Cape Town

Top tourist attractions

Cape Town has so much to offer as a tourist destination. It is blessed to have five of South Africa’s top tourist attractions within an hour’s drive of the city centre: the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Table Mountain, Cape Point, the Winelands and Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Robben Island is a short boat trip away.

Table Mountain

 

 

South Africa’s world-renowned icon, the beloved Table Mountain, was given National Park status in May 1998. Table Mountain offers something for everyone – magnificent views, cable car rides, mountain-biking, hiking, serious rock climbing, cross country running, fascinating botany, birding and, for the more adventurous, abseiling and paragliding. Visitors are treated to a spectacular view during the ride to the top of Table Mountain aboard a modern cable car with a revolving floor.

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront

Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront has established itself as a leading, world-class waterfront. The unique working harbour has scenic views of Table Mountain, great shopping, and entertainment options such as street musicians, museums, the Two Oceans Aquarium, boat trips and cinemas.

Robben Island

Robben Island is one of South Africa’s eight World Heritage Sites. This barren, windswept island was the prison home of former President Nelson Mandela for many years. Here you can experience the view that kept Nelson Mandela’s dream of freedom for his country alive.

Winelands/wine routes

South Africa and the Western Cape produce some of the world’s best wines. The first wines in South Africa were produced at Steenberg in 1695 and Groot Constantia is the oldest productive wine estate in the country.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Kirstenbosch is internationally acclaimed as one of the great botanical gardens of the world. Situated on the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s magnificent Table Mountain, the estate covers 528ha and includes a cultivated garden and a nature reserve. Indeed, the tiny Cape Peninsula has more floral diversity than the whole of Europe.

Cape Point

The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point form part of the Table Mountain National Park. Visitors can enjoy the 750ha reserve of indigenous flora and fauna and more than 150 bird species, and can also travel with the only funicular in Africa to the viewing platform 678m above the sea.

 

 

Other attractions in Cape Town & the Western Cape

• The Castle of Good Hope
• Cape Town townships
• Whales
• Bo-Kaap
• Floral heritage
• Beaches
• Garden Route
• Cango Caves
• National parks
• National reserves

Cape Town’s conference credentials

Cape Town has successfully hosted many top-class international congresses and conventions with the assistance of local organisers. These include:

Past events

• 2004 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) (500 delegates)
• 2004 International Conference of Principals (3 000 delegates)
• 2005 International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC GM) (1 000 delegates)
• Repeat Gartner Symposium/IT Expo (1 500 delegates)
• 2006 International Diabetes Federation (IDF) (12 000 delegates)
• 2008 World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (10 000 delegates)
• 2009 FIGO World Congress (8 000 delegates)
• 2009 IEEE Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (1 400 delegates)
• 2010 IEEE Globecom (1 500 delegates)

Future events

• 2011 International Conference on Hyperbaric Medicine (3 000 delegates)
• 2012 International Congress of Psychology (6 000 delegates)
• 2014 16th IUPHAR World Congress of Basic Clinical Pharmacology (10 000 delegates)

Global destination accolades

• The International Association of Golf Tourism Organisations named Cape Town Best Global Golf Tourism Destination for Africa and the Middle East in 2007.
• In 2005, Travel and Leisure Magazine name Cape Town the best city in the Middle East and Africa for the fifth consecutive year. Cape Town was voted eighth overall in the top destinations category.
• In 2005, Cape Town was named No. 1 City in Africa and the Middle East in the 18th annual Condé Nast Traveller Reader’s Choice Awards.
• In 2004 and 2005, Cape Town was named Favourite Foreign City by readers of the UK’s Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the only non-European city to achieve this feat for two years running.
• In the 2004 High Life Travel Awards, British Airways voted Cape Town the best city to eat out in, pipping New York, Sydney, London and Paris to the post. In the Best Overall Destination category, Cape Town came second to Sydney, ahead of New York and Dubai.
• Cape Town came fifth among all world cities in Travel & Leisure’s World’s Best Awards in 2003.
• In 2003, Condé Nast Traveller ranked Cape Town the world’s best value-for-money city in the world for two years in a row and also voted it the most hospitable city for the year.
• Cape Town was named World’s Hottest Sunspot by the London Times in September 2003.
• The city placed fifth on the BBC’s list of “50 Places to See Before You Die” in 2002.
• In 2002, Newsweek nominated Cape Town as one of the top eight cultural centres in the world.
• Cape Town was named third favourite city in the world for UK travellers by the London Observer in 2002.