1-Day Cape Point & Cape of Good Hope Tour

Guests are met at any location of their choice in Cape Town to begin the Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve Day Tour. The journey follows the spectacular Chapman’s Peak Drive, a renowned coastal toll road carved into steep cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean, before continuing through Noordhoek toward the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park. This protected area is rich in biodiversity and home to antelope species, birdlife, and the unique fynbos vegetation of the Cape Peninsula. A highlight of the visit is time at Cape Point, where guests can walk or take the funicular toward the historic lighthouse area for sweeping ocean views.

Chapman’s Peak Drive covers 9 km between Hout Bay and Noordhoek and takes 114 curves to do it, cut into the cliffs high above the Atlantic. Work began in 1915, and Prince Arthur of Connaught opened the road in May 1922. Rockfalls closed it for about three years from 2000, and it reopened as a toll road in December 2003. It still closes when the weather turns or the rock is unstable. On those days the route crosses the mountains on Ou Kaapse Weg instead, through the Silvermine section of the park.

Cape Point has two lighthouses. The first was lit in 1860 on the peak, 238 m above the sea, but low cloud could hide it for up to 900 hours a year. After the Portuguese liner Lusitania struck Bellows Rock in 1911, a new light was built lower down on Dias Point, at 87 m. The new light was finished in 1919 and remains the most powerful lighthouse on the South African coast. About 2.3 km to the west, a wooden sign marks the Cape of Good Hope as the most southwesterly point of Africa. Bartolomeu Dias sailed round it in 1488. The southernmost tip of the continent is Cape Agulhas, some 150 km to the east-southeast.

The Cape Peninsula has long been an important maritime landmark and remains one of South Africa’s most scenic regions. On the return journey, the tour includes a visit to Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town, a sheltered cove within Table Mountain National Park famous for its colony of land-based African penguins. Boardwalks allow close viewing while protecting the environment.

The colony at Boulders began with just two breeding pairs in 1982 and has grown to about 2,500 birds, with 790 breeding pairs counted in the June 2026 census. African penguins are now listed as critically endangered, and the boardwalks at Foxy Beach bring you within a few meters of them while keeping the nesting areas undisturbed. Expect to hear them as well as see them: their braying call earned the species its old name of jackass penguin.

After enjoying the coastal scenery and wildlife, the tour continues back to Cape Town for drop-off at the original pickup location.