How to Keep Fit in Cape Town

A visitor who wants a gym floor rather than a mountain has more options than the city usually gets credit for, but the obstacle is rarely the equipment. It is the paperwork. Most Cape Town gyms sell memberships rather than drop-ins, and the ones worth knowing about are the ones that will take a day pass or a trial from somebody without a South African identity number.

Planet Fitness De Waterkant opens at five on weekdays and its trial form accepts a passport, which is not true everywhere. SWEAT 1000 in Sea Point runs interval classes you can book singly. Velocity Gym and The Gym in Hout Bay, BUC Fitness Club and Horizen cover the Atlantic Seaboard, BODYTEC Gardens does twenty-minute EMS sessions in the City Bowl, and The Bloc has floors in Blouberg and Melkbos for anyone staying up the West Coast.

This is the best-spread category we hold. Eighteen studios reach from the West Coast to Kalk Bay and out to Stellenbosch, and most of them sell single classes as a matter of course, which makes them the easiest thing on this page to do once rather than commit to.

Yoga Loft and Light House Holistic sit in the City Bowl, with Cape Town House of Pilates and Woodstock Pilates covering the Reformer side. The Movement Lab has rooms in both Sea Point and Claremont. The Ivy Room, Alila Yoga and Avirodha are on the Atlantic Seaboard, The Commons and Johann Kotze Yoga are down in False Bay, Get Grounded is on the West Coast, and Hot Yoga Stellenbosch and Life Retreat Studio are the two in the Winelands.

Padel has taken over the conversation and it deserves most of it: eleven courts, from The Racket and Ball Club on Bree Street to Africa Padel in Camps Bay, Claremont and Van der Stel, Aura in Woodstock and Montague Gardens, Action Padel at Century City and Bay Padel in the southern suburbs. If you only want padel, we have a guide to it.

But the racquet in your hand does not have to be a padel one. Green Point, Gardens and Claremont all have proper tennis clubs that take visitors, Glen Country Club and Fresnaye Sports Club add lawn bowls, Milnerton Squash Club is the one squash court in the collection, and pickleball has arrived at Glen and at Virgin Active Lourensford in the Winelands. Most of these are member clubs that welcome visitors by arrangement, so call ahead rather than turning up.

The cheapest way to stay fit here is also the best one, and it does not need a booking. The Pipe Track runs level along the back of the Twelve Apostles from Kloof Nek and is the obvious out-and-back for anyone who wants an hour on a contour with the Atlantic below them. The Sea Point promenade does the flat version at sea level. Platteklip Gorge does the brutal version straight up the front of Table Mountain.

Cape Town does not really separate running from hiking, and neither do we: the same paths serve both, and which one you are doing is mostly a question of pace. Start with the easy walks if you have arrived that morning, take the full hiking guide if you have a day, and use the family list if you are not moving at your own speed.

Two oceans, and a water temperature that makes the Atlantic side a discipline rather than a swim. The tidal pools are the way in: sheltered, free, scattered from Sea Point round to Kalk Bay, and warm enough often enough that they are the one form of exercise here that doubles as a morning out.

Beyond them, surfing is the thing Cape Town is known for, with stand-up paddleboarding for flat water and kitesurfing for the wind that everyone else is complaining about. For anyone who would rather swim laps than survive them, Long Street Baths is the heated indoor pool in the middle of town.

Climbing is the quiet strength of the fitness set. CityROCK in Observatory and HangTime in Bellville are full indoor walls, Bloc11 has bouldering in Paarden Eiland and Diep River, and The Bloc covers Blouberg and Melkbos. All of them sell day entry, which makes climbing the easiest strength session in this guide to do as a visitor.

Then there is the rock itself. Table Mountain sandstone is a climbing destination in its own right and guided routes go out from the city for anyone who wants it without owning the gear. On two wheels, the trail parks are where to start rather than the mountain: they are fenced, graded and rentable, and the wider trail guide covers everything beyond them.