Activities in and around Cape Town while on the la Baia Camps Bay Holiday Villa
Theatre on the Bay
Situated in Camps Bay - Modern venue staging musicals, plays, cabaret and comedy, plus dining in a stylish bistro.
Table Mountain
Table Mountain (Khoikhoi: Hoerikwaggo, Afrikaans: Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the Flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia.It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.
Bo-Kaap
The Bo-Kaap is an area of Cape Town and also known as the Malay Quarter. It is situated on the slopes of Signal Hill above the City Centre and is an historical arew of Cape Malay culture in Cape Town. The Nurul Islam Mosque, established in 1844, is located in the area as well as a Cape Malay museum.
Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly coloured homes and cobble stoned streets as well as Cape Malay restaurants.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garedens
The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway is a new curved steel and timber bridge that winds and dips its way through and over the trees of the Arboretum. Inspired by a snake skeleton, and informally called 'The Boomslang' (meaning tree snake), it is a low-maintenance, low-impact sculptural raised walkway.
The Walkway takes the visitor from the forest floor into and through the trees and bursts out above the canopy, giving spectacular panoramic vistas of the surrounding mountains, Garden and Cape Flats.
This walkway is 130 m long, narrow and slender, with a few wider view-point areas, and lightly snakes its way through the canopy, in a discreet, almost invisible way. The walkway is crescent-shaped and takes advantage of the sloping ground; it touches the forest floor in two places, and raises visitors to 12 m above ground. It is more than just a traditional boardwalk - like a snake, it winds and dips.
The Arboretum is situated between the Protea Garden, Cycad Amphitheatre, the Dell, Mathews Rockery and the Concert Lawn.
The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway was built in 2013-14 to celebrate the centenary of Kirstenbosch in 2013, and opened to the public on 17 May 2014.
Cape Point
Named the ‘Cape of Storms’ by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488; the ‘Point’ was treated with respect by sailors for centuries. By day, it was a navigational landmark and by night, and in fog, it was a menace beset by violent storms and dangerous rocks that over the centuries littered shipwrecks around the coastline.
In 1859 the first lighthouse was completed; it still stands at 249 metres above sea-level on the highest section of the peak and is now used as the centralised monitoring point for all the lighthouses on the coast of South Africa. Access to this historical building is by an exhilarating 3 minute ride in the wheelchair accessible Flying Dutchman funicular that transfers visitors from the lower station at 127 metres above sea level, to the upper station at 286 metres above sea level.
Table Mountain National Park forms part of the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site. It includes the majestic Table Mountain chain, which stretches from Signal Hill to Cape Point, and the coastlines of the Cape Peninsula. This narrow stretch of land, dotted with beautiful valleys, bays and beaches, contains a mix of extraordinarily diverse and unique fauna and flora.
Robben Island
Robben Island (Afrikaans: Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town. The name is Dutch for "seal island." Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km².
It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served as a prisoner before the fall of apartheid.
To date, three of the former inmates of Robben Island have become Presidents/Vice of South Africa: Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe, and current President Jacob Zuma.
Taking a stroll in Woodstock.
South Africa’s first suburb and one of the few areas in Cape Town that avoided apartheid’s banning of non-whites. Nowadays it still houses all types of South Africans; blacks, whites, coloured, working class and creative environment. Walking around the streets watching the great diversity, the interesting political street art and all the vintage shops and art galleries is a great cultural experience.
Watching Penguins at Boulders beach.
Bring a picnic basket to Boulder’s beach by Simon’s Town, a cute town 45 min. drive from the city. Here, it is a massive colony of penguins who rule, and the people who make way for their diminutive neighbours.