Vibrant and full of life, Central Cape Town offers visitors a wide range of attractions to experience. The area is part of South Africa’s second-largest city, just after Johannesburg, and is full of including museums, shopping and nature observation. The area is working to shed its apartheid image, without dismissing the opportunity to educate visitors on the region’s rich -- and sometimes tragic -- history.
The District 6 Museum highlights the struggle of the more than 60,000 black South Africans who were forcibly removed from this district starting in the early 20th century. The exhibitions include photos, memorabilia such as clothing and accessories, as well as video and audio narrated by the exiles. Special exhibits are sometimes available and have included sculptures, youth exhibits and even memorabilia from the city's first professional sports team, the Cape Ramblers.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute boasts this Kirstenbosch to be one of the acclaimed botanical gardens in the world. Part of a nature reserve, the garden contains more than 7,000 species of flora and fauna, some of which are endangered species.
This aquarium explores the rich marine diversity of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The predator exhibit includes sharks and predatory fish from South Africa’s south coast, and you can dive amongst them if you have a scuba license. Also not to be missed are the impressive giant kelp forests, one of only a handful of similar exhibits in the world, according to the aquarium’s site. You can also dive here for an up-close view of sea urchins and rock lobsters.
This vibrant marketplace is active day and night, with a mix of charming farm and handicraft stalls, restaurants, artist workshops and designer stores. Come at the right time and you can catch one of the many annual festivals, such as the We Love Real Beer Craft Beer Festival and the Mushroom Festival. Stroll around to see some of the historic architecture from the site’s previous life, a working biscuit mill.
Wildlife and sports enthusiasts will enjoy this outdoors site, where you can spend the day hiking, fishing, surfing, picnicking or biking in an area that's home to elands, zebra, red hartebeest and bontebok. Take a free guided tour or venture up one of the lighthouses for a bird's-eye view of the area.
Get close to cute at this beach that's home to a breeding colony of African penguins. The penguins -- more than 3,000 of them -- are best seen from Foxy Beach, according to Capetown Travel, but take care not to come into contact with them, as they can bite. When you're done observing, take a swim around the large boulders that help provide shade on the beach.
Take a ferry from Cape Town to this World Heritage Site and museum that holds the prison where Nelson Mandela served the first part of his 27-year sentence. Tour the prison and the island, which served as a place of banishment, isolation and imprisonment from the 17th to the 20th century.
