Driving Down to Cape Point

Every tourist that visits South Africa should make plans to drive down to Cape Point. It is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on, rivaling the Pacific Coast Highway in California for scenery. However, the drive is much shorter than driving the California Coast. You will need at least 3-4 hours if you make quick stops along the way. Leave a day for a more leisurely approach. I went with a group of travelers I met while in Cape Town but you could easily join a tour guide/bus.

Driving from Cape Town south along the east coast of the Cape Peninsula, you’ll want to make stops along the sleepy but scenic towns such as Kalk Bay/Muizenburg and enjoy some local cuisine with ocean views. We stopped by Olympia Café in Kalk Bay, which has a really nice breakfast/brunch menu and is a great way to start off the day. In Muizenberg, you can take surf lessons, but the breaks are a bit too easy for non-beginners. Then we drove down to Boulder Beach, where you can see African penguins. Funny creatures. Then there are a lot of other small towns, including Simonstown, and a naval port (I forgot what it was called).

Finally, at the tip of the Cape Peninsula, you’ll reach a park where you have to pay an entrance fee in order to get to Cape Point. The park is vast and you’ll see baboons along the way. Stay away from them, they can be a bit aggressive. There is a parking lot where all the tourists congregate to make up the trail to Cape Point, where you get views of where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. There are steep drops to the beach floor so be careful. There are many side trails and one could spend several hours exploring the area.

On the way back up, we took the western route up the Cape Peninsula. By this time the sun was setting, because we spent more time at Cape Point then originally planned. Having seafood at a restaurant at Hout Bay was the plan, but then we got lost so we had pizza at a local joint. The drive up to Cape Town on the western coast included some windy and steep roads, with really nice views. However, it was dark when we were driving so couldn’t enjoy much of it.