Things to see and do Capetown

The Slave Lodge is one of the oldest buildings in the city. Built in 1679, it housed over 9,000 slaves brought by the Dutch East India Company to serve as labour for the colony. From 1810 onwards, the building was converted to serve as a government office and later as the Supreme Court. It was first restored in 1960 to become the Museum of Cultural History and renamed Slave Lodge in 1998. Today, the collective memory attempts to highlight the heritage of slaves in Cape Town, a heritage that has long been obscured in the country's history. The focus is on the roots and ancestry of the Cape's mixed-race people. The route of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) slaves from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Mozambique is compared to the transatlantic route to the plantations in America. In an alcove, on an interactive light column, inside rotating rings, are inscribed names given to the slaves by their owners: Welcome, Fortune, September, Titus, Cupid, Solomon or Moses... For generations, these slaves, once they arrived at the Slave Lodge, were sold like ordinary goods under a fig tree located at the back of the building, now on Spin Street. Finally, a multimedia room immerses the visitor in this dark and oppressive world. To better understand their daily life, go to Groot Constantia, an agricultural estate where they were largely exploited. The temporary exhibitions are interesting.

As part of the Cape Peninsula National Park mountain range, which extends to the peninsula, Table Mountain is a must see in Cape Town. It has become one of the new Seven Wonders of the World for its beauty and incredible biodiversity. In the distance, the Drakensberg Mountains, while the city is shaped around Signal Hill and Lion's Head. To the north, Devil Peak is a peak pointing to the sky, encircled by a small cloud. To the south, the "12 Apostles" above Camps Bay are majestic, and the tip of Cape Point can be seen in the distance. Many dassies live up there. Be careful, it bites! Of course, it is forbidden to pick any flowers, light any cigarettes or feed the dassies.

Climbing it on foot (2 hours) or by cable car allows you to marvel at the spectacular view of the city and the peninsula, at an altitude of over 1,000 m. The cable car ride up is impressive.

A 15-minute walk. A shorter tour, the Dassie Walk, makes a quick trip around the cable car station. Another 30 minute tour, the Agama Walk, offers a 360° view of the Cape and the peninsula.

A 3 hour walk. A long loop around the plateau and over the highest point of Mac Lear's Beacon Mountain, at 1087m. In good weather, allow a good 3 hours to walk around the plateau, bask in the sun and have a drink in the restaurant. In summer, it's best to go up at the end of the day for the sunset (remember to book online at weekends!). Free guided tours daily at 10am and 12pm.

1 day hike. Many routes are possible from Camps Bay, Kirstenbosch and even Constantia. We advise you to start in the morning from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (entrance fee) and climb one of the two passages, Skeleton Gorge or Nursery Ravine, to reach the plateau. A route that passes two mountain lakes will take you to the cable car station (minimum 4 hours). Be aware that, all along the route, you have to climb ladders, which are very safe, but not very suitable for non-sportsmen and the fearful. There are many ways down, the most convenient being the one leading to the car park. If you are lazy about walking up and want to dedicate yourself to this walk from 11am onwards, buy a one-way ticket and do the reverse route to Kirstenborsch, this is the most classic route.

5 days/4 nights. The Hoerikwaggo trail, organised by the National Park guides, is best booked well in advance! You hike from the Cape of Good Hope in a small group to Table Mountain, passing through the "12 Apostles" mountain range and sleeping in well-equipped heavy tented camps, accompanied by a ranger.

Tips: Check the weather. Buy a detailed map of the park or use the services of a guide as the walking paths are not well marked and the mountain can be dangerous: sudden fog, crevasses... Always remain vigilant and walk in groups, not too late in the afternoon. Also be careful in winter, do not go through Skeleton Gorge because this path is the bed of a steep river with very slippery stones and frankly dangerous, prefer Nursery Ravine. Don't forget to take a little wool with you because when the weather gets cloudy, the temperature drops quickly

It takes imagination to recognize his Lionhead profile. At the top, the view is fascinating: Table Mountain in the back, overlooking downtown on one side, Camps Bay on the other, the ocean in between. A very popular hike among the locals. The most difficult part: the arrival on the summit, at 669 m. Beware of vertigo and young children, both routes are difficult. On one side, a climbing passage using an iron chain for the sportsmen, on the other, a passage through big stones on the edge of the cliff.

