Culture and heritage

Adderley Street flower sellers

Freshly cut flowers – including fynbos species such as king and pincushion proteas, depending on the season – are available from the friendly flower sellers in Adderley Street, where this trade has operated for the past 100 years. These flowers are generally a lot cheaper than anywhere else. Read more.

African experience – eat, drink, dance and drum

Eat, drink, dance and drum African style in Cape Town. Read more.

Air Force Museum

Take an imaginary flight with the aviators of yesteryear with a visit to the South African Air Force Museum at Ysterplaat, where the winged wonders of a bygone era have been preserved for posterity. Read more.

Amy Biehl Memorial

Amy Biehl was a young American Fulbright Scholarship exchange student who studied at the University of the Western Cape in 1993. Read more.

Art galleries in Cape Town

More than 100 art galleries – as diverse as the colours daubed on an artist’s palette – await discovery in and around Cape Town. Read more.

Battle of Blaauwberg

Relive a piece of South African history, push yourself to the extreme and dine on gourmet food at the scene of the Battle of Blauuwberg (now known as “Bloubergstrand” or simply “Blouberg”). Read more.

Bo-Kaap and De Waterkant

Known for its brightly coloured houses and situated at the foot of Signal Hill, Bo-Kaap is the spiritual home of the Cape’s Muslim community. Read more.

Cafda & Stables Craft and Culture Centre

The Cape Flats Development Association (Cafda) is a non-profit child and family-oriented organisation that provides numerous services to disadvantaged communities living on the Cape Flats. Read more.

Cape Minstrel Carnival

The Cape Minstrel Carnival is Cape Town’s longest-running street party, tracing back to old slave traditions during the days of the Cape Colony. Read more.

Cape Town shipwrecks

From the days when Portuguese explorers rounded the Cape in their wooden galleons to modern-day shipping, the aptly named “Cape of Storms” has claimed many a vessel. Read more.

Castle Military Museum

The Castle Military Museum is housed in the oldest building in South Africa, the Castle of Good Hope, which was declared a national monument in 1936.

The Castle Military Museum is a tribute to the brave regiments of the past, providing an insight into the political history of the country and celebrating the rich military history of the Cape. Then Minister of Defence Joe Modise officially opened the Castle Military Museum on August 1, 1995. Read more.

Church Square and the Slave Lodge

Church Square and Slave Lodge, at the top corner of Adderley Street, bear witness to the turbulent past of the Cape of Good Hope. Read more.

City Hall and Grand Parade

Cape Town’s City Hall was built in 1905 in Italian Renaissance style, and is one of the last Victorian-style sandstone structures in the Mother City. Despite showing its age, Cape Town’s iconic City Hall continues to be sought out by urban explorers. Read more.

City Walks

Cape Town is a wonderful city to enjoy on foot, so make time to walk the streets to discover the Mother City’s culture and history. Read more.

Company’s Garden

Spend some time exploring the Company’s Garden. Access to the public park, which contains a rose garden, Japanese garden, fish pond, aviary and tea garden, is free. Read more.

Creative Cape Town

Breathe in the heady scent of flowers, soak up some live music, eyeball the best designers’ work and buy some art in Cape Town. Read more.

District Six Museum

The District Six Museum revives the history of a vibrant community that was forcibly removed to the city’s periphery during apartheid. Read more.

Fish Hoek Man

There are some very old residents in Cape Town’s coastal village, Fish Hoek, which lies in a valley on the False Bay side of the Cape Peninsula. There’s one particular resident who’s been around for the past 12 000 years! Read more.

Gugulethu

Gugulethu is a colourful combination of vibrant life and a local example of the problems associated with poverty, making a visit to the township unforgettable. Read more.

Heart of Cape Town Museum

The Heart of Cape Town Museum honours those who played a major role in one of the greatest moments in medical history – the world’s first heart transplant. Read more.

Het Posthuys and Rhodes Cottage Museum – Muizenberg

The “historical mile”, set along Muizenberg’s Main Road, includes the Het Posthuys Museum and Rhodes Cottage. Read more.

Historic buildings and architecture in Cape Town

As the oldest city in South Africa, Cape Town boasts a number of historical buildings, many of which are still in use today and open to visitors. The city’s architecture is a testament to the many varying influences in South Africa’s unique history. Read more.

Iziko Museums

The Iziko Museums of Cape Town are an amalgamation of national museums located near the city centre, along what has been dubbed the “Museum Mile”.

