Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: Cape Town is where most South African backpacking trips begin, and it rewards more days than people give it. This guide covers the essential sights with real entry costs, how to plan around the city’s famously unreliable weather, which areas to base yourself in, honest safety guidance, and how to transition from the Mother City onto the Garden Route.
Almost every traveller we collect from a Cape Town hostel says a version of the same thing: they allocated three nights and wish they’d allocated six.
The reason is structural. Cape Town isn’t a city with sights in it — it’s a city wrapped around a mountain range, on a peninsula, between two oceans, with the Winelands an hour inland and a whale coast two hours east. The distances are small but the variety is enormous, and the weather regularly takes a day away from you.
A few facts that frame the place. It’s one of South Africa’s three capital cities, holding the legislative power. Its nickname, the Mother City, comes from being the first metropolis in the country. And Table Mountain is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, which is the kind of claim that usually oversells a place and in this case doesn’t.
BazBus has been running day trips out of Cape Town and departing the Garden Route from here since 1995. What follows is shaped by three decades of watching which plans work and which fall apart.
Three realistic options:
If you’re arriving internationally, try to land in daylight. The airport transfer is straightforward at any hour, but orienting yourself in a new city is easier when you can see it.
Unmissable, and the single most weather-dependent activity in the city. The cableway closes in high wind — which in summer is frequent — so treat it as something to do on the first clear morning rather than something to schedule for Thursday.
You can take the cable car both ways, hike up and take the car down, or hike both. Platteklip Gorge is the direct route up: steep, exposed, unshaded, and roughly two to three hours depending on fitness. Our Table Mountain hike, township and Bo-Kaap full day tour from $185 combines the hike with a guided descent by cable car and pairs it with Langa and Bo-Kaap in the afternoon — it’s capped at 10 participants and includes the mountain entrance fees and cable car ticket.
An important safety note we repeat often: don’t hike Table Mountain or Lion’s Head alone. Muggings on the trails are uncommon but they do happen, and they overwhelmingly happen to solo walkers.
Our passengers’ consistent favourite, and officially ranked among the top things to do in Cape Town on Tripadvisor. The Cape Peninsula full day tour starts from $49 and covers the scenic drive past Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles, Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak Drive, Boulders Beach, and Cape Point with the Cape of Good Hope sign.
Budget honestly for the entrance fees, which are not included in the tour price and are worth knowing in advance:
| Item | Cost | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Point National Park entry | R515 (approx. $32) | Mandatory |
| Boat trip to the Duiker Island fur seal colony, Hout Bay | R160 (approx. $10) | Optional |
| Boulders Beach penguin reserve entry | R245 (approx. $15) | Optional |
The full-day version runs roughly 7:45am to 6:10pm with hotel and hostel pickup at both ends, and includes a 45-minute walk out to the Cape of Good Hope itself — which is the part people remember.
“My husband and I opted for the Cape Peninsula day tour with Baz Bus when we were on honeymoon in South Africa back in July. It was definitely a fuss-free experience as the tour covered all the places we wanted to go, plus, it included live commentary from Mark and lovely music by Freddie! The tour also included pick-up and drop-off from our accommodation which was awesome!” — Mel_Foo, Singapore
One of the world’s great botanical gardens, set on the eastern slope of Table Mountain. It’s home to indigenous species including fynbos and the protea, South Africa’s national flower. The Boomslang canopy walkway is the signature feature, and in summer the Sunday afternoon concerts on the lawn are one of the best-value evenings in the city.
The brightly painted streets above the city centre, and the historic heart of Cape Town’s Cape Malay community. It photographs beautifully and it’s a residential neighbourhood, not an attraction — the guided walk on our combo tour puts the colours in their actual historical context, which is worth having.
Langa is the oldest township in Cape Town, and a guided visit is the single most substantive thing most travellers do here. Done properly, with a guide who works with the community, it’s where you learn about apartheid’s ongoing effects and the work being done now. Go with an operator that has a genuine relationship with the neighbourhood rather than a drive-through, and ask permission before photographing people.
Camps Bay and Clifton for scenery and Atlantic water cold enough to hurt. Muizenberg on the False Bay side for warmer water and beginner surf. The V&A Waterfront for food, and as the departure point for Robben Island ferries — which are weather-dependent and worth booking ahead.
Cape Town works well as a base, and several of the region’s best experiences are day-trip distance:
The full range is on our day trips from Cape Town page.
Cape Town’s backpacker accommodation clusters in four areas, and the choice matters more here than anywhere else on the route.
City Bowl and Long Street is the traditional backpacker district — walkable to restaurants, nightlife and the cable car road, and where most of the established hostels are. Loud at weekends. Best for first-timers and solo travellers who want to meet people.
Green Point and Sea Point is quieter and more residential, with a long seafront promenade that’s genuinely pleasant to walk. Slightly further from the nightlife, which some people consider the point.
