CAPE TOWN HERITAGE

The Western Cape is the country's most beautiful province with different cultural groups from many different backgrounds. It offers the visitor a unique cultural and natural heritage. It combines an easy going atmosphere with a first world infrastructure. It is a region of magnificent mountains; colourful patchworks of farmland set in lovely valleys, long beaches and further inland, the wide open land of the semi-desert Karoo and other heritage popular places. The Western Cape keeps the visitors coming because of its cultural richness, its friendliness and its hospitality.

Heritage places in the Western Cape are:

• V&A Waterfront is a harbour, historical site and a pulsating place of gathering. It offers everything from upmarket shopping malls, arts and craft markets, theaters, live music and entertainment. It is just a minute away from museums, art galleries, the Castle of Good Hope and old Bo-Kaap buildings. There are historic buildings, waterfront walks, tours, boat trips and harbour cruises, helicopter flips, seaplane rides, a working brewery and numerous restaurants. For more information on V&A Waterfront, click here
• Table Mountain National Park is situated at the south western tip of Africa.  It is part of the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage site, and encompasses the incredibly attractive peninsula mountain chain stretching from Signal Hill in the North to Cape Point in the south.
• Robben Island is about 12 km from Cape Town.  The island was a place of exile and imprisonment where oppressors sent those they regarded as troublemakers during the apartheid era. Struggle heroes like Nelson Mandela were imprisoned here for more than a quarter of a century in prison for their beliefs. In recent years, Robben Island has become a museum, acting as a focal point of South African heritage. Daily tours of about 4 hours long, including the two half-hour ferry rides are offered (weather permitting) from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town to the Island.
• South African Museum is the oldest museum in Sub-Saharan Africa. The essence of the museum is found in the great diversity of specimens exhibited. Housed in a magnificent old building to which modern facilities have been added, it showcases the natural history of South Africa, as well as the early human inhabitants of the sub-continent.
• Other areas of interest are: Boulders Penguin Colony, Cape of Good Hope, Silvermine. Signal Hill lookout, The Glen, Van Riebeeck Park, Newlands Forest, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Constantia Neck, Oudekraal, Tokai, Witsand, Soetwater, Buffels Bay, Oudekraal, Bordjiesrif, Miller Point and Perdeklloof.

Page Updated: 23 September 2011