The 9 best beach walks in Cape Town

If you want the sea spray on your face and the chance of spotting a dolphin or whale, then the Muizenberg Catwalk is for you. 

It’s one of the most famous and easy-on-the-eye walks along our beautiful False Bay. This popular coastal "catwalk" (or boardwalk) runs along the sea for approximately 3 km (one way), stretching from Muizenberg (Surfers Corner) to St James Beach. 

It takes roughly 40–60 minutes to walk in one direction. Rather, use the catwalk during low tide, as high-tide waves can occasionally spill over it, making it quite wet. 

UPDATE: The surrounding Muizenberg promenade is undergoing an extensive update - you can read more about that here. 

If you want to extend your walk to Kalk Bay, then continue past St James along the coastal road or sidewalks to Kalk Bay, making the total walking distance from Muizenberg around 3.5 km or more. The walk is a public, open area, so be aware of safety. Preferably go with 1 or 2 fellow catwalkers. 

Did you know? A catwalk is a maritime term, referring to a narrow, elevated walkway on a ship, fitted with handrails and a non-slip surface.  

If you are a social bird and enjoy people-watching, then you need to strut your stuff at the Camp’s Bay promenade, where the iconic beach meets the trendy suburb of Camp’s Bay.

This 4 km stretch of wide, palm-lined walkway allows a breathtaking view of the beautiful ocean on one side and the Twelve Apostles mountain range on the other side.

The Promenade is lined with popular beachside bars and upscale restaurants, so it is bustling at night too! Over weekends there are often markets, or live music performances, which just adds to its reputation as being the trendiest Promenade of them all!

Perhaps you are more of an ostrich-type hiker – eating up the miles with your long strides and scanning the horizon for beauty. Well, if so, you are spoilt for choice at our gorgeous national park of Cape Point on the tip of the Cape Peninsula. 

Take, for starters, the 10km Gifkommetjie hike. The nice thing is that if you know your way around or have a good hiking app like AllTrails, you can make this hike a little shorter and avoid walking back on the road in the second half. The trail starts and ends at Gifkommetjie parking site (use the Cape Point map to get you there) and initially takes you along a rocky ridge (including a viewing platform so you can get an eyeful of that exquisite view of turquoise seas and coastal fynbos). It then trails down to the beach, where, if you are doing a gentle Sunday stroll, you can have a break for lunch, a swim in the sea, and bliss out on the pristine white beach.

Then, depending on your energy levels, you can continue or return via the rocky coast, get an eyeful of the shipwreck, and the huge old wood tree-trunks. This (quicker) route takes you under the ridge you started the route on, so if the southeaster is blowing, this is a more sheltered way to go. It also meanders through a melkboom ‘forest’, up some stairs and back to Gifkommetjie. The route isn’t as well-signposted as it could be, but for all that, its wild and rugged beauty is the draw card that will keep you going back again and again. 

There are usually ostriches and eland to see up close, and unfortunately, some plastic rubbish along the coastal stretch by the shipwreck. Clearly, the plastic flotsam from the many ships that pass by Cape Point is washed up here, along with shipwrecks! Some old rusted crayfish nets have also washed up, and if you sniff hard, you may conjure up succulent visions of crayfish, dripping with butter, roasting on a braai (but note that some of the Cape Point is a marine reserve and fishing is prohibited in these areas).

Did you know? Gifkommetjie is named after the Euphorbia caput-medusae (a poisonous plant with writhing fleshy stems, like Medusa’s hair), which occurs in abundance here. See a photo of this plant and read more about it here.

If you want an eagle’s eye view of the wild oceans, then an ideal trail would be the Cape of Good Hope Trail. It starts and ends at the Cape Point main parking area and is well-marked with signs guiding you to the Cape of Good Hope.

It’s a fun and easy 3.5km boardwalk with eye-opening views over Diaz beach and the wild, rugged shorelines. It will take you about 2-3 hours (return).

The very end of the trail is the most southern point of the Cape Peninsula – or the most South Western corner of Africa. This is not, as many people mistakenly believe, the southernmost point of Africa (that honour belongs to Cape Agulhas). 