Observatory is the student neighbourhood — cheaper, scruffier, good bars, further from the sights.
Muizenberg, out on the False Bay side, is the surf option. It’s a 30-minute train or drive from the centre, and if you came to learn to surf it’s a better base than the city.
For a first trip, City Bowl or Green Point. What matters more than the neighbourhood: lockers that take your own padlock, a kitchen or on-site food so you’re not walking out for dinner after dark, and confirmed pickup if you’re continuing onto the Garden Route.
Cape Town can genuinely deliver four seasons in a day. Sunny in the City Bowl, cold rain in Hout Bay, and blowing hard everywhere.
The dominant factor is the south-easter, known locally as the Cape Doctor, which blows hardest from roughly November to February. It closes the cableway, cancels boat trips, and makes Atlantic beaches uncomfortable. February is our quiet recommendation for the best Cape Town month — the same summer weather as January, fewer crowds, slightly less wind, and lower prices.
Winter, from June to August, is the wet season. Rain arrives in fronts rather than as constant drizzle, so a week in July will still give you usable days. A single fixed day in July may not.
The practical rule: keep your two weather-dependent activities — Table Mountain and Robben Island — flexible, and do the weather-proof things when it’s grim.
Cape Town requires more awareness than most European cities and less than its reputation suggests. Nearly all trouble involving travellers is opportunistic property crime, and nearly all of it is avoidable.
None of this is exotic. It’s the same list that applies in Barcelona, applied more consistently.
The westbound Garden Route service departs Cape Town at 7:00am, reaching Stellenbosch around 8:00am, Hermanus around 9:30am, Mossel Bay early afternoon and Port Elizabeth around 9:20pm if you stay on all the way — which we’d strongly advise against.
Departures run every day from October to February. From March to September the westbound service runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so plan an extra day of flexibility into winter itineraries. Buses do not operate between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on 24 December, 25 December, 31 December or 1 January.
Passes start from $119 for the one-way Cape Town to Port Elizabeth hop-on hop-off, or $139 for the 8 Day Travel Pass if you want to travel in both directions.
How many days do I need in Cape Town?
Five is our honest recommendation, and four is the practical minimum. The arithmetic is straightforward: Table Mountain is a half day, the Cape Peninsula is a full day, a township and Bo-Kaap visit is a half to full day, Kirstenbosch is a half day, and you need at least one spare day for the weather to ruin. Three days works only if you’re lucky with wind and willing to skip things. Travellers who give it a week rather than a long weekend consistently report the better trip, and Cape Town is cheap enough that the extra nights aren’t the constraint.
Is Cape Town expensive for backpackers?
By international standards, no. Dorm beds, restaurant meals, transport and beer are all inexpensive compared with Western Europe, North America or Australia. What costs real money is activities, and specifically the ones involving boats, cages and mountains — a shark cage diving day is more than a week of accommodation. The sensible approach is to keep daily living costs low through self-catering and hostel kitchens, then budget separately for two or three big experiences you actually care about.
Do I need to book activities in advance?
For most things, a day or two ahead is fine. Three exceptions matter. The Cape Peninsula tour genuinely sells out, particularly in summer. Robben Island ferries are limited and weather-dependent, so book early and have a backup plan. And over mid-December to early January, everything fills — that’s the one period where turning up and improvising fails. Outside peak season, Cape Town is a forgiving city to plan on the fly.
Is it safe to visit a township?
Yes, on a guided visit with an operator that has an actual working relationship with the community, which is how the overwhelming majority of visitors do it. Langa is generally considered safe to visit this way, and your guide provides both context and practical guidance. What isn’t advisable is wandering in independently without local knowledge — not primarily because of danger, but because you’ll understand almost nothing of what you’re looking at and you’ll be an intrusion rather than a guest. Dress modestly, wear comfortable shoes, and always ask before photographing people.
What’s the best way to get around the city?
Uber and Bolt, for almost everything. Both operate throughout Cape Town, they’re inexpensive by international standards, and they solve the after-dark problem entirely. The MyCiTi bus network is useful along the Atlantic seaboard and to the airport. The Metrorail train to Muizenberg and Simon’s Town is scenic but has had reliability and safety issues over the years, so ask locally about current conditions rather than assuming. For day trips beyond the city, organised transport with door-to-door pickup removes the parking, navigation and drink-driving questions in one go.
Entry fees quoted here are the rand and dollar figures published on our own tour pages and will drift with both price revisions and the exchange rate, so treat the dollar equivalents as indicative and confirm current pricing at the time of booking. Weather guidance describes typical seasonal patterns rather than forecasts — check conditions a day ahead for anything involving the cableway or a boat, and build at least one flexible day into a short Cape Town stay so a windy morning doesn’t cost you the mountain entirely.
Hop Login 
