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Walking Tours
Footsteps to Freedom offers two really good walking tours -- one of the
city and its historical sites and the other of the V&A Waterfront. The
guides are friendly and well informed, offer a rare insight into the city,
and can help you with tours of the Bo-Kaap and townships. They also have
great maps of the city, Peninsula, and Winelands called Serious Fun
Guides, which you can pick up at various outlets. Bo-Kaap Guided Tours
conducts a walking tour that lasts just under two hours and offers an
insider's look of the neighborhood. You can also do a walking tour of Langa
township as part of Legend Tours' Walk to Freedom portfolio. The
guides explain the social structures and lifestyles of Cape Town's oldest
African precinct, as well as the cultural history of the area.
Take some of the mystery out of Table Mountain with a guide who can share
information on the incredible diversity of flora and fauna you'll come
across. Join walking and climbing tours with the Cape Town School of
Mountaineering, or tag along on a group walk open to everyone (most are on
weekends). Pick up a Cumhike timetable from any Cape Union Mart outdoor
store (found in almost every mall). A self-guided walking tour of city
center attractions was recently developed. Pamphlets can be picked up at
Cape Town Tourism. Longer walking tours (four days and longer) outside Cape
Town can be arranged through Active Africa, specialized birding walks
through Bird-Watch Cape.
Adventure Kalk Bay, a group of concerned longtime citizens, has as its
goal to promote and preserve the old fishing way of life in Kalk Bay. Toward
that end it arranges for knowledgeable guides for village walks and canoe
trips (including rentals) and homestays with fishing families.
Tour Operators
Active
Africa (PHONE: 021/461-6658,
style="text-decoration: none; color: #000099">
Adventure Kalk
Bay (PHONE: 021/788-5113).
Bird-Watch
Cape (PHONE: 021/762-5059,
Bo-Kaap Guided
Tours (PHONE: 021/422-1554 or 082/423-6932).
Cape Town
School of Mountaineering (PHONE:
021/531-4290,
).
Footsteps to
Freedom (PHONE: 021/426-4260 or 083/452-1112,
.
Legend Tours
(PHONE: 021/697-4056,
Helicopter &
Airplane Tours
Helicopters fly from the V&A Waterfront and charge around R5,000 an hour
for a three- or four-seater chopper. Civair and NAC/Makana offer tours of
the city and surrounding area ranging in length from 20 minutes to several
hours. Custom tours can be arranged. Most operators charge between R1,300
and R1,800 for a 20-minute trip and R4,900 to R5,400 for an hour in the air.
Adventure Village offers trips in a variety of light aircraft, including
helicopters. Flying from Cape Town International Airport, Right Air Charter
will fly you over Cape Point and the Winelands with lots in between and will
tailor flights to suit. Prices vary according to the number of passengers,
but expect to pay around R700 for a one-hour flight.
Tour Operators
Adventure
Village (PHONE: 021/424-1580,
.
Civair
Helicopters (PHONE: 021/419-5182,
NAC/Makana
Aviation (PHONE: 021/425-3868,
.
Southern Right
Air Charter (PHONE: 021/786-1962 or
082/456-5946,
Bus & Car
Tours
Large-group bus tours are operated by Hylton Ross, Mother City Tours, and
Springbok Atlas, among many others. Expect to pay R250-R350 for a half-day
trip, about R400-R500 for a full-day tour. A trip on the hop-on/hop-off Cape
Town Explorer bus costs R90 for a day ticket through Hylton Ross. Paradise
Touring leads tours all around the Cape Town area.
If you're a little more adventurous, contrast the upscale estates of the
Winelands with a trip to a shebeen (an informal neighborhood bar)
with Ferdinand's Tours. Exclusively gay tours are offered by Friends of
Dorothy.
Quite a few cultural tours are also offered. Thuthuka Tours offers music
and gospel tours of the townships. Grassroute Tours tours the townships as
well, in addition to offering a walking tour of Bo-Kaap, which takes in the
neighborhood's brightly colored facades and rich history. You can develop
your understanding of the destruction brought on by apartheid's forced
removals while touring District Six with Our Pride-Bonani. A group of MK
veterans (former cadres of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe), going
by the name Western Cape Action Tours, provide insight into Cape Town's
experience of apartheid and resistance. Tours include scenes of struggle and
other historical sites as well as development projects, township markets,
and housing programs. A half-day tour is R220 per person (minimum two
people), a full-day tour including lunch costs R450 a head (minimum four
people), and a customized day trip for a single individual is R800. Though
these operators specialize in niche tours, most of them cover mainstream
trips like Cape Point and the Winelands, too.
Tour Operators
Ferdinand's
Tours and Adventures (PHONE: 021/421-1660,
Friends of
Dorothy (PHONE: 021/465-1871,
Grassroute
Tours (PHONE: 021/706-1006,
tyle="text-decoration: none; color: #000099">
Hylton Ross
Tours (PHONE: 021/511-1784,
Mother City
Tours (PHONE: 021/448-3817,
Our
Pride-Bonani (PHONE: 021/531-4291 or
082/446-7974).
Paradise Touring (PHONE: 021/713-1020,
Springbok
Atlas (PHONE: 021/460-4700,
Thuthuka Tours
(PHONE: 021/433-2429 or 083/979-5831,
Western Cape
Action Tours (PHONE: 021/461-1371,
Boat Tours
Until the middle of the 20th century, most travelers' first glimpse of
Cape Town was from the sea, and that's still the best way to get a feeling
for the city's impressive setting, with its famous mountain as a backdrop.
The Waterfront Boat Company offers trips on a range of boats, from yachts to
large motor cruisers. A 1½-hour sunset cruise from the V&A Waterfront costs
about R170, and includes a glass of bubbly. Tigger 2 and Drumbeat
charters both run a variety of trips in the Hout Bay area, ranging from
sunset cruises to full-day crayfishing expeditions. A trip from Hout Bay to
Seal Island, in False Bay, with Drumbeat Charters costs R45 for adults, R20
for kids. The only boat trip to actually land on Robben Island is the
museum's ferry.
Tour Operators
Drumbeat
Charters (PHONE: 021/791-4441 or
021/790-4859).
Tigger 2 Charters (PHONE:
021/790-5256,
Waterfront
Boat Company (PHONE: 021/418-0134,
Bike Tour
Baz Bus tours the south Peninsula with a trailer full of bikes. You cycle
the fun parts and sit in the bus for the rest. It costs about R350.
Daytrippers specializes in bike tours but uses all sorts of modes of
transportation, from bus to boat to foot, to explore the area.
Tour Operator
Baz Bus
(PHONE: 021/439-2323,
Daytrippers
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