Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Cape Town
Table Mountain and the Atlantic seaboard in six hours
The cableway to the top, then the promenade along the cold ocean into the harbour.
The three-hour route stays in the City Bowl. This is the other reason people come: a flat-topped mountain with a rotating cable car, and then the sea. Check the cableway website before you commit to the day — it closes for wind more often than not, and there is no point doing this route in reverse hoping it opens. The Atlantic here is about 13°C and nobody swims in it for long.
The route, stop by stop
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Table Mountain
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
The car rotates through 360 degrees on the way up. Book the first slot online, take a jacket regardless of the weather below, and walk to Maclear's Beacon if the cloud stays off.
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Sea Point Promenade
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
Three kilometres of paved seafront with the mountain on one side and the Atlantic on the other. This is where Cape Town exercises, and it is free and busy from dawn.
40 min here Walk here → -
Mouille Point Lighthouse
Red and white candy stripes, working since 1824, and the oldest operating lighthouse in South Africa. The promenade walk east from Sea Point ends here.
20 min here Walk here → -
V&A Waterfront
A working harbour that also happens to be the most-visited destination in Africa. The Robben Island ferries leave from here and should be booked weeks ahead.
60 min here Walk here → -
Zeitz MOCAA
Forty-two disused grain silos cut into an atrium of concrete tubes. The building is the reason to go; the contemporary African collection inside it is the reason to stay.
60 min here Walk here →
More in Cape Town
Every walking route in Cape Town, or the full Cape Town guide for where to stay and what a day costs.