Cape Town
A working city wedged between a mountain and two oceans.
4 to 6 nights
4 days · 3 nights
Four Days in Cape Town
The shortest stay that does Cape Town properly rather than at a run. Two big days, one flexible one, and enough slack in it that a windy morning does not cost you the mountain.
- Length
- 4 days · 3 nights
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Suited to
- couples, short stays, stopovers, first-time visitors
- When to go
- Works all year. October to April for warm evenings, June to November if you want whales within reach of a day trip.
Four days is enough for Cape Town if one of them is deliberately empty. Three is not, and we will say so.
The two things people most want here, the mountain and the peninsula, are both weather-dependent and neither can be booked in advance with any confidence. Table Mountain shuts in high wind and low cloud. Cape Point is miserable in a hard south-easter. So the shape of a short stay has to carry slack, and this itinerary carries a full day of it.
If you are on a stopover
A great many guests reach us with two or three nights either side of a longer trip elsewhere in Africa. That works and we run a lot of it. Tell us which flight you are connecting to and we will build round it, including the early-hours departures that most operators will not touch.
If you have longer
Five nights lets you add the Winelands as a day out. Seven turns this into the classic Cape week, with two nights in the valleys and a night on the whale coast.
The route
Day by day
Day 1
Landing, and the long way round the mountain
Your guide meets you at arrivals and it is forty minutes to the hotel. If the overnight flight has flattened you, we go straight there. If you would rather stay upright until evening, we take the long way round the mountain and put you on a terrace above Camps Bay with the Atlantic in front of you. Dinner is booked walkably close and early.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Dinner
Day 2
The peninsula, run backwards
Out of the door by eight and straight over to Simon's Town, which puts you at Boulders while the car park is a third full and the penguins are heading out to feed. Into the reserve at ten, Cape Point by half past, and the cliffs largely to yourselves. Lunch at Noordhoek or back at Kalk Bay harbour, then Chapman's Peak in the afternoon with the drop on your seaward side and the light where you want it. Everyone else does this loop the other way round and meets four coaches at the top.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Breakfast, Lunch
- What you might do
Day 3
The city, the mountain, and the water
A morning in the city, which is far more interesting than its postcard: the painted streets of Bo-Kaap, and the District Six Museum, an hour that reframes everything you have seen so far. Kirstenbosch or the cableway in the afternoon, depending entirely on what the wind is doing, and a sunset cruise down the Atlantic seaboard to finish if the evening is right for it.
- Where you stay
- Boutique hotel, City Bowl
- Meals included
- Breakfast
- What you might do
Day 4
Whatever is left, and the airport
This day exists so that a bad-weather morning earlier in the trip does not cost you anything. If the mountain has been shut all week, this is when we take it. Otherwise it is a helicopter over the peninsula, a ride along Noordhoek beach, a long lunch in Constantia, or the galleries at the Silo district. Your guide runs you to the airport whenever your flight needs.
- Meals included
- Breakfast
- What you might do
What is included
What is included
- A registered guide with you for all four days
- Private vehicle and all ground transport, airport to airport
- Accommodation, chosen and booked by us
- Daily breakfast plus the meals marked on each day
- Reserve entry, park fees and the Boulders conservation levy
- Restaurant bookings and activity reservations arranged in advance
- A number that reaches one of us at any hour, with your itinerary in front of them
What is not
- International flights and visas
- Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to carry
- Meals not marked on the itinerary
- Drinks, gratuities and anything of a personal nature
- Optional extras such as helicopter flights and boat trips
We publish no figures on this website, because the same fortnight varies enormously with the properties, the season and the size of the party. You get one total covering everything listed above, before anything becomes payable.
Where this trip goes
The Cape Peninsula
Forty miles of mountain and ocean, ending at a lighthouse.
0 to 2 nights
What you might do
Scenic
Table Mountain
The flat top of the city, by cable car or on foot.
Two to three hours by cable car, half a day on foot
Scenic
Cape Point
A lighthouse on a cliff at the end of the peninsula.
Half a day, or a full day combined with the penguins
Wildlife
The penguins at Boulders
Two thousand African penguins on a suburban beach.
An hour and a half, usually part of a peninsula day
Adventure
Horse riding on Noordhoek beach
Eight kilometres of empty sand, and nothing else on it.
Two hours, or a half day with the wine estate ride
Scenic
Boat trips and sunset cruises
Seal Island out of Hout Bay, or a glass of something off Clifton.
Forty minutes to three hours, depending on the boat
Scenic
Helicopter flights
Twenty minutes over the peninsula, or a valley-to-valley transfer.
Twenty minutes to an hour, plus briefing
Worth reading first
Planning ·
The peninsula day, in the right order
Almost every visitor drives the Cape Peninsula the same way round, at the same time, and meets every coach in the Western Cape at Cape Point. There is no reason to, and the day is transformed by running it backwards.
Planning ·
When to visit Cape Town, month by month
High summer is not the best month here, and winter is a great deal better than its reputation. A month-by-month guide to the Cape, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
Use this as a starting point
Almost every trip we run began as one of these and ended up somewhere else. Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will redraw it around you. Six questions, about three minutes.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.