Table Mountain National Park

Overview: 

The icon of South Africa, the famous flat top Table Moun­tain pro­vides the majes­tic back drop to the bustling Cape Town City and is the jew­el of the breath-tak­ing Cape Penin­su­la which along with a series of sparkling beach­es, breath-tak­ing moun­tains, the gor­geous Cape Point beau­ty spot and some of the best Marine Life on the plan­et makes up one of the great­est Nat­ur­al Won­ders on the Plan­et; the stun­ning Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park. 

Believed to be one of the old­est moun­tains in the world – formed some 300 mil­lion years ago – and sur­round­ed by rock for­ma­tion that pre-date that, Table Moun­tain gets its unique sig­na­ture flat top as a result of the flat­ten­ing of sand­stone dur­ing an ice age – and is today sub­mit­table by one of four chal­leng­ing but reward­ing hike – or by the famous cable car – as explor­ers who ven­ture to the top are treat­ed to stun­ning 360 panoram­ic views of the beau­ty of the lush green nation­al park below flanked on either side by the South Atlantic and Indi­an oceans. 

Home as well to some of the most engaged plant species and flow­ers on the Plan­et – more than 70% of which are known to blos­som only with­in the Nation­al Park, the park  is also home to a series of rare ani­mals – includ­ing Zebra’s, Baboons, hump­back whales and the endan­gered but adorable African Pen­guins – who can be seen each night at dusk wad­dling along the shore­line of the sparkling Boul­ders beach.  

Stretch­ing from the north of Cape Town along the Cape Penin­su­la towards the South of Africa, the 22,000 acres of lush green val­leys, sparkling beach­es, incred­i­ble forestry and rare life that make up Table Moun­tain Nation­al park – com­bined of course with the incred­i­ble Lions Head and the awe-inspir­ing views from atop the icon of Table Moun­tain – come togeth­er to make this stun­ning Nation­al Park not just one of the most beau­ti­ful spots on the plan­et, but a true Jew­el of Africa and one of the most stun­ning won­ders of the world.  

Where:

Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park is eas­i­ly accessed from one of the three cap­i­tal cities of South Africa – Cape Town. With this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­der of the world stretch­ing from the north of the city all along the Cape Penin­su­la towards the south of the beau­ti­ful con­ti­nent of Africa.  

Getting there:

With the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park being eas­i­ly accessed from Cape Town – the eas­i­est route is to sim­ply fly into the Cape Town Inter­na­tion­al Air­port inter­na­tion­al­ly — or get a bus there if already stay­ing in South Africa – and then make your way to the cen­tre of Cape Town from the air­port – either by Taxi, coach or by self-dri­ving.  

Once in down­town cape town you’ll be able to see the full beau­ty of Table Moun­tain tow­er­ing over the city pro­vid­ing a stun­ning back­drop – and the icon­ic won­der and sym­bol of South Africa is then eas­i­ly reached either by taxi or by self-dri­ving – being just 15 min­utes away, by hop-on-hop bus­es – which will take 30 mins to get there or by sim­ply walk­ing with the esti­mat­ed hike from down­town Cape Town to the sum­mit of Cape Moun­tain tak­ing 2 hours.  

Once inside the park you have the option to take a cable car to the top, self-dri­ve around it and get a bus to some of the hotspots – although we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing advan­tage of  some of the hun­dreds of miles of hik­ing routes to explore not just Table Moun­tain, but also the stun­ning Lions Head, the beau­ti­ful Cape Point and get a chance to watch the amaz­ing African Pen­guins wad­dle along the beau­ty of Boul­der beach – for a tru­ly incred­i­ble way to expe­ri­ence the beau­ty of this true won­der of the world.  

Best time to Visit:  

While vis­it able all year round, the sum­mer months between Novem­ber and Feb­ru­ary is unques­tion­ably the best time to vis­it – with these months giv­ing you guar­an­teed sun­shine, Pen­guin and Whale Watch­ing Sight­ings and giv­ing you a chance to glimpse the famous African Sun­rise and Sun­sets in all their beau­ty.  

While these sum­mer months also attract the most amount of tourists – and will mean you’ll have to book the Cable Car well in advance – if you take on the Nation­al Park and the Table Moun­tain sum­mit between March – Octo­ber you may have less crowds but you run a high risk of being caught in a rain show­er – which can real­ly put a damp­n­er on your vis­it ! 

