Travelogue from South Africa: Safety in Cape Town

In November 2023, our Travel Specialist, Cat, visited Cape Town and like so many others, she wondered whether Cape Town was a safe city to visit. Read Cat’s travelogue from her tour to South Africa below.

It’s very easy to think of Cape Town and associate it with a feeling of nervousness – it’s a place one often hears about in the news, and not necessarily for good reasons. But having just returned from 5 nights there, I can say that my only concern was getting enough of a tan and trying all the foods at the breakfast buffet.

Guests often ask me about how safe it is to stay in Cape Town – are they going to be OK?

It’s inevitable that with large cities there are always going to be stories you hear about crime – and of course I will not sugarcoat Cape Town and pretend that crime isn’t an issue there. It isn’t a place that I would advise guests to walk around alone at night, or to take drives in whichever place they fancy – its somewhere where you do need to take the advice of locals and listen to what you are told – but this is where it’s so useful that we work with locals.

The partners we join with, have lived in Cape Town their whole lives, and they know it better than anyone. Waiting with (very!) friendly faces at the airport, I immediately felt like I was in safe hands. Throughout the tours we did, including a walking tour of the city, and a whole day tour around the Cape – I always felt like I was experiencing the true Cape Town, but without feeling unsafe. That’s not to say we didn’t see the other side of Cape Town – there were homeless people, and there were places that we knew we shouldn’t go alone – namely the townships on the outskirts of the city. But its important that these places were not just ignored – the history of Cape Town and South Africa itself, is tied up with these issues, and to really know a place, of course you must know the history.

It’s a lovely thing to be able to take a holiday somewhere, but our tours allow for more than a holiday – they are also a learning experience – and nowhere was this more obvious than our walking tour with a local resident Nigel, who himself had experienced the effects of Apartheid, and the forced removal of his people. It was a humbling and important part of our tour.

However, there were so many other sides to Cape Town as well.

Never have I experienced a city with so much to do – from tasting local food in the Bo-Kaap area; to exploring the most south-westerly point of Africa; seeing penguins on Boulders Beach; a sunrise hike of Table Mountain; smelling the very potent fish market; and even riding a wine tram for the day. Indeed, the most dangerous moment of my tour was probably drinking too much in the Winelands!

In my downtime, I even managed to go running along Sea Point – the neighbourhood in which our hotel of Cape Manor is located. This is a bustling area, and as soon as the sun rose, I felt completely comfortable to run alone along the beautiful promenade to the Waterfront. I never felt unsafe and was always in good company with the many neighbourhood residents also pacing the same route as me. Looking out at the sea, hearing the waves crash around me, and feeling the sun beating on my face, I knew that this was the city for me.

So, my advice to anyone unsure of whether they want to ‘risk’ going to Cape Town – please jump into it with both feet, and let the city entice you as much as it did for me. You will not meet friendlier or more welcoming people than those I met in Cape Town, and you will never get bored of the endless rolling coasts, the yummy restaurants to try, the views to be seen, and the history to be experienced.

As our hiking guide Pete liked to say – Cape Town, we appreciate you.

Cat, TourCompass