What Cape Town costs
Cape Town is cheap to eat in and dear to get into — Cape Point and Boulders on the same day cost more than lunch and dinner together.
- Lean
- €56–72 a day per person
- Comfortable
- €106–120 per person for a peninsula day
- Biggest line
- Entry fees: Cape Point €27
What Cape Town costs depends more on entry fees than on food: a day on the peninsula, with Cape Point and Boulders, costs as much at the gates as lunch, dinner and half a car put together. Food is cheap, and so is a car split two ways; the gates are what is dear.
The figures below are per person, in euros; the car is per day for the whole car and is split two ways in the total. Rooms are cheapest in June and dearest in November and December.
Total: hotel, lunch, dinner, half the car and two entries; petrol not included. A lean day in town, with a hostel, two meals and the cableway, is €56–72.
Where the money actually goes
On the peninsula the gates cost more than the car: a small car split two ways comes to less per person than one Cape Point ticket. Petrol is €1.39 a litre and changes every month, on the first Wednesday, by government decision. You cannot avoid a car for the peninsula and the winelands; in town you do not hire one.
The tickets you genuinely pay for
- Table Mountain — a return adult ticket is €25 online and €28 at the ticket office. An online ticket is valid for seven days: if the wind shuts the cableway, use it on the next open day or claim a refund.
- Robben Island — €32–35 for a foreign visitor, including the boat, the bus and the prison tour.
- Cape Point and Boulders — two separate entries on the same day, both card only.
Where you save without losing anything
Sunset from Signal Hill and the climb up Lion's Head cost nothing. The one thing you do not economise on is the cab home.
The same comparison for 143 places: hostel, hotel, getting into town and a day pass. Travel costs →
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
What does a day in Cape Town cost?
A lean day with no car, a hostel, two meals and the cableway is €56–72 a head. A peninsula day with a hotel and a car shared by two is €106–120, of which the two entries are about a third.
Is a hire car worth it?
For the peninsula and the winelands yes, because there is no public transport there. For the first two days in the city no — the centre walks and MyCiTi runs to the Waterfront.
Do you need cash?
Very little: tips, markets and the men who watch your car. Everything else, park gates included, goes on a card.
Ready for Cape Town?
Where to next
Cape Town in 5 days
→Five days of which one is deliberately empty — because you climb Table Mountain on the clear morning, not the…
Johannesburg · 1262 km
→A city that sprang up on a gold reef in 1886 and had a hundred thousand people ten years later
How well does Cape Town suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.