Touring Cape Town: The World’s Most Adventurous City

Cape Town is a city like few others as the cityscape is not dominated by skyscrapers but by vertical mountains. Two different oceans curl around its coastal suburbs as forests rise above colorful neighborhoods and every view is backdropped by the drama of nature. Cape Town is a city with a mountain, two oceans, dozens of beaches, hundreds of hiking trails, and countless ways to raise your heart rate. Just landing at Cape Town International Airport is enough to give you goosebumps as your plane swoops over the ocean before descending past the peaks of the mountain chain.

You will be greeted at the airport by your private driver, and for the next nine days, this driver is at your disposal to take you to your different activities but also for journeys across the city, whether that’s to restaurants, cultural attractions, or any of the funky neighborhoods dotted about Cape Town. On your transfer to your hotel, you will enjoy pristine views of Table Mountain, and then from your suite in the five-star Cape Royale, you will enjoy glorious ocean vistas. Located in Green Point, your hotel is within easy reach of the city’s diverse attractions. You are less than ten minutes away from white-sand beaches, five minutes from the center of the city, and just a short walk from the charms of the V & A Waterfront. Green Point is a trendy upmarket neighborhood that also has its own distinctive array of bays and restaurants. After you arrive and settle in, the day is at your leisure and your driver can make dinner reservations if required.

One glimpse of Table Mountain and you will be itching to climb its stark vertical face. There is something captivating and compelling about its grandeur, inviting anyone with an adventurous spirit to start climbing. You will have a few hiking options this morning as the shortest route is also the most challenging, a steep 90-minute climb the northern face. Routes are also challenging from the west, with scrambles and remote trails rewarded by excellent views over the coastline. It’s an easier, but longer, hike from the southern side with a gentle trail that is perfect for taking in the majesty of the whole mountain chain. Your guide will explain your options as all three will suit a different mood.

Get to the top to admire the views of the city nestled between mountain and ocean. Gaze down to the tip of Africa and then back up to the sand dunes that dapple the northern coast. You will not be walking back down the mountain as instead you will strap on a harness and jump off the edge. This is one of the world’s longest and highest commercial abseils, and you will step down the precipitous face. Lean back, take in the views, and trust the rope as you abseil off Table Mountain. It is exhilarating as you reach the overhang. Controlling the speed with your hands, you will literally drop into an abyss above the city with a near 40-meter descent through the air. Your guides are excellent and are always in full control, and after the abseil, you will need to walk back up to the summit to take the cable car back down.

The occupants of Shark Alley are the ones you would expect. Sharks swims past with their razored teeth on show as others emerge from the depths to rocket towards the surface and jumping clear of the water. Others hang around, and you can make out the different scars across their faces. Soon you will lose count as up to a dozen great white sharks fill the ocean around the boat. Great white sharks are inspiring when seen from the deck, but you will be in the water with them to admire the ocean’s greatest predator from a cage.

The sharks will not need to be baited as they are here for seals. A huge colony crosses the alley on a daily basis to swim past to reach their own hunting ground, so the great whites lie in wait. Note that they are curious animals, so expect a few to barge past the cage. No diving experience is required as you do not actually dive as instead the guides shout out where the sharks are approaching from, and you will dip your head into the water to check out their immense beauty. Great white shark cage diving is done from the fishing village of Gansbaai, around 90 minutes from Cape Town. You will return to land around lunchtime and can visit the nearby town of Hermanus, where a cliffside hiking trail often brings sightings of migratory whales.

Skydiving is not unique to Cape Town, and there are many places in the world where you can jump from a plane, but few have a landing zone like this one. Dropping from 11,000 feet, you can free-fall for 30 seconds before the parachute opens to give you time to appreciate the incredible view. Beneath you is brilliant white sand that runs for hundreds of miles up the coast. Before your eyes is Table Bay, where crashing frothy waves pile up beneath the panorama of Table Mountain and its sister peaks. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the tip of Africa as your heart thumps from the free-fall and the goosebumps of skydiving coat your arms.