So we’d advise vis­it­ing the park between Novem­ber – March – and tim­ing your vis­it for an ear­ly morn­ing sun­rise hike up Lions head – then an evening ascent up Table Moun­tain to expe­ri­ence not only the absolute the stun­ning sun­rise light­ing up Table Moun­tain and Cape town in the morn­ing but the incred­i­ble panoram­ic views of the nation­al Park from the sum­mit at sun­set – which will also mean you’ll avoid the full heat of the African sun when mak­ing the climbs.  

Explore:

From stun­ning hikes, adven­ture activ­i­ties and even Pen­guin spot­ting, Mount Table Nation­al Park is an oasis of stun­ning African scenery, fau­na and wildlife and there’s tru­ly some­thing for every­thing in this unique nat­ur­al won­der.

While the park stretch­es more than 22,000 hectares and com­bines the famous and icon­ic Table moun­tain with the majes­tic views of the Cape of Goof Hope there’s also a range of beau­ti­ful beach­es, fas­ci­nat­ing fau­na and awe-inspir­ing obser­va­tion points to explore, with the below being our top picks to explore in the won­der that is Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park: 

Table Mountain 

Start­ing off with the icon of South Africa, the famous Table Moun­tain tow­ers 3,563 foot above the beau­ti­ful city of Cape Town, with the sum­mit of this flat-topped moun­tain eas­i­ly reach­able by cable car or through a series of hikes as you jour­ney up and into the heav­ens of this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al mon­u­ment.  

View­able from all areas of cape town, as well as from the stun­ning Cape Point, Table Moun­tain sits with the glim­mer­ing beau­ty of both the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indi­an Ocean view­able from its sum­mit with the almost 3‑kilometre flat top not only giv­ing you views of Cape Town, but also the Devil’s Peak and the Lions head – two unique won­ders of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park in their own right, as well as stun­ning views of the lush green moun­tains and val­leys of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park, the sparkling oceans and also being home to a series of over 3,500 unique and native flow­ers and plant life. 

The sum­mit is also a great place to watch either the sun­rise or sun­set on a clear day, as you get to see the bustling city of Cape Town and the won­der and beau­ty of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park light up from a series of sky­walk view­ing decks that tow­er over the edge of the moun­tains edge giv­ing you some tru­ly spe­cial views and an awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence from the most icon­ic land­mark of South Africa. 

The Table Mountain Aerial Cable Car 

A unique expe­ri­ence in its own right, the Table Moun­tain Aer­i­al Cable Car hov­ers over the Table Moun­tain nation­al park tak­ing explor­ers from the ground low­er cable sta­tion on the famous Tafel­berg Road at the base of Cape Town all the way to the base of the Sum­mit – on a stun­ning jour­ney that lets you take in not only the stun­ning scenery of the Nation­al Park and its many sights, but on a clear day let­ting you glimpse as far as the edge of Cape Town and to the sto­ried Robben Island.  

An incred­i­bly pop­u­lar expe­ri­ence – espe­cial­ly dur­ing the sum­mer months – book­ing in advance online is essen­tial to get the best Cable Car expe­ri­ence as more than a mil­lion peo­ple jour­ney on it every year, and after the 5 minute trip you’ll find your­self at a spe­cial­ly con­struct­ed upper cable sum­mit fea­tur­ing restau­rants with incred­i­ble views, a sky lodge and a series of trail heads that let you take on the trek to the sum­mit of Table Moun­tain – with the cable car being a favoured way to ascend or descend the moun­tain after tak­ing on one of the treks through the Nation­al Park to the sum­mit of Table Moun­tain.  

Lion’s Head & Sig­nal Hill 

Along­side Table Moun­tain you’ll find a series of oth­er stun­ning peaks with­in the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park – with the most unique and beau­ti­ful of these being the Lion’s head sum­mit – so named as it resem­bles a Lions head – with the Sig­nal hill that leads to the sum­mit rep­re­sent­ing the Lion’s Body.  

A great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty as the moun­tain resem­bles per­haps the most famous of the African Big 5, Lion’s head is also hike able and like Table Moun­tain offers incred­i­ble views of the beau­ty of the Nation­al Park, with the sparkling beach­es and beau­ti­ful oceans below being par­tic­u­lar­ly awe-inspir­ing from its sum­mit. 

