City Bowl
The old city under the mountain, and the densest part of Cape Town for walking. Most of its museums, its oldest buildings and its squares sit within twenty minutes of each other on foot.
Guides to this part of the city
What to see
St Stephen’s Church
St Stephen’s Church on Riebeeck Square was built in 1800 as the African Theatre, the first purpose-built theatre in South Africa, at…
Tana Baru Cemetery
Tana Baru is a Muslim burial ground on the eastern slopes of Signal Hill, above the Bo-Kaap. Burials took place here from…
Koopmans-de Wet House
Koopmans-de Wet House at 35 Strand Street is a Cape Town townhouse whose site was first built on in 1699 and which…
Strand Street Lutheran Church
The Strand Street Lutheran Church began in 1774 as a hall in the form of a warehouse, put up by Martin Melck…
Martin Melck House
Martin Melck House at 96 Strand Street was built in the early 1780s as the parsonage of the Lutheran congregation next door,…
Church Square
Church Square is a small paved public square behind Groote Kerk, at the corner of Spin and Parliament Streets in central Cape…
Riebeeck Square
Riebeeck Square is an open block in central Cape Town that was one of the squares the town expanded around during the…
Auwal Mosque
Auwal Mosque on Dorp Street is the oldest mosque in South Africa and remains an active congregation rather than a historic interior…
Walking up from here
Lion’s Head Hike
The spiral walk up Lion’s Head, which SANParks gives as about two kilometres one way and one to one and a half…
Platteklip Gorge
Platteklip Gorge is the most direct and popular walking route to the summit of Table Mountain. A steep, stepped and strenuous climb…
Kloof Corner Hike
Kloof Corner is one of Cape Town's most rewarding short hikes — a steep but quick ascent from Tafelberg Road to a…
India Venster to Upper Cable Station
India Venster climbs the front face of Table Mountain from near the Lower Cable Station and finishes at the top. There are…
Things to do
Cape Malay Cooking Class
You cook, then you eat what you made. A class puts you inside a food tradition the Cape has been cooking for…
Sky-Hi Ride
Sky-Hi Ride is a 35-metre drop ride on the 28th floor of Hotel Sky in central Cape Town. Riders are lifted above…
Tandem Paragliding
Tandem paragliding from Signal Hill or Lion’s Head, chosen on the day for the wind. No experience is needed, the pilot does…
More about this area
Everything else in City Bowl
Cape Malay Cooking Class
A cooking class is a hands-on session, not a demonstration. You are given a place at the table and a job to do, and the food that comes out at the end is the food you sit down to eat. Cape Malay cooking is spice-led rather than hot. Cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and turmeric do the […]
Sky-Hi Ride
Sky-Hi Ride sits on the 28th floor of Hotel Sky in central Cape Town, with the attraction extending 146 metres above the city bowl. The 35-metre ride carries passengers upward in a chair before releasing them into a high-speed drop. The descent reaches free-fall speeds of up to 100 km/h and forces of nearly 4G. […]
Woodstock Pilates
Woodstock Pilates is on Queenspark Avenue in upper Woodstock, and it teaches a wider range than the name suggests: mat Pilates, reformer work, BootyBarre, rebounding on mini trampolines and yoga. A drop-in covers a single group class as a pay-as-you-go rate, with no package or monthly commitment. Five, ten and fifteen class packs are available […]
District
The dance floor is the point — Oregon wood, room to use it, and booth seating around the edges. There are no general opening hours. Nights are programmed and ticketed ahead, so the schedule is what to check rather than a weekly timetable. The room is also hired for private and corporate functions, and it […]
Truth Coffee
Truth Coffee trades from 36 Buitenkant Street, on the eastern side of the city centre. It opens at seven in the morning from Monday to Saturday and closes at six, with a shorter Sunday running eight until four. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are a separate thing. After Dark runs from 19h00 until late, with live […]
Koopmans-de Wet House
Koopmans-de Wet House stands at 35 Strand Street, a two storey townhouse with four fluted pilasters across its front, pressed on every side by the taller buildings of the modern city. It is a museum, and it is currently closed. Iziko Museums began conservation work here in 2025, the furniture and objects have been taken […]
Martin Melck House
The building at 96 Strand Street is a two storey eighteenth century townhouse with a small room set on its roof, framed by scrolled volutes and crowned with a carved bird. Its name, Martin Melck House, leads most visitors to assume that Martin Melck lived here. He did not. Melck gave the Lutheran congregation the […]
Heritage Square
Heritage Square is easy to misread. The name suggests an open public square, and it sits directly across Shortmarket Street from one, but it is not a square at all. It is a city block, bounded by Bree, Shortmarket, Hout and Buitengracht Streets, made up of old buildings that were restored in the 1990s and […]
Strand Street Lutheran Church
The Strand Street Lutheran Church is the yellow-washed range about halfway along Strand Street, set behind a line of palms with traffic running past the door. The church itself carries a curved Cape gable and a square tower with clock faces and a slender spire, and the buildings continue on either side in one long […]
St Stephen’s Church
St Stephen’s Church stands on the Bree Street edge of Riebeeck Square, a long pale yellow building behind a low stone wall and a row of parked cars. At a glance it reads as a modest nineteenth century church: a pedimented front, pointed windows with white surrounds, steps up to the door. The giveaway is […]