Cape Point to Kruger, day by day.
Which Cape Point run actually stops at the penguins. Whether a Big 5 morning from Cape Town is worth the drive. What the Franschhoek tram costs. Every tour in South Africa, reviewed.
One day down the Cape Peninsula. Three ways to spend it.
All 232 Cape Peninsula tours →
Chapman’s Peak in the morning, the Cape of Good Hope signpost by noon, penguins at Boulders on the way home. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how much walking you want to do.
Chapman’s Peak, the Cape, then Boulders
Down the Atlantic seaboard on Chapman’s Peak Drive, out to the signpost at the Cape of Good Hope, then back along False Bay with an hour at the penguin colony.
Cable car up, Lion’s Head at sunset
The cableway only turns when the wind drops, so the good operators build a second half around it: Kirstenbosch, the Bo-Kaap, or the walk up Lion’s Head for the last of the light.
Simon’s Town, the colony, and lunch
A late start down the False Bay line, boardwalks over the nesting granite at Boulders, then a harbour lunch in Simon’s Town before the drive back over the neck.
Six days that decide a South African trip.
The mountain, the point, the penguins, the Big 5, the wine farms and the ferry out to Robben Island. Most itineraries get built around these six, and each is booked a different way.
South Africa keeps the Big 5 within a day of both big cities.
Kruger is the name everyone knows, but a Big 5 morning also runs west from Cape Town to Aquila and north from Johannesburg to Pilanesberg. Same animals, no internal flight, back in time for dinner.
An hour out of Cape Town, the wine farms start.
Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl sit in a ring of mountains forty-five minutes from the city. A driver, three estates and a long lunch is the standard shape of the day; the Franschhoek tram is the one that books out first.
The bookings that fill up first in South Africa.
Every review →More travellers take these than anything else in the country — and what each one gives up a whole day for.
1
Wine Tour: Paarl, Franschhoek & Stellenbosch incl 3 wineries
Cape Winelands day tour with 3 estates in Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, tasting 15 wines with pairings plus a Mandela prison photo stop.
From · $43
Read our review →
2
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Optional Cruise
from $23
3
Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup
from $52
4
Zipline Cape Town – From Foot of Table Mountain Reserve
from $49
5
Table Mountain Cable Car, Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $45
6
Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour
from $34
7
Cape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day Tour
from $40
8
Big Five Game Reserve with Lunch
from $236
The history runs from Robben Island to Soweto.
The ferry to Robben Island leaves from the V&A Waterfront and is cancelled when the swell is up, so it goes early in a trip and not late. In Johannesburg the Apartheid Museum and a guided walk through Soweto usually share one day.
What a day out costs in South Africa.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it actually costs. The rand goes a long way here: plenty of the best days out are cheaper than lunch at home.
Cableway tickets, the hop-on bus, harbour cruises, township walks and museum entries — most of a first week in Cape Town.
The full-day classics: Cape Point and the penguins, a Winelands day with lunch, a Big 5 game drive within reach of either city.
Cages at Gansbaai, helicopters over the Atlantic seaboard, private guides and the multi-day runs into Kruger.
- 1Big Five Game Reserve with Lunchfrom $236
- 2Pilanesberg Nature Reserve Game Safarifrom $186
- 3Full-Day Winelands Tour with Wine Tastings & Foodfrom $121
A cage, a colony, and a flat mountain in the middle of a city.
Wine farms and city walks exist everywhere. Great whites off Gansbaai, penguins nesting in a suburb, and a cable car onto a table-topped mountain do not.
The Cage
Shark Alley runs between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, and the seal colony on the rock is the reason great whites hold station there. Boats leave Kleinbaai early, when the water is flattest. The cage floats at the surface, so this is a breath and a metre down rather than a dive, and a big swell cancels the day outright.
- 1From Hermanus or Cape Town: Shark Cage Diving Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 684 reviews
- 2Shark Cage Diving and Viewing with transport from Cape Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 576 reviews
- 3Gansbaai Eco-Friendly Shark Cage Diving Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 326 reviews
The Colony
African penguins turned up on Boulders Beach in 1982 and never left. A couple of thousand now nest between the granite in a Simon’s Town suburb, and raised boardwalks put you a few metres away without anyone standing on the burrows. Go in the morning, when the birds are still out on the sand.
- 1Cape of Good Hope & Penguins Day Tour with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,362 reviews
- 2Cape Point and Boulder’s Penguins Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,118 reviews
- 3Cape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,032 reviews
The Cableway
The car turns through a full circle on the way up, which is why nobody fights for the window. It shuts whenever the southeaster gets going — the cloud pouring over the front is the local tell — so the mountain belongs on the first clear morning of a trip, never the last day.
- 1Zipline Cape Town – From Foot of Table Mountain Reserve★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,179 reviews
- 2Table Mountain Cable Car, Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,157 reviews
- 3Table Mountain, Penguins & Cape Point Small Group Tour Cape Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,797 reviews
Give Johannesburg a day and Pretoria the morning after.
Most travellers only change planes here. The ones who stay get the Apartheid Museum, a guided walk in Soweto, the Cradle of Humankind an hour north-west, and jacaranda streets in Pretoria if they have timed it for October.
- 1Pilanesberg Nature Reserve Game Safarifrom $186
- 2Hop-On Hop-Off Bus with Optional Soweto Tourfrom $23
- 3Soweto /Johannesburg and Apartheid Museum Guided Full Day Tourfrom $103
Whale season turns Walker Bay into a grandstand.
Southern rights come in to calve from June, and Hermanus has a cliff path close enough to watch them from dry land. Boats out of Hermanus and Gansbaai get nearer still, and it is the same stretch of water the cage trips work.
Off Signal Hill, over the dunes at Atlantis, down a wire on Table Mountain.
All adrenaline days →
WILDX Atlantis Quad Dune Adventure and Photo Stop
Read our review →Zipline Cape Town – From Foot of Table Mountain Reserve
Read our review →These South African days sell out before you land.
Most of the country can be arranged from the hotel desk the night before. These cannot — they run on ferry sailings, weather windows and a calving season.
- 01Robben Island Ferry Ticket and Guided Prison TourA fixed number of sailings a day, cancelled outright in heavy swell — the summer departures go weeks ahead.
- 02Franschhoek Wine Tram Hop-on Hop-offThe tram sells by timed hop-on slot and the weekend departures fill first.
- 03From Hermanus or Cape Town: Shark Cage Diving ExperienceSmall boats, a winter-weighted season, and a blown-out day gets pushed to the next one. Leave slack around it.
- 04Zipline Cape Town – From Foot of Table Mountain ReserveThe cableway closes for wind, then books out on the clear day that follows. Keep a spare morning in hand.
The Garden Route, Cape Town to Gqeberha.
By region — the Cape, the coast, the north
Cape Town884 tours
The Winelands62 tours
The Garden Route115 tours
Hermanus & the Whale Coast24 tours
Gqeberha & Addo85 tours
Durban & KwaZulu-Natal82 tours
Johannesburg161 tours
Pretoria35 tours
Kruger & Mpumalanga75 tours
Pilanesberg & Sun City36 tours- All 10 regions →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Just reviewed in South Africa.
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