The trek up the moun­tain itself is also a fun one – with their being a series of wood­en con­struct­ed lad­ders and rick­ety chains that each explor­er must take on in order to get to the sum­mit, with the pop­u­lar Lion’s head trail lead­ing you to stun­ning 360 views of not only Table Moun­tain but also the whole nation­al park and Cape Town Below you.  

Beaches 

Along­side the famous Moun­tains, Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park is also home to some of the best of Africa’s Beach’s with the crys­tal clear white sand and sparkling clear waters being a great place to take on surf­ing, scu­ba div­ing or to sim­ply kick back and admire the beau­ty of the nation­al park while top­ping up your tan.  

While the beach­es with­in the park are many and flow down the south Atlantic cost, includ­ing the pop­u­lar spots of Clifton and the real Llan­dud­no, you’ll also find more qui­eter and pris­tine beach­es – such as Scar­bor­ough and Kom­metjie – our per­son­al favourite is the stun­ning beach of Boul­ders Beach.  

Boul­der Beach & Pen­guins — Set against the back­drop of the stun­ning Nation­al Park, Boul­ders Beach is per­haps the most beau­ti­ful of all of South Africa’s beach­es, with the beach fea­tur­ing a series of sand dunes, a stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful and roman­tic coast­line – and being the view­ing spot of the famous African Pen­guins that call this beau­ti­ful Beach home. 

One of the warmest and nicest places to see the endan­gered African Pen­guins in the wild, Boul­der Beach offers shel­tered dunes that the Pen­guins call home and explores are able to gath­er at sun­set to wit­ness the famous march of the pen­guins, where hun­dreds of pen­guins wad­dle their way in from the sea after a hard days fish­ing for a unique chance to wit­ness these majes­tic ani­mals in the wild.  

Cape Point (Cape of Good Hope) — Found at the south of the park at the edge of the Penin­su­la Cape, the great Cape Point reserve is a wildlife and nature lovers par­adise, being home to thou­sands of species of rare flow­ers and plants as well as being the pre­mier spot for bird watch­ing – with hun­dreds of species of birds in the reserve and mam­mal watch­ing – with their being known flocks of Zebra’s and rare mon­keys with­in the park – and the cape penin­su­la being an amaz­ing spot to spend an after­noon perched on the park spot­ting whales – who fre­quent­ly breach of the points coast.  

Along­side the ani­mals Cape Point is also home to thou­sands of species of rare flow­ers and plants, that pro­vide a stun­ning kalei­do­scop­ic assort­ment of colours of lush val­leys that offer incred­i­ble nat­ur­al views from some of the many obser­va­tion tow­ers or view­ing points at the entrance of Cape Point.  

Although the com­mon belief that Cape Point is the south­ern tip of Africa is unfor­tu­nate­ly false (it’s actu­al­ly Cape Agul­has fur­ther south) Cape Point is the high­est spot in the whole of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park and fea­tures incred­i­ble views of both the two bor­der­ing oceans – who some­times meet – and the stun­ning scenery of the park – with the pre­mier spot for view­ing the beau­ty of the park being from the famous Cape Point Light­house – which sits on the hill known as the Fly­ing Dutch­man – the true stuff of leg­end (thanks in large to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) – where a ship once sunk leav­ing its crew of undead pirates to live for ever in tor­ment with­out ever mak­ing shore.  

A true beau­ty spot and one of the best in the whole of the park, we’d real­ly rec­om­mend mak­ing some time to vis­it the reserve and ani­mal spot­ting – with an after­noon pick­ing which watch­ing whales breach off the coast a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

Cape Flo­ral King­dom & Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens 

Along­side the stun­ning Plants and Flow­ers of Cape Point, Table Nation­al Park is home to the rich­est of the six flo­ral king­doms in the world – with the incred­i­ble Cape Flo­ral King­dom and Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens being home to some of the must unique and stun­ning Flo­ra on the plan­et.  

With more than 75% of the plant and Fau­na life in the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park being unique to the Nation­al Park, you’ve got a unique chance to see some of the rarest plant life in the world – with the famous Fyn­bos which turns a unique shade of Orange when blos­som­ing cre­at­ing a fire effect across the park for some absolute­ly stun­ning scenery.  

Along­side this the Kirsten­bosch Nation­al Botan­i­cal Gar­dens are also filled with stun­ning and beau­ti­ful plant species – as well as a series of unique ani­mal life, you’ll find the Kirsten­bosch Nation­al Botan­i­cal Gar­dens dou­bles up on the week­ends as a place of con­certs – giv­ing you a chance to enjoy some of the best music on the plan­et in an incred­i­ble serene and beau­ti­ful set­ting – for a tru­ly mag­i­cal week­end expe­ri­ence.  