Due to the wind, skydiving is normally done in the morning, which leaves your afternoon free. Your driver will be available to take you around, and there are many options. Explore Woodstock and Observatory, grey areas where people could mix freely during apartheid. They are the city’s funky bohemian districts and are packed with breweries, art galleries, and shopping boutiques built into converted industrial buildings. Luxurious Camps Bay and Clifton are home to white beaches and upmarket seafood restaurants. Bree Street has a fantastic collection of cafes and terraces, while Constantia has a trail through nine vineyards that offer tasting sessions. Your driver is also a qualified guide and will offer tailored recommendations based on your mood, whether that’s a place to taste craft beer or getting a reservation for one of the world’s top 20 restaurants.

Muizenberg’s break is so legendary it’s in the record books. Over 100 people once surfed the same wave here as they spread out for two miles, such is the length of the break. These perfect curls are ideal for beginners and are where most Cape Town surfers started out. Almost everyone stands on their first lesson with the foam boards, and by the afternoon they are riding waves on proper long boards. You will spend the day at the Muizenberg beach to take two private surfing lessons. On the way back to Cape Town you will stop in nearby Simon’s Town where a colony of jackass penguins are waddling across the beach. Timing your arrival perfectly, your guide will have you on the beach just as the penguins are coming home from their afternoon of fishing so dozens of the little creatures just a few steps away.

A dramatic mountain road clings to the edge of Africa, carved into the Table Mountain chain and rising above the blue of the ocean. Traversing mountain passes and rolling through the old fishing villages, you will pass empty beaches and then cross open valleys. Your decision will be on how to travel as one option is a luxury mountain bike tour with a vehicle to allow you cycle only on the most enchanting parts of the route. The other option is a vintage WWII sidecar, a roaring little vessel that comes complete with WWII goggles and a sense of traveling in a different era.

Both options offer a similar highlight with the chance to ride to the tip of Africa with the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. As the road winds south, it will follow the ancient spine of mountains until the Indian Ocean is on one side and the Atlantic is on the other. A lighthouse marks the end of the continent, and you will disembark to find that there is another lighthouse. Your final half a kilometer is initially hidden as you venture down a rugged and narrow trail that will take you to the end of Africa. Walk down and look out from the second lighthouse as the next landmass south is Antarctica, and the next one to the west is South America. This trip to Cape Point is a full-day private tour and includes a lavish seafood lunch on route.

After yesterday’s adventure, you will appreciate that Table Mountain is not just a single vertical rock face as it is a whole chain that is packed with surprise. On a private canyoning adventure, you will explore the valleys that few people ever visit. Begin at the top of the river and work down, abseiling down a couple of gushing waterfalls and cliff jumping into quiet pools. Whitewater has created polished rock, turning it into curving water slides that spit you out into tiny lagoons. You will enjoy a full-day tour, and there are sections when you are hardly able to catch your breath yet for all of the adrenalin, there are moments of calm as you scramble to hidden caves with mystical views over the city.

Your final day of adventure will be fairly relaxed. Begin your day as you paraglide off Lion’s Head, the sister peak to Table Mountain. With 30 minutes in the air, you will cruise around the city’s sights by air to admire how the mountain peaks cast morning shadows over the coastal suburbs. Later in the afternoon, you will paddle out in a kayak with the option to go beyond the waves or get a lesson in how to surf the break. Then you are back to the Cape Royale, where your day will end in the garden bar that occupies the top floor of this five-star hotel. Elegant and exclusive, this is a bar that will bring you back down to earth after the adventures of the day.

After a morning at leisure, you will be transferred to the airport for your departure flight. There will have been a lot of adrenalin used up over the last week, so the morning is likely to involve lounging on the top floor of the hotel and feeling the serenity of the ocean.