VISITING TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE TOWN

“Change of plans. We’re going up Table Mountain now,” Those are the words you are most likely to hear. “There are no clouds on top of the mountain today. The weather probably won’t be this good again.”

It turns out that although Cape Town has a fantastic climate, Table Mountain can be a bit finicky and is often ensconced in a thick, heavy cloud. If there are no clouds on Table Mountain one day, that is your cue to ascend it immediately! Table Mountain should be on top of your must-see places while in Cape Town. The views from here are stunning and certainly not to be missed.

I’m glad we didn’t miss this one out.

GETTING THERE

There are different ways to get to Table Mountain:

By taking an Uber from the city centre, as we did, or a taxi to the bottom of the cableway
By driving to Table Mountain by car yourself – For GPS Table Mountain directions, enter “Tafelberg Road” as your destination

We took our car there from Bo – Kaap and parked midway to the bottom of the Table Mountain cable car station, this is also where you can find the ticket office, a shop, and restrooms.

GETTING TO THE TOP

You have three main options to experience Table Mountain. You can:

Climb one of the many hiking trails up yourself
Take a cable car to the top of the mountain
Take a group hiking tour – the mountain has many trails to explore

We opted for the cable car as we had our fair share of hiking to the top of Lion’s Head. Each rotating cable car offers incredible views of the city and takes only five minutes to reach the summit. The cable car is a quick and relatively inexpensive option as well.

Here are a couple of things to know before you take the cable car:

Tickets can be purchases either one way or round trip.
The first car goes up at 8:00 am. The last car up is at 7:00 pm. The last car down is at 8:00 pm. (Times subject to change and weather conditions)
Buy your tickets online before you go. The ticket line can get extremely long!
You don’t have to print the tickets, just show them on your phone screen.
During peak hours (like sunset!) the line to get on the gondola can get HOURS long. Make sure you get there early and factor this into your day.
Once on the top of the mountain, there are many hiking trails to choose from.
The top of the mountain also has a restaurant, store, bathrooms, and a bar.

The cable car turns so be careful to keep your hands off the hand railing since it turns 360 degrees providing you with a good view of cape town from above.

That is until you go through the famous Table Mountain cloth. It can be clouded on top of Table Mountain even on the sunniest day and even when it’s not, the weather circumstances can change so fast that it’s hard to plan your visit.

CLIMBING TABLE MOUNTAIN

First off, please know that hikes to the top of Table Mountain are challenging even under the BEST conditions. You should not take this hiking adventure lightly, pack sufficient water, and make sure you know where you are going.

As mentioned, we opted to take the cable car, Because of this, we can’t comment personally on how to hike up Table Mountain, but we did do some research for you in case you want to do it the hard way.

Hiking up Table Mountain takes between one and four hours depending on your physical condition and assuming you’re taking the shortest route, which is the Platteklip Gorge route. Yes, that’s a wide range and apparently, that’s mostly due to the fact that the hike is rather steep.

While the entire walk from the bottom at the parking lot to the top is only 3 km, it’s categorized at moderate to tough but easy to navigate. As you’ll be walking on sometimes narrow paths along the slopes of the mountain, the height might add another level of difficulty.

If you do plan to hike there are two main trails that take you to the top. Platteklip Gorge route( as mentioned in the shortest route) and Smuts Track. Click here for full details on each trail.

GROUP TOURS – TABLE MOUNTAIN

If you aren’t an experienced hiker there are a couple of great tour companies that hold guided hiking tours around and up the mountain. I recommend this company.

They offer a variety of tours including a 12 apostles hike, Platteklip gorge hike, and a hike from Skeleton Gorge to Table Mountain summit. Prices start at 850R per person.

ON TOP OF TABLE MOUNTAIN

Yes, there are trails leading up and down, but even if you visit Table Mountain with the cable car, there are several options for a bit of walking around at the top.

In fact, there are three loop routes that all follow the same path, but of which the two shorter ones simply cut through the middle of the loop a bit sooner. The Klipspringer one is the longest one, followed by the Agama Walk and the Dassie walk.

We took the longest route and made a little detour getting on one of the trails that head down the mountain as well. It took us a little over an hour over mostly flat terrain, making plenty of stops to admire the Table Mountain flora and fauna along the way.

The vegetation up on table mountain consists mostly out of different kinds of fynbos, with their being over 2,000 kinds of plants and flowers on the mountain.

Some animals found on Table Mountain are porcupines, lizards, snakes, and tortoises. The only animal we saw (aside from a few birds), though, was the dassie, or the rock hyrax.

In fact, we saw quite a few of these guinea-pig-like animals on our walk and because of their similarity to several rodents, we were surprised to learn later that they actually have more in common with elephants than with, for example, the guinea-pigs they look a little alike!

It was clear that the dassies at Table Mountain were used to seeing humans as they weren’t shy at all. Some even came up to us, a bit hesitant but clearly hoping for a snack.

Note: you’re not allowed to feed the animals at Table Mountain.

There are free guided tours on top to explore the geology. The Table Mountain guided walks take place daily between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The tours take 30 minutes and go into the history of Table Mountain and its cableway.

COST & TICKETS

You actually don’t pay for the park, but you do need to pay for Table Mountain cable car tickets. Rates vary depending on the time of the day. Prices for adults are:

During morning peak (8 a.m. – 1 p.m.): R290 return / R150 one-way
In the afternoon (1 p.m. onwards): R275 return / R150 one-way

There’s a permanent discount for kids and a discount for seniors and students who come on Friday and buy their tickets at the on-site ticket office. There are different rates in the height of summer, from December 15 – January 15.

Tickets: You can buy tickets at the ticket office on-site or book Table Mountain tickets online.

The benefit of getting your tickets online is that they’re valid for seven days from your chosen date and can also be refunded. That means that if you’re in Cape Town for a couple of days, you could see what the weather’s like before deciding what day you’ll go up the mountain.

IMPORTANT: only online tickets bought via Webtickets, Cape Town Tourism, and City Sightseeing South Africa are accepted at the cableway. There are other sites that sell tickets but these won’t be accepted, so make sure to book through the right site.