Adrenaline Activities: 

Along­side the many hikes at the Nation­al Park (dis­cussed in depth below) there’s also numer­ous activ­i­ties for adren­a­line seek­ers on offer through­out table nation­al park – includ­ing Rock Climb­ing up the side of the Moun­tain, abseil­ing off it, sky­div­ing over it and our favourite — Scu­ba Div­ing in the clear sparkling waters of the South Atlantic Ocean.  

While the waters of Cape Town are known as a Great White Shark hotspot – the waters close to the beach are calm and safe and offer some stun­ning div­ing site spots in the Marine Pro­tect­ed Area – with their being a series of spe­cial­ly and nat­u­ral­ly sunk ship­wrecks and an incred­i­ble spot off False Bay that all attract a series of incred­i­ble marine life and rare crus­tacean species – for a mag­i­cal under­wa­ter expe­ri­ence with­in the won­der of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

High Tea at the Sky Lodge 

Final­ly for a relax­ing and tra­di­tion­al expe­ri­ence, we’d advise mak­ing some time for some high tea – quite lit­er­al­ly — as you cap off the end of explor­ing the Table Moun­tain hike in the upper cable sum­mit wait­ing for the cable car back down to Cape Town.  

Sit­u­at­ed at a height of over 3,000 feet, the posh Table Moun­tain Sky Lodge offers stun­ning panoram­ic views of Cape Town below and the peaks of Lion Moun­tain and Table Moun­tain and offers a range of tra­di­tion­al African Tea as well as the favourites – as you sip on a well earned cup­pa wait­ing for the car back down to the bustling city – with a trip to the Sky Lodge and its stun­ning views being an incred­i­ble way to cap off a mag­i­cal day vis­it­ing the won­der of the world that is the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

Hiking: 

While view­ing the beau­ty of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park from the cable car and from the stun­ning obser­va­tion points at Bound­ary Beach and Cape Point are tru­ly spe­cial – the best way in our view to explore the beau­ty of the park and the icon­ic Table Moun­tain or the Lions Head is to take on one of the many avail­able treks over thou­sands of miles across the beau­ti­ful and stun­ning ter­rain that make up the nat­ur­al won­der of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

While there are numer­ous trails avail­able across the park, a trek up to the sum­mit of up Table Moun­tain or Lions Head will not only give you stun­ning panoram­ic 360 views of the beau­ty of cape town, the South Atlantic and Indi­an Ocean (where Whale sight­ings are fre­quent) and the lush val­leys of the Nation­al Park below you – but will also give you an adven­tur­ous and some­times chal­leng­ing trek to the sum­mit.  

For this rea­son we strong­ly advise to make sure you come pre­pared with the appro­pri­ate gear – includ­ing plen­ty of water and appro­pri­ate hik­ing gear – and be sure to fol­low the well define routes up the Moun­tain – with guid­ed hikes avail­able for any­one who want to take on the chal­lenge with added secu­ri­ty – and you can expect the route to come with some stren­u­ous ter­rain, a touch of scram­bling and some makeshift lad­ders that take you from lev­el to lev­el.  

Along­side this while the routes up the moun­tain are incred­i­bly pop­u­lar Cape Town unfor­tu­nate­ly is known to be a high spot for crime – so we’d advise peo­ple to make the hike in at least pairs, and females espe­cial­ly should avoid tak­ing on the route alone and at night.  

Yet when tak­ing the nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions and com­ing ful­ly pre­pared the hike up Table Moun­tain is one of the most reward­ing and stun­ning treks on the Plan­et and the views from the sum­mit are almost unpar­al­leled – and while you can of course take the eas­i­er route by using the Table Moun­tain Aer­i­al to reach the base of the sum­mit before head­ing up, which we’d rec­om­mend to take down espe­cial­ly if tak­ing on the and India Ven­ster trek – the below are our top 5 treks to take to reach the sum­mit of the icon­ic Table Moun­tain and the Lions Head for a tru­ly reward­ing expe­ri­ence and to take in the true beau­ty of the won­der that is Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park: 

Platteklip Gorge 

Length: 5km 

Dura­tion: 2–3 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

Begin­ning with the most pop­u­lar hike of the lot – the Plat­tek­lip Gorge see’s you fol­low the main gorge of Table Moun­tain up to the sum­mit – with the Gorge unsur­pris­ing­ly named Plat­tek­lip.  

