Getting Around Cape Town
Cape Town gives you a lot of ways to travel and no single one that covers a whole trip. The city is strung along a peninsula with a mountain down the middle, and the transport that is excellent for one part of it is useless for the next.
Start by choosing how you want to move, then read how that option actually works here.
- Taxi & UberE-hailing and metered taxis, and where they stop being reliable.
- Public BusesMyCiTi, the myconnect card, and the corridors it covers well.
- Red BusHop-on hop-off sightseeing, and the problem it actually solves.
- TrainsThe Southern Line down the False Bay coast, and what to expect.
- Car RentalWhen a car is worth it, what you need to hire one, and parking.
- Motorbike & Scooter RentalLicences, helmets and the coastal roads worth riding.
- Bicycle RentalThe flat coastal ride, and where the gradient ends it.
- E-bike RentalWhat a motor changes in a city built on a mountain.
- Private TransfersAirport pickups, drivers for a wine day, and long days out.
The short version
Walking and e-hailing cover most central days comfortably, and together they make a car-free stay in the City Bowl, Green Point or Sea Point entirely realistic. Public transport is genuinely good on a few specific corridors and absent everywhere else. A car earns its keep the moment you head for the Cape Peninsula or the Winelands.
Most visitors end up using two or three of these rather than committing to one.
Arriving: the airport
Cape Town International sits about twenty kilometres east of the city, and there is currently no train or public bus link into town. The MyCiTi airport route that used to run into the Civic Centre is suspended.
That leaves three ways in: an e-hail from the pick-up zone, a pre-booked transfer, or collecting a hire car at the terminal. Plan which one before you land, particularly on a late arrival.
Why geography decides this
Cape Town is not a city you can picture as a grid with a centre. The City Bowl sits in an amphitheatre between Table Mountain and the harbour. The Atlantic Seaboard runs down the far side of Signal Hill along the coast. The Southern Suburbs lie behind the mountain on the other flank, and the False Bay coast continues south from there to the end of the peninsula.
Getting between any two of those means going around or over something. That is why a mode that is perfect for one day is pointless the next, and why the honest answer to “how do I get around Cape Town” is “it depends what you are doing today”.
Matching transport to the day
Once you know roughly where you are going, this is where we would start. It is a shortcut rather than the whole answer; each guide above gives the detail.
| If your day is | Usually easiest |
|---|---|
| City Bowl and V&A Waterfront | Walking, with e-hailing for the hills and after dark |
| Atlantic Seaboard, Sea Point and the coast road | MyCiTi along the shoreline, or e-hailing |
| Southern Suburbs, Observatory to Claremont | Southern Line train, or e-hailing |
| False Bay, Muizenberg, St James, Kalk Bay | Southern Line train as far as Fish Hoek |
| Cape Peninsula and Cape Point | Car, a private driver, or an organised tour |
| Constantia wine valley | Car, e-hailing, or the City Sightseeing wine route |
| Stellenbosch | Car, or the Northern Line train with a ride at the far end |
| Franschhoek wine day | Car or transfer to Franschhoek, then the Wine Tram |
Doing it without a car
It is entirely possible, and plenty of visitors do a week here without driving. Base yourself centrally, walk, use the apps, take the train down the False Bay coast, and buy one day on the sightseeing bus for the cableway and Constantia. For the Cape Peninsula, take an organised day rather than trying to assemble it out of ride-hails.
What you give up is spontaneity at the edges: the trailhead at seven in the morning, the wine farm that turns out to be twenty minutes further on, the drive back over Chapman’s Peak at sunset.
Getting to the Winelands
Cape Town transport and Winelands transport are two different planning problems. The Winelands are a separate region, forty-five minutes to an hour out, and nothing in the city network takes you to a wine estate.
Stellenbosch has its own transport guide: How to Get to Stellenbosch and Get Around. Franschhoek is further, about seventy-five kilometres, and the Franschhoek Wine Tram is the obvious way to spend a day there without driving. One thing to be clear about: the tram does not run from Cape Town. You get yourself to Franschhoek first, by car, transfer or organised tour, and the tram works the valley from there. The Stellenbosch and Franschhoek guides cover each town.
What we would do
For a first trip of a week: no car for the city days, the train to Kalk Bay for one of them, and a hire car or a driver for two or three days covering the Peninsula, Constantia and a Winelands day. That combination costs less than a week of car hire and parking, and it puts a vehicle under you exactly on the days it changes what you can see.
Back to Plan My Trip.