People and culture

Experience the authentic local way of life on one of the popular “people and culture” tours. There are tours available in areas such as Bo-Kaap, District Six, Langa, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Kayamandi, and Lwandle, with a variety of stops and routes to meet your needs.

There are bus, bicycle and walking tour options, with tour guides who are residents of the area and have unbeatable local knowledge.These areas are mostly located outside the city centre and many of them are informal settlements that house a large proportion of the city’s population. These tours are not intended to take visitors to “cultural villages”, but rather show a slice of life in the developing world.

Tours can include a visit to a traditional Xhosa healer called a sangoma, interaction with local traders at roadside “spaza” shops, meeting residents, eating and drinking in popular local venues, interacting with children at a crèche or local school, a look at grassroots health care and visiting sites of historical significance. Specialised cultural tours can include African drumming, Cape Town jazz, gospel singing, beading, cooking workshops and poetry and storytelling tours.

These tours offer visitors an opportunity to benefit the local community directly as they employ residents and direct customers to neighbourhood establishments. Cape Town Tourism does not support tours that exploit the local people or create a “fishbowl” or “zoo tour” effect. We are very respectful of people’s privacy and dignity.

The local communities are colourful and dramatic places within which many people face and overcome tremendous obstacles. Visitors often feel emotional after these tours, yet buoyed with a sense of hope.

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