Begin­ning at the base of Cape Town on the Tafel­berg Road you’ll fol­low a well-defined path marked by signs and enter into the Gorge before tak­ing on a steep ascent and slow­ly ascend­ing towards the sum­mit of the moun­tain – until you reach the half way point after rough­ly an hour, where a rest­ing spot and an obser­va­tion deck lets you look back on the stun­ning Cape Town below you.  

From this point you can then expect to take on series of cut­backs as the road loops round – before you’re in for a fair bit of scram­bling – as you hur­dle and climb over many rocks – accom­pa­nied by some stun­ning scenery — and then reach a short path that leads from the cable car upper sta­tion to the sum­mit.  

Our pick for begin­ners, the route up is steep but also well defined and the route up is more direct than oth­ers – although you’ll need to be pre­pared for the exposed sun and car­ry plen­ty of sun­tan – as the first hour see’s you trekking with­out shade under the tough African sun.  

Still the stun­ning scenery and views of Cape Town – and of course the beau­ti­ful views afford­ed by the sum­mit – make this trek well worth it and see‘s it be one of the best ways to sum­mit the icon­ic Table Moun­tain. 

Kasteelspoort Trek 

Dura­tion: 4–6 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Hard 

The most scenic hike – but also one of the most chal­leng­ing, the Kas­teel­spoort hike com­bine the Pipe Trek and the Kas­teel­spoort hike and offers incred­i­ble views of the Atlantic Ocean and on a clear day lets you see as far as Robben Island – with Whale breach­ing sight­ings from this route also a pop­u­lar occur­rence.  

How­ev­er the route is longer than its coun­ter­parts – being almost 12 km in loop and begins on the pipe track from the Kloof Nek area of Tafel­berg Road from where you’ll have a steep ascent up a series up forestry and dirt roads before you come to a left turn off and then an almost diag­o­nal road – that affords you stun­ning views of the Lions Head to your right.  

From here the track then takes on anoth­er diag­o­nal road and then gets steep­er as you approach the sum­mit and you can expect fur­ther scram­bling over rocks and some small ascents up a series of wood­en lad­ders before you come to some almost beach like ter­rain that leads up to the sum­mit of the icon­ic Table Moun­tain.  

A longer hike – but one that offers incred­i­ble views, the Kas­teel­spoort Hike is known to be a hot spot for dog walk­ers and is also less busy than its coun­ter­parts, with the vol­ume of shade offered as you begin the hike through lush forestry being far greater than that of the oth­er hikes.  

It’s also the hike that fea­tures one of the best pho­to spots in the whole of the Nation­al Park – the “Div­ing Board” — so named as it resem­bles a div­ing board and from where explor­ers can perch them­selves to get incred­i­ble pho­tos of the beau­ty of Table Moun­tain and the stun­ning Nation­al Park and Atlantic Ocean below.  

Skeleton Gorge 

Length: 3.5km One way 

Dura­tion: 3 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

With lush green for­est and a chance to jour­ney some of the best and endan­gered plant life in the plan­et the Skel­ton Gorge Trek up the moun­tain is one for nature lovers and is in our view one of the most under­rat­ed treks not just in Table Moun­tain but on the plan­et.  

Begin­ning at the serene Cape Flo­ral King­dom & Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens you can fol­low the forestry sharply up and head up the south of the Table Moun­tain with the road from the start being both rocky and a tough ascent, but with incred­i­ble views of the nature of Table Moun­tain Park.  

As you slow­ly head up the trek will leave the for­est you’ll be in for some scram­bling over rocky ter­rain and be faced with some climb up some bam­boo lad­ders before you come to the beach like ter­rain of Break­fast rock, from where you can take in incred­i­ble views of Cape Town and False Bay below you and kick back up for a well-earned break on the white sandy beach at this lev­el.  

From here you’ll enter the last sec­tion of the trek that leads you to the sum­mit on a well defined (and less steep ! ) road that takes you to the reser­voir at the sum­mit of Table Mount­ian and also to the Maclear’s Bea­con – the high­est point of the moun­tain – from where you can snap some incred­i­ble pho­tos of the beau­ty of the Nation­al park below you.  

