Day 28: The Backpack & Cape Town Excursions
October 2nd, 2012
Since Cape Town is a big tourist area and for majority of you who are following this blog and tempted to come to SA now, there’s no debate about it… You WILL visit Cape Town. If your not planning on it from the get go, all the tourists will change your mind!
With that being said, it’s probably easiest for us to write down what everyone has recommended we take part in while backpacking through Cape Town and tell you what to believe and what to avoid.
From hundreds of other excursions, we have picked out a few that seem to be popular amongst all tourists to take part in:
The Official List of Cape Town Excursions:
- Table Mountain
- Lion’s Head
- Cape Peninsula Tour to Cape Point
- Robben Island
- Wine Flies Wine Tours
- Township Tour
- Visiting the GCU Academy
- Sunset Champagne Cruises
So far, we have hiked Table Mountain and taken part in the Township Tour, so we’ll give you a brief synopsis of our day!
Waking up around 8am, eating a fantastic breakfast at The Backpack and heading to Table Mountain by taxi was the way we started our morning today!
Since the hike is a little strenuous (for some) we went with a few girls who we met at The Backpack whom are all from Ireland. The hike itself was absolutely gorgeous, quite a rocky climb but I think anyone can do the hike, anyone! As long as you are pacing yourself.
There is no guide so you can take all the time you want. Typically it takes between 1 – 2.5 hours to climb, we got to the top in 1.5 hours, had lunch at the top and then took the cable car down.
This oh so famous cable car that they recommend tourists to take to the top of Table Mountain …. We wouldn’t suggest. It was PACKED with tourists and was close to a 5 minutes ride for R200 versus hiking for free and seeing the beautiful scenery you miss by taking the cable car.
Table Mountain = a must see! But make sure it’s a beautiful day out and HIKE it if you can rather than taking the tourist route up the cable car. Even though climbing Table Mountain takes a little bit of energy out of you for the day,
We couldn’t miss out on the Township Tour with Chippa courtesy of The Backpack.
Township Tour= A MUST SEE! After blogging about a couple of other village tours, one would think it gets a little redundant… Not this one, not with Chippa! Township Tours who takes you to the District 6 Museum to give you a better understanding about the history behind Cape Town before taking you to the villages in Langa.
Instead of focusing on the negatives of poverty, Township Tours takes pride in the Langa community, showing you their homes, shebeens, and community projects. You are not hassled for money nor persuaded into something you do not want to do, this community and the tours welcome you with smiling faces and kids everywhere ready to preform their traditional dance with the Happy Feet Youth Project.
This tour was absolutely incredible and we would do it again in a heartbeat. This is something you could take part in more than once for sure, with the huge Langa community and so many different community members to meet, each experience is different and still carries so much value and fun!
For tonight, geese … We don’t know! Probably another visit down to Long Street or a casual night at The Backpack bar? For now, we’ll call it a night and have some Cape Town fun while we are here!
The Official List of Cape Town Excursions:
> Table Mountain = complete!
> Lion’s Head
> Cape Peninsula Tour to Cape Point
> Robben Island
> Wine Flies Wine Tours
> Township Tour = complete!
> Visiting the GCU Academy
