Cape Town Hop-On Hop-Off Buses

Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa and a favourite destination for hundreds of tourists every year. As a peninsula, Cape Town is home to countless natural beauties, with flora and fauna on every corner. Visiting Cape Town means being exposed to nature and the urban, but also to the wildlife and marine life that exist in these latitudes.

If you plan to visit Cape Town for a few days or, on the contrary, you plan to stay longer, an ideal way to tour the city is by tourist bus. This means of transport visits the most important destinations in each cardinal point of the metropolis. This, with the possibility of adapting the route to your liking, audio recordings in Spanish and urban and natural panoramas of great beauty. This tour option is one of the best things to do in Cape Town.

The City Sightseeing Cape Town sightseeing bus is one of the most convenient ways to tour the capital of South Africa. On this type of vehicle, you can take a tour of the city's main s ights, covering a total of 30 free stops, spread over three major routes. The best part is that you can hop on and off the bus at your own convenience and get to know Cape Town at your own pace.

This bus, operated by the City Sightseeing Tour Company, is a tour designed for the whole family and includes stops at places such as World of Birds, Camps Bay Beach , the Clock Tower, Table Mountain, Zeitz MOCAA Museum and much more. Plus, the experience includes audio commentary on the various sites you visit.

With a wide range on offer to suit every tourist's needs, you can choose a 24 or 48 hour pass, so you have plenty of time to make the most of the tour. You can also choose between the Constantia Valley Wine Tour, the Red City Tour and the Mini Blue Peninsula Tour. You may find it difficult to choose between them, as each has its own charm. However, my aim is to help you choose the best tour for you.

If you opt for the Cape Town Sightseeing Bus, you'll have three routes to guide your tour, depending on the time you have available, as well as your preferences. In any case, don't forget that you can hop off or on the bus at any of its 30 stops, so you can explore freely. In addition, you should know that some routes are linked to each other, as we will see below.

City Route or Red Route

As the name suggests, this route runs through the most emblematic points within the city and is an almost mandatory tour for all tourists staying at least 3 days in Cape Town or more, as you will pass through these places to get from one point to another, even if you only do activities outside the city. The route is made up of 11 stops, including the following places of interest:

• Stop 1 (Seaport), is the starting point of this route and the blue route. A place with marvellous views of the surrounding area where those who are going to take part in a boat tour also gather.
• Stop 2 (Clock Tower), an iconic tower that is part of the city's history, with a well-known shopping centre of the same name.
• Stop 5 (81 Long Street), one of the city's most important shopping streets, lined with cafes, bars and restaurants.
• Stop 7 (Table Mountain Cable Car), the cable car from which you can see breathtaking ocean and city views from a rotating cabin.
• Stop 8 (Camps Bay), the popular bay that welcomes hundreds of tourists thanks to the beauty of its beaches.
• Stop 11 (Saint Johns Road), a street with great historical value that nowadays offers commercial activity and tourist attractions such as St. John**'s** Church, museums, markets, etc.
• Stop 12 (Green Point), a large urban park for a variety of activities such as picnics, exercise, sightseeing and learning about biodiversity.

Mini Peninsula or Blue Route

The Mini Peninsula or Blue Route consists of approximately 14 stops, some of which are shared with the Red Route. The focus of this route is to get to know a variety of natural spaces, parks and buildings of great historical or artistic value. Thus, important stops along this route include:

• Stop 15 (Mount Nelson Hotel), a hotel that stands out for the beauty of its architecture, of romantic style and which has hosted great characters of Western history such as the Prince of Wales and the writers HG Wells and Agatha Christie.
• Stop 20 (Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens), a natural lung founded in 1913 that showcases the diversity of Cape Town's flora. Picnics are also possible here.
• Stop 22 (World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary & Monkey Park), a zoo of sorts, where you'll see hundreds of bird species and have interactive experiences with monkeys and other mammals.
• Stop 23 (Imizamo Yethu), a community of some of South Africa's native ethnic groups, classified as an informal settlement, offering street art, local food, guided tours and more to show the world their history and culture.
• Stop 24 (Mariner's Wharf Harbour Front Emporium), a harbour of sorts with a variety of restaurants to sample the region's produce. It also offers boat trips for seal watching. Open from Friday to Sunday.

Constantia Valley Wine Trail or Purple Trail

This is another tourist favourite and is centred in the Constantia Valley, approximately 15km south of Cape Town. You'll see some of South Africa's oldest and most prestigious wineries. The tour, ideal to complete during your stay of at least 7 days in Cape Town, is made up of 4 stops, which are as follows:

• Stop 21 (Constantia Nek), the starting point of this route, a space with various restaurants and bars where you could have a coffee and snacks, or start the wine tasting.
• Stop 25 (Groot Constantia), the most traditional wine estate in the African country, where you can watch the wine production process and taste several award-winning vintages.
• Stop 26 (Eagle's Nest), another of the region's important wineries offering a tasting of Merlot, Viognier and Shiraz wines.
• Stop 27 (Beau Constantia), a restaurant where you can do a wine tasting and, at the same time, taste delicious dishes while enjoying the view.