A tough trek that starts and con­tin­ues with steep ascent to the fin­ish, the Skel­ton Gorge Trek is less crowd­ed that the oth­ers and fea­tures good shade cov­er­age against the sun, along with stun­ning views from Break­fast Rock and the sum­mit  and the chance to walk amongst some of the most endan­gered and rarest Flow­ers on the plan­et – just be sure to pace your­self as you take on this steep trek.  

India Venster trail 

Length: 6km 

Dura­tion: 3–4 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

A thrill seek­ing trail the India Ven­ster trail takes you to the edge of Table moun­tain and com­pris­es a tough and steep ascent from start to fin­ish – but con­cludes with some incred­i­ble and majes­tic views.  

Begin­ning from the Low­er Cable Car Sta­tion – and often a route under­tak­en when peo­ple get fed up with the large queues, the trek starts with an easy climb to the trails path – and from there it’s all steep ascent as you fol­low the yel­low foot­print mak­ers up the India Ven­ster trail and onto a series of grav­el ter­rain and scram­ble over rocks to begin the trek up to the sum­mit.   

After mak­ing it past the rock walls you’re then onto the lad­ders where you need to take on a series bam­boo lad­ders to ascent high­er, with the road then being more defined but being on a lit­er­al cliff edge as you make you way round to the upper cable sta­tion.  

From the upper cable sta­tion you’re then onto the more estab­lished tourist path – which is nice and gen­tle and that takes you through the last kilo­me­tre of the trek to the incred­i­ble sum­mit of Table Moun­tain.  

A tough hike up – but one that fol­lows the stun­ning scenery of the Cable Car and gives you the best views of any hike of Lions head and Cape Town below the trek is not for the faint heart­ed with the rock scram­bles and walk along the cliff edge in par­tic­u­lar being a heart pound­ing moment – just be sure not to take this route town and treat your­self to a cable car trip as the route down is dan­ger­ous with the rock for­ma­tions – and besides after com­plet­ing this ascent you’ve more than earned it as you enjoy the stun­ning beau­ty of the true won­der of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

Lions Head. 

Length: 4km 

Dura­tion: 3–4 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

Our pick for stun­ning sun­rise views – the beau­ti­ful Lions Head trek leads you to the sum­mit of the majes­tic Lions head up along sig­nal hill as you stand atop this stun­ning hill for incred­i­ble views of Table Moun­tain and watch the beau­ty of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park and Cape Town light up before you.  

Begin­ning from the base of Cape Town you’ll fol­low the well-marked trail from Tafel­berg Road up along Sig­nal hill and winds round with the hike begin­ning with a tough ascent up through forestry before lev­el­ling out and fea­tur­ing a wind­ing road round the hill to the sum­mit of Lions head.  

You can expect a bit of scram­bling over rocks – and hav­ing to cross chain bridges – but the final half hour of the trek is gen­tle – mak­ing it a per­fect trek to take on in the ear­ly hours as you make it to the sum­mit of this stun­ning hill just in time for sun­rise as you watch the icon­ic Table Moun­tain and the stun­ning vis­tas of the val­leys below come to life and begin your day explor­ing the true won­der fot he world that is table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

 How long to stay:  

While you can cov­er the high­lights of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park in a day – begin­ning with a sun­rise trip up to Lions Head and then the ascent of Table Moun­tain – there’s so much more to see includ­ing the incred­i­ble Cape Point and the Pen­guins wad­dling in on Boul­der Beach – so for this rea­son we’d advise set­ting aside at least 2 days 1 night prefer­ably 3 days / 2 nights to explore the whole of the park – with it being eas­i­ly reached from Down­town Cape Town.  

 Top Tip:  

While an incred­i­ble won­der of the world and set against the majes­tic city of Cape Town, unfor­tu­nate­ly there are inci­dents of tourists and trav­ellers being tar­get­ed by pick­pock­ets, thieves and crim­i­nals when stay­ing with­in Cape Town – so we’d advise to be always on you guard pro­tect your pos­ses­sions – and for any­one tak­ing on the trek up the moun­tain and espe­cial­ly the sun­rise Lion Head trek to be in groups espe­cial­ly if you’re a young female.  

How­ev­er on a more touristy note, Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park is incred­i­bly pop­u­lar – and is blessed by receiv­ing plen­ty of African sun­light – so first­ly for those who want to take on the Cable Car to get to the sum­mit be sure to buy your tick­et online and in advance – or risk long queues in the exposed sun­light and a chance that the cable cars will sell out.  

