False Bay Nature Reserve

Most Cape Town reserves are a place you drive to. False Bay Nature Reserve is a system you move through. The City of Cape Town manages six separate parts as one reserve along the northern shore of False Bay, and the whole of it forms part of the greater False Bay Ecology Park. Where the […]

Harmony Flats Nature Reserve

Harmony Flats is the smallest reserve in the City of Cape Town network, nine hectares of flat ground wedged between Strand and Gordon’s Bay. It has no summit, no forest and no view worth the name. It is on this site because of what grows in it, and by that measure it is one of […]

Helderberg Nature Reserve

Somerset West sits at the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains, and Helderberg Nature Reserve is the town’s doorway into them. Where Tygerberg protects an isolated hill of open renosterveld and Newlands Forest offers shaded recreation on the city side of the mountain, Helderberg combines manicured lower gardens and picnic lawns with a footpath network […]

Tygerberg Nature Reserve

Cape Town’s northern suburbs have few large green spaces, and Tygerberg is the biggest of them. Where Intaka Island protects a constructed wetland inside Century City, Tygerberg conserves a whole hillside of the region’s original vegetation, and the top of that hill offers a view that takes in the entire city at once. Proclaimed as […]

Rondevlei Nature Reserve

Unlike Intaka Island’s constructed urban wetland, Rondevlei is a large natural freshwater reserve where visitors experience expansive reed beds, open water and indigenous wildlife in a much wilder setting. It is also the only place in the south-western Cape where hippopotamuses are still found. Rondevlei is one of six sections of the False Bay Nature […]

Intaka Island

Unlike Cape Town’s mountain parks and coastal reserves, Intaka Island focuses on wetlands, birdlife and environmental education. Its level walking trails and tranquil setting make it equally enjoyable for families, photographers, birdwatchers and anyone seeking a quieter nature experience. Intaka Island was created as part of the Century City development to conserve and rehabilitate an […]

Oudekraal Nature Reserve

Oudekraal protects one of the Atlantic Seaboard’s most attractive natural coastal environments. Smooth granite boulders divide the shoreline into a series of small sheltered coves with sandy pockets between them, while dense kelp forests offshore support abalone, sea urchins and shoals of fish. The reserve also preserves a section of coastal fynbos, including ericas and […]

Green Point Urban Park

Opened in 2011, Green Point Urban Park transformed a former public open space into one of Cape Town’s premier urban parks. Unlike a traditional botanical garden or nature reserve, it was designed as a modern urban green space where recreation and conservation exist side by side. Ecological principles shaped the layout, which incorporates indigenous landscaping, […]

Newlands Forest

Newlands Forest occupies the lower eastern slopes of Table Mountain and forms part of Table Mountain National Park. The forest is characterised by wide gravel paths, towering pine and eucalyptus trees, indigenous woodland, mountain streams and pockets of fynbos. Its sheltered setting makes it one of the most comfortable outdoor spaces in Cape Town during […]

Company’s Garden

Company’s Garden is one of Cape Town’s oldest and most treasured public spaces. Established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company to supply fresh produce to passing ships, it has evolved into a peaceful green oasis in the heart of the city centre. Surrounded by museums, galleries, historic buildings and the South African Parliament, […]