Cape Town

Cape Town, South Africa’s legislative capital, is a city with a rich history and natural beauty. With the South African Parliament housed in Cape Town, the nation’s oldest metropolis, Cape Town has a unique political and cultural posture. After Johannesburg, it is the second-biggest city in the nation and the Western Cape’s biggest as well. The city is a part of the vibrant and varied metropolitan municipality of Cape Town.

Beautiful harbour and location in the Cape Floristic Region, a hotspot for biodiversity, define Cape Town. Notable sites including Cape Point and Table Mountain call the city home. The New York Times ranked Cape Town as the best place one should visit worldwide in 2014, proving its all appeal. Sharing this mindset, the Daily Telegraph ranked #1 in both 2016 and 2023.

Rich in cultural tradition, the Western Cape’s first metropolitan area is Cape Town’s City Bowl on Table Bay’s coast. Built to act as a supply port for ships headed to East Africa, India, and the Far East, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) developed the city. Arriving on April 6, 1652, Jan van Riebeeck founded the first permanent European colony in South Africa, VOC Cape Colony. Originally a European stronghold at the Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town developed to become the commercial and cultural center of the colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and Johannesburg’s founding, Cape Town was the biggest city in southern Africa.

False Bay and stretches to the Hottentots Holland highlands to the east, Cape Town’s metropolitan area boasts a long coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. Table Mountain National Park as well as various other nature reserves and marine-protected areas around the city help to preserve its special terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Being a well-known tourist destination in South Africa, the tourism business of the Western Cape significantly boosts the GDP and employment of the province. With its mild temperature, natural beauty, and modern infrastructure, Cape Town drew about 1.5 million foreign visitors in 2010.

Visitors are much drawn to Cape Town’s natural beauties. One especially prominent aspect of Table Mountain, a component of Table Mountain National Park, dominates the metropolitan skyline. Hiking or the Table Mountain Cableway will let visitors reach the top. At the apex of the Cape Peninsula, Cape Point offers amazing vistas. From Noordhoek to Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak Drive is a picturesque road with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and nearby mountains. Signal Hill offers closer-ups of Table Mountain and the City Bowl.

Both residents and tourists find great appeal in Cape Town’s beaches. The city offers a spectrum of coastal settings, each with unique energy. Often referred to as Cape Town’s Riviera, the Atlantic coast is renowned for its visual grandeur; paths like the Twelve Apostles lead to the rocks and white sand beaches of Llandudano. Simon’s Town’s Boulders Beach is particularly famous for its African penguin population.

With shopping, food, and entertainment mixed in, Cape Town’s most visited tourist destination is the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. It also boasts the Nelson Mandela Gateway, from which ships head for Robben Island. The city provides a variety of air, land, and sea-based adventure sports, such as helicopter flights, paragliding, skydiving, snorkeling, scuba diving, boat cruises, game fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing. Particularly popular is surfing; the city hosts a Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing contest annually.

Closely working with the City of Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism helps to present the city as a top travel destination. This cooperation assures Cape Town’s continued appeal to visitors from all around the globe. The city’s transportation system opens additional province-wide locations and links it to the rest of South Africa. Popular day trips from the city, the Cape Winelands—which feature towns including Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek—offer chances for sightseeing and wine tasting.