum depicting the history of the ‘District Six’ area, which was a vibrant multi-cultural area in the ’60s. The people of the area were forcibly removed by the Apartheid government under the Group Areas Act. Open Monday to Saturday from 09:00 to 16:00 (except Mondays – closes at 13:30)
Oldest Mountain in the World?
Table Mountain was formed between 250 to 540 million years ago through the folding of the old Richtersveld mountains (north of Cape Town and no longer existing) which were formed 800 million years ago. Its present shape is about 60 million years old.
Mount Everest was formed 40 million years ago; the Alps in Europe ‘only’ 32 million years ago.
Cape Floral Kingdom
Much of the northern hemisphere was subjected to a severe ice age (which only ended about 100 000 years ago) effectively wiping out its entire plant life. South Africa, in contrast, has not been disturbed by such violent glacial forces in recent geological time.
Fynbos therefore, is an ancient vegetation type some date back more than 60 million years!
If the Cape Floral Kingdom is a biological treasure chest, then one of its most brilliant gems is the Cape Peninsula. This tiny patch of land, only some 470km in extent, harbors a staggering 2 285 flowering plant species.
The 57km of Table Mountain has some 1 470 plant species only just a fewer less than the 1 492 found in Britain in an area of 308 000km , and more species than Sweden which is a thousand times larger.
A Star in its own Right
During his visit to the Cape of Good Hope (17501754), French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de la Caille observed more than 10 000 previously unrecorded stars, and named many of the southern constellations.
His particular tribute to Table Mountain was to name a constellation which he found near the Southern Cross in its honor: Mons Mensa (Latin for Table Mountain), with the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud representing the mountain’s “Table Cloth”. It is the only constellation named after a terrestrial geographical feature
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