Activities / Attractions / Western Cape

30 Things You Need To Do Before You Can Call Yourself A Capetonian

Updated Wednesday, 17 April 2019

Before you call yourself a Capetonian, there are 30 things you need to do in order to earn this title…

1. Climb Table Mountain

You’ve actually hiked the mountain, not done it by cable-car (anyone can do that!).

Favourite hikes include: Skeleton Gorge to Maclear’s Beacon, Upper Cableway Station to Maclear’s Beacon, Platteklip to Upper Cableway Station and the Pipe Track.

Top of Table Mountain

2. Buy something for your home in Woodstock

Because the furniture, clothing, handmade jewellery, second-hand bookshops, food trucks, and coffee shops of the design district are just so happening…

3. Know where the dedicated urban bicycle lanes and paths are

Newlands, Rondebosch, City Bowl to Table View along the MyCiti Cycle Route (16 km; the longest dedicated cycle path in the country), between Obs and Salt River, Mouille Point and Sea Point.

Cycling in Cape Town

4. Live in the City Bowl

Anywhere else is considered the suburbs…

5. Have your weekend plans spoiled by yet another closure of Chapman’s Peak

The route between Hout Bay and Noordhoek is plagued by rock falls and soil erosion.

Fynbos on Chapmans Peak

6. Take up at least one of the following:

Surfing, kite-surfing, trail running, yoga…Cape Town’s focus on outdoor and adventure sports culture will get you eventually.

7. Write a foodie or lifestyle blog about your life in Cape Town

You haven’t lived until you’ve shared your blow-by-blow accounts of restaurants, coffee shops and where to be seen, with others.

Wine Routes of the Cape

8. Know how to pronounce Oranjezicht, Noordhoek, Llundudno, Bakoven, Wynberg, Bergvliet, Oudekraal and Smitswinkelbaai

It’s a dead give-away when a visitor tries to say any of these; they so obviously are not from around here…

9. Have narrowly missed riding over a Western leopard toad at least once

You also probably sport a bumper sticker creating awareness of the plight of this severely threatened amphibian.

Cape Town Highway

10. Have seen the ravaging effects of a fire on the mountain during the scorching heat of summer

And have a lot more respect for fynbos, and the lives of animals on the mountain, as a result.

11. Have to damp proof at least one of your cottage walls

There are no words to aptly describe this phenomenon.

Cape Minstrel Carnival

12. Book weeks in advance to eat at The Test Kitchen

And know that it’s worth it for the Woodstock meets Luke Dale-Roberts experience.

13. Hotly voice your opinion on house prices on the Atlantic Seaboard

They’re either ridiculous or incredible!

Camps Bay

14. Know, without having to look at the mountain, which side of the peninsula you are on

It can get horribly confusing…

15. Ride the metro train line between Simon’s Town and Cape Town in some form

Whether you use it as a commute, or to ramble Kalk Bay’s high street over the weekend.

Coastal Train

16. Have a favourite corner coffee shop

Not as easy as it sounds; coffee shops are a dime a dozen in Cape Town. But on a street corner, tucked into a village somewhere, you have a spot that is simply you.

17. Climb Lion’s Head at dusk to descend in the moonlight

And stand in awe at the sheer beauty of the city at night.

Cape Town Power Boat trip

18. Spend Saturday mornings at your favourite foodie market

Porter Estate, Neighbourgoods Market, Earthfair Market, City Bowl Market, The Palms Market, Willowbridge Slow Market, Kalk Bay Fresh Market, Bay Harbour Market

19. Go to at least one Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert

To jostle for your blanket space in amongst the crowds. The line-up is usually great, the scenery incredible, and the company rather civilised.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden

20. See the city from really high up

Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, Signal Hill, Tygerberg Hill…there is a hill or mountain with a view at just about every turn.

21. Eat Cape Malay in the Bo Kaap

And understand the difference between samosas, lamb denningvleis, mild chicken kalya, babotie, bredie and koeksisters.

Bo Kaap Houses

22. Go on several tours of the Winelands

Cape Town’s answer to the London pub crawl.

23. Hang out at Clifton 4th

If not to tan during the heat of summer, then definitely on Christmas Eve when locals line the beach with candles in brown paper bags.

Clifton on the Atlantic Seaboard

24. Have survived a summer’s worth of the Cape Doctor

The South-Easterly wind takes getting used to. It blows from False Bay across to Cape Town and Blouberg at a rapid rate. All season. Just as well, as it takes the pollution with it.

25. Leave work early on a Friday to hit the beach

Along with everyone else…

Cape Town Power Boat trip

26. Amuse yourself with at least one alternative therapy

Qigong, meditation, tarot card readings, quantum medicine, acupuncture or ozone therapy.

27. Go on an underground tunnel tour of the city

Cape Town’s far more tame answer to London’s underground. Explore secret tunnels and water ways below the city that date back to 1652.

Swim with Penguins at Boulders Beach

28. Have a favourite ‘hidden’ beach

There are not many beaches that can claim anonymity, but you soon get to know where to head for quieter moments – Smitswinkelbaai, Kommetjie, Noordhoek, Scarborough.

29. Know that ‘fish n chips’ does not mean the Ocean Basket

Usually your fish n chips will come from a dingy neighbourhood corner café, like Plumstead Fisheries.

30. Do high tea at the Mount Nelson

Because you can; because you occasionally indulge yourself.

High Tea at the Vineyard Hotel

Cape Town Travel Planning