Few cities offer wildlife like Cape Town. Within an hour’s drive you can walk beside African penguins, watch whales from the shore, see seals and baboons, and explore the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest but richest of the world’s plant kingdoms. It is the perfect start or end to a southern African safari.
At a glance
| Best time | Year-round; whales June to November; flowers August to September |
| Getting there | All sites within about 1 to 1.5 hours of the city |
| Time needed | 2 to 4 days |
| Big draws | African penguins, whales, fynbos, Cape Point |
| Good for | Families, combining with a safari or the Garden Route |
African penguins at Boulders Beach
A colony of African penguins lives among granite boulders at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town, part of Table Mountain National Park. Boardwalks let you watch them nesting, preening and waddling into the sea. The colony began with a couple of pairs in the 1980s.
African penguins are now listed as Critically Endangered: the global population has collapsed, largely because of overfishing of their prey, oil pollution and disturbance. Visit Boulders or the quieter Stony Point colony at Betty’s Bay, keep to the boardwalks and never touch or feed the birds.
Whales
- Southern right whales come to calve in sheltered bays from about June to November. False Bay and Walker Bay (at Hermanus) are the best areas.
- Humpback whales pass on their migration, and Bryde’s whales are present year-round.
- Licensed boat-based whale watching operates from several harbours.
Seals
Cape fur seals crowd Duiker Island (boat trips from Hout Bay) and Seal Island in False Bay. Seals also haul out in harbours such as Kalk Bay.
Great white sharks
False Bay and Gansbaai were once world-famous for great white sharks. Since about 2017, sightings have dropped dramatically. Scientists link this to a pair of orcas, nicknamed Port and Starboard, that hunt sharks and eat their livers, as well as to overfishing of smaller sharks. Cage diving operators now often see other species such as bronze whalers instead. See our great white shark profile.
Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope
The southern section of Table Mountain National Park has eland, bontebok, ostriches, chacma baboons and dramatic cliffs. Baboons are wild and can be aggressive: keep car windows closed and never carry food openly.
Fynbos and birds
- Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is the best place to see the Cape sugarbird and orange-breasted sunbird, two fynbos specialists.
- The Cape Floral Region has around 9,000 plant species, most of them found nowhere else.
- West Coast National Park, about 1.5 hours north, has spectacular spring flowers (August to September) and flamingos on the Langebaan lagoon.
Pelagic trips
Boat trips from Simon’s Town head out to trawlers on the continental shelf, where albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters gather in huge numbers. They are among the best seabird trips in the world.
Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to see penguins at Boulders Beach? Year-round. The breeding season peaks from about March to August, and chicks are visible for much of the year.
Can you still cage dive with great white sharks in Cape Town? Trips still run from Gansbaai and elsewhere, but white shark sightings have become rare and unpredictable since about 2017.
When can I see whales in Cape Town? Southern right whales are present from about June to November, peaking in September and October.
Can I see the Big Five near Cape Town? There are small private reserves within a few hours’ drive, but for the real thing, fly to Kruger or visit a malaria-free reserve in the Eastern Cape.
Related guides
- Whale watching in Hermanus
- Malaria-free safaris in South Africa
- Kruger self-drive guide
- Animal profiles: African penguin, Great white shark, Humpback whale
Cover photo: Olga Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons