UK +44 (0)1367 850566

USA 1-855-216-5040

Cape Town Top 5 Tours for families

Hike Wild Coast Cows on Beach.JPG

Cape Town is alive with action and adventure and now the perfect destination for families. With amazing weather for much of the year you are being spoilt for choice with so many different experiences - from malaria free safaris to villas on the beach, to funky hotels in Cape Town.

Cape Town offers the perfect family holiday! Luckily enough, I have my own extended family in Cape Town which is where I am originally from – so I take my family each year to visit their cousins and relatives. With this in mind, I am always looking for something new and interesting to show them and these are the pick of the bunch from our recent visit!

First up has to be to spend a day at the beach like a local would! But not any old day and not any old beach either! Here you can have a minivan pick you up with your private guide who is an adventurer extraordinaire. The minibus we hired was completely private and just for us. Inside was a gourmet picnic hamper for the beach (of course!), surf boards, stand up paddles, some mountain bikes and an assortment of snorkelling gear.

If you do as we did, your day will be spent trying out the very best beaches with the best conditions and serious fun is guaranteed for all! Our guide taught us to stand up paddle, free dive, body surf and kite surf, paragliding – you name it. Not having too much of a head for heights at that point some of us oldies decided to sneak off for a light lunch together, leaving our guide to keep the teenagers/children entertained!

  • African Adventures Homes (3).jpg
  • Hike Cape Town 2.jpg
  • Hike Cape Town Table Mountain Hike.jpg
  • Hike Pongola Canoe River.JPG
  • Hike Pongola Canoe.JPG
  • Hike Transkei Relaxing.JPG
  • Hike Transkei Mountainous area.JPG
  • Out There Events (1).jpg

Next up is loads more fun. Here we had more of an urban adventure day. This is perfect for the family who like us simply doesn’t want to spend the time sitting in a car. Again our guide was simply superb and helped us to start your day learning to stand up paddle in the rock pools.

Hurray - then came a treasure hunt – with our trusted guide leading us all the way! We learned a great deal more than one could imagine about Nelson Mandela en route, as well as wildlife and plant life, ending up at the Green Point biodiversity garden. Along the way and using a GPS and map, our guide shared with us the very latest news and developments about Rhino Conservation and ancient secrets from the Fynbos in the Biodiversity Garden. We even had time to get up Table Mountain in the afternoon.

This brings me nicely to what’s next on the list of top 5 things to do for families in Cape Town, which was a fabulous tour up Table Mountain. You don’t have to but we decided to stay with our private guide as this way we were able to get far more valuable insights than if we had attempted to do everything ourselves.

Much depends on your fitness levels, the mountain offers the most amazing views at every point and you can as we did have great fun on route to the top. Learning about the history of the park as well as about plants and animals was a bonus that we would have missed out on had it not been for our brilliant guide. Much fun was had by all on the way up but did we take the cable car down again – you bet we did!

We went kayaking around Boulder’s Beach where you can see the jackass penguins in the morning and then had a most excellent lunch at an amazing seafood restaurant where you sit overlooking the ocean with the waves pounding the windows. Some of the youngsters in our family group decided that they would as an alternative simply sit outside a café instead eating fish and chips. Once all of the feasting was over we all went on a boat trip to Seal Island – what a simply fantastic day!

  • WildrunÔäó Wildcoast.jpg
  • Wildcoast Wildrun Hole in the wall.jpg
  • Surfer IMG_6244 1.jpg
  • Sports and Adventures Wildrun Lesotho.jpg
  • Sports and Adventures Triathlon Robben Island.jpg
  • Private Cape Adventures Hiking (3)1.jpg
  • Private Cape Adventures Family Mountain biking.jpg
  • African Adventures Homes (2).jpg
  • Out There Events (8).jpg

A morning with Uthando in the Kayellisha Township was followed by a visit to the aquarium and then onto an outdoor urban art tour of graffiti art in Woodstock. This was such fun and the area is one of huge contrasts. Our private tour was conducted by a local artist who explores and defines this culture.

Uthando is a charity so close to our hearts and the work done is so totally positive so I would say that you should not lose the opportunity of making a visit to experience this for yourself while there.

Started by the philanthropist James Fearnie, you are taken on a private or scheduled tour which covers some of the 43 projects they support in the Kayellisha Township. It is an uplifting and educational experience – perhaps watching underprivileged children at a dance workshop – where they are learning all forms of dance and which gives them a career for the future – opening doors for them!

You can see a vegetable garden project where the people from the neighborhood are given seeds and taught how to sow them and become self-sufficient, or visit a women’s beading centre and a number of other projects, involving tuition in IT, etc.

It’s all about promoting and educating the local community, empowering them to have a better and brighter future. I would go as far as saying that anyone visiting this amazing country should take this tour as it gives a crucial understanding to the country you are visiting.

There are so many other truly wonderful things to do in and around Cape Town, like horse riding on the beach or in the wine lands, to a private cycling tour of the Cape Peninsula, to mountain biking, to taking yogaclasses, to hiking in the Cape Peninsula National Park or Cape Point Nature Reserve.

There is also kite surfing to yachting, kayaking and cookery classes, etc. All these things can be done in Cape Town – where you can easily spend a week or more and perhaps base yourself at a private villa which gives you complete flexibility during the day.

logo