The advantages of using the Cape Town Red Bus Tour are many and varied. You will find benefits from an economic point of view, since you will be able to integrate the visit to several destinations in the same means of transport.

On the other hand, you will have the opportunity to make the visits in a personalised way, as you can get off or on at a stop whenever you prefer. You will also be able to make the best use of your time, as you can organise your itinerary around 5 days in Cape Town or less, so that you can see as many places as possible in one or two days.

If you're staying in the city for several days, then you can combine this tour with a visit to other places, for example, a much more comprehensive wine tour, a marine wildlife boat tour, or a hiking tour of Table Mountain, among other top Cape Town tours.

The full length of the Cape Town sightseeing day bus tour is relative, as it will depend on how you navigate each route. If you take a complete route, the length of the tour will be different than if you combine several of them. Also, there is the fact that, if you purchase a two-day ticket, you will have a 48-hour window to visit the sites.

In any case, you should be aware that the total duration of the three routes is estimated at 4 hours and this time may vary due to external conditions such as weather, traffic or other events.

Specifically, the longest route is the Mini Blue Peninsula route , with a total of approximately 2 hours of walking time. This time can be extended if you purchase tickets for World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary, for example. If you decide to go for the red city route , then the time is about 1 hour, while if you opt for the wine route, the minimum time would be 30 minutes. So, times will vary according to your own interests.

The list of what you will see on the Cape Town sightseeing bus is endless, because you can tailor the tour according to your preferences and available travel time. Also, if you choose the 1 day option, your experience will be different from the 2 day option, as in the latter case the number of destinations to visit increases, as well as the duration of the experiences in each destination.

In any of the cases, you should know that with the tourist bus you have the opportunity to know basically all the essential places of Cape Town, since you will cover the urban environment with its historical buildings, museums, peculiar neighbourhoods such as the Boo-Kap, shops, restaurants and other places to experience the local culture.

You will also visit all the important natural destinations such as the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, World of Birds Park , Mariner's Wharf Harbour and Green Point. On the Cape Town sightseeing bus you have the opportunity to tour the city from all sides.

You will also pass through Camps Bay and enjoy all it has to offer. You'll get unique panoramic views of the ocean and its mingling with the mountains, see white sandy beaches and endless blue waters.

You'll also see the mountain trails where grapes are grown for wine production and visit the region's most important estates such as Groot Constantia, Eagle's Nest and Beau Constantia. All in all, the bus tour leaves almost none of the must-see destinations out. You might even have time left over for a safari adventure in Cape Town.

The cost of the Cape Town Sightseeing Bus for the day will depend on the type of ticket you choose, as there are two options. If you decide to do the tour in 1 day, the ticket usually costs €16 per person, while if you want to complete the tour in 2 days, then you will have to pay around €22.

In case you are travelling with children to Cape Town, the bus values change to €10 for the 1 day tour and €15 for the 2 day tour. Best of all, if you simulate your booking, you'll see that these prices are the same for almost every month of the year, which is a great way to plan your trip.

The bus tour times vary depending on the route. Thus, the red route starts operating at 08:40 hours and runs until 16:45 hours. The blue mini peninsula route starts service at 09:00 hours and runs until 15:25 hours, while the purple route operates from 09:55 hours until 16:25 hours.

There are also some differences between the routes in terms of how often the bus runs. If you intend to join the blue route, the departure interval is every 35 minutes and, for the red and purple routes, the frequency is 20 minutes. In either case you should keep in mind that both the schedules and the respective frequencies of the bus may change due to the time of year or adverse conditions such as weather or traffic.

Regardless of the type of experience you choose, the recommendation is to board the bus early in the day so that you can complete your desired routes and still have some time available to join other activities at the end of the day, such as a sunset cruise, jazz tour or other things to do in Cape Town at night.

The way the Cape Town sightseeing bus works is quite simple. The first thing you need to do is decide whether you want a 1-day or 2-day ticket and, of course, if you are going on this tour in advance, know the exact date you will be going on the tour.

To purchase or book your ticket online, once you have chosen the provider of this service, you must indicate the number of passengers, the date and the type of ticket you intend to purchase.

Next, you will have to check the availability of the tour and, if everything is OK, you will have to fill in a form with your name and surname, the language in which you wish to listen to the audio guide, your contact details and if you have any special requests related to accessibility, food, etc. Finally, add your card details and complete the purchase. You will receive your ticket by email.

If you wish to make this purchase in person, you must go to the office of the company that provides the tourist bus service, City Sightseeing Tour, located at 81 Long Street. Once you have made your purchase, you will receive your physical ticket, which you will need in order to board the bus.