For those tak­ing on the trek or explor­ing any of the oth­er beau­ty sights at the park, we’d also encour­age you to come pre­pared with not only decent hik­ing gear and some stur­dy shoes but also plen­ty of sun screen and decent sun­glass­es and a strong hat – espe­cial­ly dur­ing the sum­mer months when the Nation­al Park offers lit­tle pro­tec­tion against the sun.  

Final­ly we’d also advise bud­get­ing a cou­ple of days for the Nation­al Park – with one of those ded­i­cat­ed to sum­mit­ing the icon­ic Table Moun­tain and anoth­er for the sun­rise at Lions head – two of the best hikes on the plan­et and a great way to being your day explor­ing the won­der of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

Cost:

Being a Nation­al Park the major­i­ty of Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park is free to enter – so your expens­es will come from if you chose to take on the cable car and enter the  Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens.  

For those who don’t fan­cy a hike – or want to do a hike then take the cable car back down, a one way tick­et on the cable car costs R300 ($21USD) and a return trip costs R380 ($26 USD) – and yu can expect queues to be long and tick­ets to sell up in advance – so in com­ple­ment to our top tip be sure to get your tick­ets online before­hand at [https://www.tablemountain.net/content/page/quick-tips] 

For those who do fan­cy the hike up the Moun­tain – you can expect all of the roues to be free except the Skel­ton Gorge trip which begins at the Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens – for which you’ll have to pay a R75 / $5USD fee to enter – even if you don’t choose the Skel­ton route we’d still advise bud­get­ing to vis­it the Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens – they are tru­ly stun­ning and offer a chance to vis­it some of the rarest and most unique Flow­ers on the plan­et.  

Along­side the two park relat­ed fees – we’d advise set­ting aside at least $50 USD to get your­self some decent hik­ing gear – with a sun absorb­ing brim hat and plen­ty of sun­screen an absolute must when vis­it­ing the park — regard­less of if you take on a trek of not.  

Com­bin­ing this with the esti­mat­ed $15 USD to get to and back from the park from Cape Town – and an extra $20 USD for food and water – all in all we’d aver­age that a day at the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park will set you back rough­ly $100 USD – a bar­gain to take in one of the true nat­ur­al won­ders of the world.  

Fun Fact: 

Along­side being a beau­ty spot and a great place to sit and do some whale watch­ing, the beau­ty of Cape Point  is also shroud­ed in leg­end – with the pirate ship of the Fly­ing Dutch­man – made famous in the Pirate of the Caribbean Movies – believed to be sunk just off­shore the light­house – with the crew of the Fly­ing Dutch­man doomed to stay at sea for eteniry as undead ghost­ly sailors – a tough life ! 

Best photo spot: 

While there are many incred­i­ble beau­ty spots through­out Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park – includ­ing the stun­ning Cape Point, the unique Flo­ra of the Kirsten­bosch Botan­i­cal Gar­dens and of course the chance to snap pho­tos of the rare African Pen­guins on the sparkling Boul­der Beach – for us there are two main pho­tos spots from which you’ll get the incred­i­ble and must snap pho­to shots at Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park.  

The first is of course at the sum­mit of Table Moun­tain – where the sweep­ing panoram­ic views allow you to take in the true beau­ty of the Nation­al Park – with the incred­i­ble views of the Indi­an and South Atlantic Ocean com­ple­ment­ed by the high­lights of the Nation­al Park and the beau­ty of Cape Town below you – with a clear day also allow­ing view­ing of Robben Island and the occa­sion­al whale breach­ing in the dis­tance.  

While all spots on the sum­mit are stun­ning, we’d high­light the div­ing board point found on the Kas­teel­spoort hike as being a great spot to grab tru­ly incred­i­ble pho­tos of Nation­al Park.  

Along­side this you’ll need to grab a pho­to of the icon­ic Table Moun­tain itself – and there’s no bet­ter spot to pho­to­graph it than from the majes­tic Lion’s head – where you can take on the chal­leng­ing but doable hike around Sig­nal hill to the sum­mit – just in time for sun­rise, with a sun­rise pho­to from this incred­i­ble beau­ty spot allow­ing you to see not only the icon­ic Table Moun­tain light up in all its glo­ry, but also the beau­ty of Cape Town and the won­der of the whole of the Table Moun­tain Nation­al Park come to life.