Pauline is an expatriate member of the Academy of the wine of Cap Town where it stands. Its slogans: personal service and quality. Specialising in the south - african wines, a guide will take you, the day time, through the spectacular winelands (vineyards). Specialised Tour with wine tasting intensive or more relaxed, with free time to explore the towns of Franschhoek, Stellenbosch or Paarl.

Since 1997, Robben Island has been on the World Heritage List. Essential for understanding the still recent history of the country, this visit is a highlight because of the solemnity of this site where hundreds of people died. The rock, located 9 km from the port of Cape Town, housed, between the 17th and 20th centuries, a prison, an asylum, a leprosarium and a military base before becoming, from 1963, a high-security prison. Most of the rebel freedom fighters, Hottentots or slaves, were actually the first political prisoners in the country!

A bus takes you around the island.The island is surrounded by a large maritime zone designed to protect the only colony of 140,000 African penguins and the 60 species of birds. The bus stops at the lime quarry, where Mandela and the other prisoners had worked hard with burnt hands and eyes. The visit continues in the heavy atmosphere of the prison halls and near the football field, the only leisure allowed. The guide, a former political prisoner, recounts the intense experience. You visit Block B, the very high security block for political prisoners, and the tiny cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison, escaping by thinking and writing. Illiterate and illiterate people were coming out educated, like the former President of the Republic, Jacob Zuma, who entered in 1963 and left ten years later. It is regrettable that the visit is taking place on the spur of the moment...

This is THE Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town. A huge building, that of the former Silo Building, a pharaonic transformation project in the industrial district of the V&A Waterfront that gave birth to the first museum of this scale in Africa. A cultural institution that, in addition to exhibitions, events, workshops and other events, contributes to the cultural and artistic scene in Cape Town and highlights contemporary art from all over Africa.

Olympic swimming pool 1918 Art deco. A huge pool, another dedicated to the Olympic diving board where athletes train, two children's pools. The sea view whose blue added to the range of the blue swimming pools. A beautiful place. Popular and lively atmosphere.

Long Street is a shopping and tourist thoroughfare and is at the heart of Cape Town's nightlife. It is also the axis that joins Green Point and Camps Bay, a reason that probably led to its development more than 300 years ago. As its name suggests, it is very long: it starts from the De Waterkant business district and then, after the intersection with Strand Street, becomes part of the popular Bo Kaap district, with its small halal grocery stores, bookstores and mosques. Finally, in its upper part, it aligns restaurants, discos and backpackers.

Over 5,000 fish, from shark to tuna, the underwater Kelp Forest, the Touch Tide Pool and the Ray Pool, for an amazing tactile experience using a system of cameras and telescopes! Visitors are literally "immersed" in the world of Nemo! Multicoloured fish, giant turtles, the enchanting marine universe, all of this is impressive to observe, with their noses glued against the large windows surrounded by water. Numerous interactive installations to raise public awareness about marine pollution and environmental preservation.

The National Art Gallery of South Africa is one of the fifteen or so Iziko museums. At the heart of this beautiful building, the permanent collection consists of paintings by South African, French, Dutch and Flemish artists, most of them from the 17th to 19th centuries. Part of the gallery, which is regularly renewed, exhibits numerous contemporary foreign works and photographs, as well as works by South African avant-garde artists.

Founded in 1825, this museum is the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa. Young and old alike will be seduced by the large marine mammals section, whose main attraction is a 20 m long blue whale skeleton, or the large dinosaur skeletons and the only stuffed quagga in the world. This species of Karoo zebra disappeared to general indifference in 1883, after the death of its last representative in an Amsterdam zoo.

The most exciting section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Bushmen. Taking note of the reservations expressed by the museum's current scientific team, you can admire the astonishing casts made in 1911. They look like living beings! That's the problem, because these casts were made by the museum's taxidermists on living individuals, supposedly representing "perfect savages".

Southern Africa is the richest region in the world in terms of rock paintings. Thousands of sites are listed, most of them inaccessible to the uninformed public. Fortunately, the authorities are gradually becoming aware of the importance of presenting and protecting this fabulous heritage. Imagine that the oldest paintings, discovered on rocks in the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia, are the work of artists who lived 27,000 years before our era, a hundred centuries before the painters of Lascaux! Constellation lovers, head to the Planetarium.