Iziko is an isiXhosa word meaning “a hearth” – the traditional centre of the home where families would get together to share oral histories. The Iziko Museums continue in this vein, with 12 museums across three spheres – natural history, social history and arts – coming together to share and celebrate Cape Town’s and South Africa’s heritage. Read more.

Iziko Planetarium

The Iziko Planetarium housed in the South African Museum building in Cape Town, is one of only two planetaria in South Africa. Read more.

Iziko South African Museum

The Iziko South African Museum, founded in 1825 and situated in the Company’s Garden, takes care of more than 1.5-million items of cultural and scientific significance. Read more.

Josephine Mill

Boundary Road in the suburb of Newlands is where Cape Town’s only surviving water mill can be found. Read more.

Khayelitsha Township Tour

Take a township tour to Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats. See the view from Look-Out Hill, buy crafts and eat at an African restaurant. Read more.

Langa

Get a taste of township life by visiting Langa near Pinelands. Eat, sleep, shop and party in Cape Town’s oldest township. Read more.

Lighthouses of Cape Town

If pharology (the study of lighthouses) brings a twinkle to your eye, there are 10 places along the Cape coast where you’ll find them. The precursors to today’s modern automated lighthouses were large fires set on the water’s edge to warn sailors that they were approaching land. The Egyptians were the first to build lighthouses. Read more.

Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum

The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum pays tribute to the thousands of migrant labourers who suffered under the apartheid system./> Read more.

Mamre Moravian Mission Station

Mamre was founded in the 16th century when the governor of the Cape, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, established a military and cattle post in the region, to prevent settlers’ cattle being stolen by the local KhoiKhoi. Read more.

Parliament Buildings

The historic Houses of Parliament are found at the top of the Company’s Garden in central Cape Town. Read more.

Places of worship

South Africa endorses freedom of religion in its constitution, so mainstream religions are well represented by places of worship throughout the country and Cape Town is no exception. Read more.

Rhodes Memorial

The imposing Rhodes Memorial, which sits at the foot of Devil’s Peak in the Table Mountain National Park, offers visitors spectacular views towards the Hottentots Holland mountains. Read more.

Robben Island

Once “home” to some of South Africa’s most famous political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, Robben Island is one of South Africa’s most visited tourist attractions, and rightly so. Read more.

Rust-en-Vrede Gallery

The artworks of established and emerging artists jostle for visitors’ attention at Cape Town’s Rust-en-Vrede Art Gallery in Durbanville. Read more.

Sheikh Yusuf Kramat

For the Muslim population the Sheikh Yusuf Kramat in Faure is one of the most important spiritual shrines in the country. Read more.

South African Jewish Museum

It took four years, from planning to construction, before the South African Jewish Museum was officially opened by Nelson Mandela in December 2000. Read more.

South African National Art Gallery

The South African National Art Gallery, in the Company’s Garden, forms part of Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Read more.

South African Rugby Museum

Cape Town sport enthusiasts are lucky enough to live in the city that is home to the South African Rugby Museum. Located just a drop kick away from the Newlands Rugby Stadium in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, home of the Stormers, the South African Rugby Museum is a full of tokens, collector’s items, memorabilia and history of one of the country’s most watched sports. Read more.

St George’s Cathedral and Groote Kerk

More fondly known as “the people’s cathedral”, St George’s Cathedral in Wale Street represents the Anglican diocese mother church in Cape Town. Read more.

The Castle of Good Hope

The Castle of Good Hope – the oldest building in South Africa – was once a fort, but today functions as a showcase of the Cape’s early days. Read more.

The Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service

The Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service, which aims to “foster a national identity and the protection of rights”, is located at 72 Roeland Street in Cape Town. Read more.

University of Cape Town

Take in the stunning architecture that typifies South Africa’s oldest university. Read more.

University of the Western Cape

Over the past 50 years, the University of the Western Cape has been in the vanguard of South Africa’s historic change, playing an academic role in building an equitable and dynamic nation. Read more.

Voluntourism

Enjoy all the attractions of Cape Town, while helping local communities by building houses, knitting blankets, playing soccer or just listening to a child read. Read more.

William Fehr Collection housed in Rust en Vreugd

William Fehr (1892-1968) was a private art collector whose paintings, furniture and other objets d’art are housed in two of Cape Town’s most historic buildings, the Castle of Good Hope and Rust en Vreugd. Read more.