From peaks to penguins: Your guide to Cape Town

Framed by mountain peaks and rolling seas, Cape Town is a city that dazzles at every turn. It’s where adventure meets elegance — and where locals swap hiking boots for surfboards before the day’s even begun

Bestowing Cape Town with its sublime beauty is the proximity of its built environments to such vast swaths of natural wilderness. Plus, there’s a pristine ocean curling around craggy headlands and boulder-strewn beaches. One of the must-do day-trips out of the city is a drive around the Cape Peninsula, taking in Cape Point as well as several quaint seaside villages, each imbued with its own special charm. Simon’s Town is Cape Town’s navy enclave, full of Victorian houses now converted into quaint boutiques and lively cafés. But perhaps the biggest draw here is the African penguin colony at Boulders, a pretty rock-fringed beach at the edge of the town.

Boulders Beach is believed to be the only place in the world where you can effortlessly swim among penguins and possibly find them flopping onto your beach towel.

If you’re looking for post-penguin activities in Simon’s Town, it’s a good little town for exploring on foot. If maritime history intrigues you, visit the South African Naval Museum, which now includes a submarine stationed in the Naval Dockyard. And at the Simon’s Town Museum, you can learn about Just Nuisance, a famous and beloved beer-drinking great dane that was adopted by the Royal Navy during the Second World War (he’s even memorialised with a statue at the harbour). You can also catch a boat to watch whales.

Simon’s Town is just 40km from Cape Town central, and is accessible from the city by train.

Virgin Atlantic operates direct flights to South Africa from London Heathrow.