If you are more of a penguin than a pedestrian, then this route is for you. Instead of walking on the beach, why not swim along the idyllic beaches between Clifton’s first beach and Bakoven, and boulder-hop between beaches? 

Of course, this means the option is for the fitter amongst us, preferably on a sunny day. It’s also much more fun going in a group. Start at Clifton 1st beach and leave your cars there, and then walk, boulder hop and swim to Bakoven - grabbing a cortado or coffee en route to keep you going. You can then walk back to your car on the road. This route is roughly 8 km in total. 
Wear light hiking clothes, Birkenstocks (or other shoes that can get wet), and hats. Wear your costume so that it’s easy to strip off, swim, and get dressed again. Take a dry bag (so that you can keep stuff dry -you want to avoid wet-clothes thigh rub!) Don’t forget a few snacks, and at least a litre of water.

Another energetic option is on the False Bay side, from Miller's Point to Simonstown. You can literally swim with penguins, boulder-hopping between tidal pools and the ocean. Leave your cars at Simonstown Long Beach, take one car to Millers Point and swim/walk to Simonstown from there. One driver will then need to take the other drivers back to their cars.

These routes are for fairly strong swimmers and agile people, so if you prefer a gentle meandering walk, try one of the Prom walks instead.

If you prefer the slow amble, then the Prom might be more your kettle of fish. It starts on the edge of Mouille Point, with the candy-striped lighthouse (one of the oldest operational lighthouses in South Africa), and stretches flat and wide, along the sea for about 7km to the far end of Sea Point. 

If you have kids, there are play-parks and outdoor fitness areas along the route. If you want to skate, then you can pretend you are on the famous Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles. Alternatively, if you are feeling energetic, you can jog along the Prom, joining in with the other energy-bunnies.

If you are looking for another perspective, enjoy the public art, such as the giant pair of spectacles (built by artist Michael Elion) that look over the sea to Robben Island, and which are aptly named “Perceiving Freedom”. There are also refreshments available at a variety of kiosks and coffee stands, so you can sip a cup of hot coffee whilst you watch the golden pinks of the sunset over the Atlantic.

If you don’t necessarily want to get your feet wet and are more of a klipspringer than a seal, then you will get great coastal views, plus some fynbos and streams thrown in, from the Mayor’s Walk. 

The Mayor’s walk (now renamed the Danie Miller Hiking Trail) is a short walk (2,9 km) along the contours of the mountain above Gordon’s Bay. In the late 1980’s, Danie Miller was the Mayor of Gordon’s Bay and built the trail with the help of his two daughters, Chanel and Lisa. It usually takes about 2 hours to walk. 

The starting point is at Aurora Drive, and the end is near the end of Suikerbossie Drive. There are no entrance fees, and it can be accessed at any time. 

Head out on this 13.4 km trail (there and back) near Blouberg, along Table Bay's West Coast. Most of the trail is long stretches of sandy beach, but there are some rocky patches, for which you need to take off your shoes and socks and paddle through. It takes an average of 4 hours to complete. If you are feeling peckish, there are nice restaurants on the Promenade.  

There are very photogenic views of Table Mountain, and when the wind is pumping, which, let’s be honest, can sometimes happen even in our fair city, the kitesurfers come out in force to do acrobatics over the ocean. 

The name says it all. This is a lo-o-o-ng beach. So, if you feel like a sandpiper today and want the feel of sand between your toes and waves licking at your feet, then this is the walk for you.

Stretching 8km, this beach is definitely one of the longest pure sand beach walks in the city. Near the Kommetjie side, you will come across some rusted poles and the remnants of a boiler, sticking out of the long white expanses of beach. This is the Kakapo, an early 1900s shipwreck. The captain apparently mistook Chapman’s Peak for Cape Point during one of the winter storms the Cape of Storms is legendary for!

This is, of course, the perfect beach to ride a horse on, and many people do exactly that. In fact, you can hire a horse and go for a gallop on the shimmering sands or in the shallows of the ‘white horses’ of the Atlantic Ocean.