|
|
| Home > City Guide - Cape Town - Sightseeing | ||
|
||
|
Sightseeing Sightseeing Overview There is so much to do and see in Cape Town, the first-time visitor will find it difficult just to fit everything in. Nevertheless, the city centre itself is small, compact and easy and pleasant to navigate on foot. Table Mountain watches over the proceedings, providing not only a beautiful backdrop but also a handy point of orientation, which makes getting lost quite difficult. Having said that, the city centre is deceptively facing north, rather than south, as many visitors believe. There is an amazing variety of architectural styles, including Cape Dutch, Victorian and Edwardian buildings wedged in between modern skyscrapers. The Foreshore’s V&A Waterfront is a stunning example of urban regeneration, where old-style harbour warehouses and buildings have been transformed into beautiful shopping centres, luxury hotels and a multitude of restaurants. Spreading west toward Signal Hill is the Bo-Kaap (Top Cape) area, also known as the Malay Quarter (Malay is a misnomer for Cape Muslims of Asian descent). This area was home to the freed slaves – their descendants resisted all attempts at removal by the apartheid authorities and were much more successful than the District Six inhabitants, whose homes were bulldozed, following Verwoerd’s orders for racial segregation. Offshore, north of Table Bay, lies Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela and many of the other current top political leaders of South Africa were gaoled by the apartheid regime. The outlying areas of Cape Town are also of great interest to visitors and an organised ‘township tour’, which explores the predominantly black and ‘coloured’ (mixed-race) areas of Kayalitsha, Langa and Gugulethu, is an increasingly popular item on the tourist agenda. A typical tour will include a visit to a significant site of The Struggle, lunch in a shebeen, a visit to a craft market and a stop at a self-help development project. It is inadvisable for visitors to venture into the townships without a guide, as crime levels are very high and tourists are often soft targets. To the west of the city centre and extending southernly toward Cape Point, the Atlantic Seaboard incorporates the Sea Point, Clifton, Camps Bay, Llandudno, Hout Bay, Noordhoek and Kommetjie seaside suburbs. Tacky turns to glitzy, dissolving into chic, rustic and downright wild the further from Cape Town one travels. Meanwhile, curling around the eastern side of the Table Mountain range is the Southern Suburbs, with the world-renowned Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and the Constantia and Tokai Winelands. These connect to the cosy coastal towns of False Bay’s Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek and Simon’s Town. The two sides of the peninsula meet at the windswept and breathtakingly beautiful Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve at Cape Point. Tourist Information Cape Town Tourism Visitor Information Centre Pinnacle Building, corner of Burg Street and Castle Street Tel: (021) 426 4260/7/8. Fax: (021) 426 4266. E-mail: info@cape-town.org Website: www.cape-town.org or www.gocapetown.co.za Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1700, Sat 0830-1300, Sun 0900-1300. This Visitor Information Centre was awarded the 2001 Premier’s MTN Cape Tourism Award. It offers all manner of services, including information, an Internet café, auditorium, travel clinic, art and craft shop, wine bar, restaurant and gift shop. Visitors can also book tours, accommodation and car hire at no extra cost. There is also a new Visitor Information Centre at the Clock Tower Centre on the V&A Waterfront. Other information centres are located at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, The Pavilion in Muizenberg, Sivuyile College in Gugulethu and the Tyger Valley Shopping Centre. Passes There are no tourist passes currently available in Cape Town. |
||
