Five days in Cape Town without a car: buses, trains and a lot of walking
City bus stop on a seafront road with a flat-topped mountain in the distance
A five-day plan using the MyCiTi network, one train line, app rides and a hop-on bus, with a base chosen so that three of the five days need no vehicle at all.
The transport toolkit, and what each part is actually for
Four things move you around without a rental. MyCiTi is the city's scheduled bus network, running dedicated routes along the Atlantic seaboard, into the city centre and out to the airport, with a stored-value card you tap on and off; single fares run from about R10 to R30 depending on distance and time of day, with the airport service higher. E-hailing apps cover everything the buses do not, at roughly R70 to R150 for short city hops and R350 to R450 down to Muizenberg. Verify fares with the operators before you rely on them.
The third piece is the City Sightseeing bus, whose day ticket sits in the low to mid hundreds of rand and which is genuinely useful for two things the scheduled buses do badly: the Table Mountain lower cableway station and Kirstenbosch. The fourth is the Metrorail Southern Line, the suburban railway that runs from the central station through Observatory and the southern suburbs to Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Simon's Town. Service on that line has been rebuilt in stages after years of disruption, so treat timetables as something to confirm with the operator on the day rather than plan a tight day around.
Where to base yourself when you have no keys
Sea Point is the answer for most people. It has the densest concentration of guesthouses and apartments outside the Waterfront, a supermarket, a pharmacy and forty restaurants on Regent and Main Roads within walking distance, a MyCiTi trunk route running its length, and the promenade for evenings. Doubles run roughly R1,300 to R2,600 outside December, self-catering studios a little less. It is the one part of the city where a carless traveller never feels stranded, because the bus, the app rides and the pavement all work at once.
Green Point is the near-identical alternative, twenty percent closer to the Waterfront and slightly quieter. The City Bowl works if you want the museums and the Bree Street restaurants on your doorstep, but the gradients above Kloof Street are punishing on foot and the streets thin out after dark. Skip Camps Bay and Hout Bay as a carless base: both look ideal and both leave you dependent on a single bus route or an expensive ride every time you want dinner elsewhere. The Waterfront is convenient and costs a premium of roughly a third for the privilege.
Day one: the city centre entirely on foot
Take a MyCiTi bus or a R70 app ride to the Civic Centre and walk. The Company's Garden, the Slave Lodge on Adderley Street, St George's Cathedral, the Grand Parade and City Hall balcony where Nelson Mandela spoke in February 1990, and the Castle of Good Hope from the 1660s all sit within a kilometre of each other. Add the District Six Museum on Buitenkant Street, where former residents guide you through the map of a neighbourhood demolished after 1966. That is a full day of walking with no vehicle involved after the first ride.
Eat lunch on Bree Street, where the range runs from a R200 burger and beer to tasting formats several times that. In the afternoon, climb Wale Street into Bo-Kaap for the painted houses, the 1794 Auwal Mosque and a spice shop that has been trading since 1946. Then take a ride back rather than walking down after dark. Sleep in Sea Point, and eat on Regent Road, where a good line-fish dinner runs R180 to R280 and you walk home along the promenade.
Day two: Robben Island and the Waterfront
Book the Robben Island ferry weeks ahead for a morning departure; the round trip from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the Waterfront takes about three and a half hours, costs roughly R550 to R650 for an adult including the museum, and is cancelled outright in heavy swell, so build a spare day into your five. The bus tour of the island is led by a guide and the prison section by a former political prisoner, which is what makes it worth the morning. Confirm sailings and prices with the Robben Island Museum.
The Waterfront afterwards is walkable from Sea Point in about forty minutes along the promenade, or a R60 to R90 ride. Zeitz MOCAA, in the converted grain silo, holds contemporary African art in a hollowed-out concrete interior that is worth the ticket for the architecture alone; it has run free-entry slots for African passport holders, so check the arrangements. Finish with sunset from the promenade near the Green Point lighthouse. No car has been needed for two days, and the day's transport bill sits under R200 excluding the ferry.
Day three: Table Mountain and Camps Bay by bus
The lower cableway station on Tafelberg Road has no scheduled city bus at its door, but the hop-on sightseeing bus stops there, and an app ride from Sea Point costs about R80 to R120. Go early: the queue at the cableway grows through the morning and the operator closes for wind without much notice, so check the status before you leave. Adult returns sit in the mid-hundreds of rand. On top, walk the paved circuits for an hour, then descend before the afternoon cloud tips over the front face.
In the afternoon, take the MyCiTi route that runs from the city over Kloof Nek to Camps Bay for a fare in the low tens of rand, one of the best-value bus rides anywhere, with the Twelve Apostles on one side and the Atlantic below. Swim if you can stand 13-degree water, or sit on the beachfront strip with a drink at R60 to R120. Buses back run into the evening but thin out, so check the last departure or budget R150 for a ride home to Sea Point.
Day four: the Southern Line to Kalk Bay and Simon's Town
This is the day the train earns its place. From the central station, the Southern Line runs through Observatory and the southern suburbs, then along the False Bay shoreline from Muizenberg with the water directly outside the window, to Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek and Simon's Town. Fares are in the low tens of rand. Travel mid-morning rather than in commuter peaks, sit in a busier carriage, and keep bags on your lap. Because timetables and service patterns have moved repeatedly, check the operator's schedule the day before and have an app-ride fallback budgeted at about R400.
Get off at Kalk Bay for the harbour, the bookshops and fish and chips at R90 to R130, then take the next train two stops to Simon's Town. From the station it is a 25-minute walk or a short ride to the Boulders penguin boardwalk. Return in daylight. If you want to end the day on the coast instead of riding back, guesthouses in Kalk Bay and Simon's Town run around R1,100 to R2,000 a double and the evening there is far quieter than Sea Point.
Day five: Kirstenbosch, Constantia, or a guided winelands day
The blue sightseeing route runs to Kirstenbosch, which solves the awkward journey to Newlands, and the garden is a three-hour visit with the canopy walkway and the protea beds. Entry is in the low hundreds of rand for an adult with a lower resident rate. From there, the Constantia wine farms are a R100 to R150 ride away, and several run tastings for R100 to R200 that you can do without driving, which is the entire advantage of being carless. Two farms is the sensible limit before lunch stops being a plan.
The alternative for day five is a guided winelands trip to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, picked up from your accommodation, typically R900 to R1,600 a head including three or four tastings, with the driving handled. It is the most efficient way to see the winelands without a car, and it costs less than the fines and the risk of driving yourself after tastings. Sleep in Sea Point again for a straightforward airport run: the MyCiTi airport service or a R300 to R400 ride, allowing an hour in the morning peak.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Sea Point, answered with this month’s numbers.
Roughly R1,800 to R3,000 a person, excluding the Robben Island ferry and any guided winelands day. That covers a MyCiTi card with credit, one sightseeing bus day ticket, a handful of app rides at R70 to R150 each, train fares, and airport transfers at both ends. Two people sharing rides cut the per-head figure substantially.
Travel in daylight, mid-morning or early afternoon, in a carriage with other people, with your phone away and your bag in front of you, and it is a normal commuter railway with an extraordinary coastal view. Avoid it late at night. Because service levels have changed repeatedly, confirm the day's timetable with the operator before committing.
Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope reserve, Chapman's Peak, Betty's Bay, and most of the Hemel-en-Aarde and Elgin wine valleys. For those, either book a day tour, hire a car for a single day at R450 to R800, or accept a return app ride costing several hundred rand each way.
