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| Home > City Guide - Cape Town - Tours of the City | ||
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Tours of the City Walking Tours With its cosmopolitan buzz, street music, markets and busking acts, as well as a multitude of alfresco cafés and restaurants to take a rest in, Cape Town is a great city for strolling around. Tourcape.com (tel: (021) 696 1659; e-mail: tourcape@yahoo.com; website: www.tourcape.com) offers half-day walking tours of the city, costing R220. Tours of Cape Town’s cultural sights and a slave route, starting from the Castle of Good Hope and tracing a course from Signal Hill to Oudekraal, are also offerred. Cape Town Tourism offer ‘Cape Town on Foot’ tours, taking two and a half hours to cover the main sights of the city centre. These take place Monday to Friday at 1100 and cost R50 per person. Bus Tours Hylton Ross (tel: (021) 511 1784 or 556 0700) runs a regular open-topped double-decker bus tour, the Cape Town Explorer, which takes in all the major sights of Cape Town, with a running commentary. These two-hour tours depart from the Cape Town Tourism Visitor Information Centre on Burg Street, the V&A Visitors Centre at the V&A Waterfront and the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay. They take in Sea Point, Signal Hill, District Six and Clifton. The R60 ‘hop-on hop-off’ tickets are valid all day and allow for discounts on various attractions around the city. All-day Cape Peninsula tours and night tours are also available. Tickets can be purchased on the bus, at the Cape Town Tourism Visitor Information Centres or in advance from Computicket (tel: (083) 915 8000; e-mail: info@computicket.com; website: www.computicket.com). Cape Team Tours (tel: (083) 310 6454; fax: (021) 949 0324) offers a three-hour Township Tour incorporating District Six, a visit to a spaza (township shop), a shebeen and the open-air meat market of Nyanga. Tours cost R180. Boat Tours Waterfront Boat Company (tel: (021) 418 0134; fax: (021) 425 3816; e-mail: info@waterfrontboats.co.za; website: www.waterfrontboats.co.za) offers a range of tours, from harbour tours to excursions and champagne cruises, departing from the V&A Waterfront Quay 5. Tours take between one and three hours and cost from R25 (harbour tour) to R650 (dive and braai cruise). Hylton Ross (tel: (021) 511 1784 or 425 0200) operates a 30-minute cruise of the Waterfront on the Lady J, departing from Quay 5 and costing R25. The Waterfront Information Office (tel: (021) 408 7500 or 7600; website: www.waterfront.co.za) provides information on other tours available from the V&A Waterfront. Boat tours to see the Cape Fur Seals on Duiker Island in False Bay are operated by Drumbeat Charters (tel: (021) 438 9208 or 790 4859; fax: (021) 438 8554). All cruises, which depart from Hout Bay Harbour, cost R40. There is also a one-way trip from Hout Bay to the Waterfront. Bicycle Tours Daytrippers (tel: (021) 531 0722 or 511 4766; tel/fax: (021) 531 3274; e-mail: trippers@iafrica.com; website: www.daytrippers.co.za) organises fully catered bicycle rides for around R195-995, for anything from a day trip hiking and biking around Cape Point (R265) or exploring the Winelands (R265-285) to mountain-biking in the Constantiaberg Mountains and Tokai Forest (R285). Pick up and drop off at hotels and guesthouses is arranged. Adventure Village (tel: (021) 424 1580; fax: (021) 424 1590; e-mail: thrills@adventure-village.co.za; website: www.adventure-village.co.za) operates a similar service. Other Tours Vintage train lovers travel from all over the world for the opportunity to ride South Africa’s unique steam trains – some of the last surviving relics of early train travel left in the world. Options include one-day excursions to the Winelands, for example, the one-day excursion to Spier Wine Farm in Stellenbosch (journey time – 1 hour), which costs R75 (return), operated by Spier Vintage Train (tel: (021) 419 5222/3; e-mail: spier7@iafrica.com; website: www.spier.co.za). Alternatively, longer, fully catered guided trips of up to two weeks can be experienced and prices vary accordingly, from R75 to R10,500. Rovos Rail (tel: (021) 421 4020; fax: (021) 421 4022; website: www.rovos.co.za), operates various sightseeing trips, including Pretoria (journey time – 49 hours) and George (journey time – 27 hours along the Garden Route), as well as an annual trek halfway across Africa to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania (journey time – 13 days/287 hours). Civair (tel: (021) 419 5182; fax: (021) 419 5183; e-mail: civair@mweb.co.za; website: www.civair.co.za) offers 20-minute, 30-minute and one-hour helicopter tours, departing from the V&A Waterfront. These cost R2000, R3000 and R6000 respectively, for a four-seater helicopter. |
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