Visiting Cape Town for families

Cape Town is a great place to travel with kids. Of course, as with other destinations, things are easier if you haven’t got nippers in tow – and the winelands and city centre offer plenty of appeal for wine-loving ‘foodie’ couples, at prices that seem exceptionally cheap if you are travelling from the UK. But there’s no reason why you can’t combine a love of good food and wine with a family holiday, in a setting of great natural beauty, by means of a visit to the Cape. On a recent two week trip with two young children (aged five and six), with some careful planning we managed to make sure everyone’s needs were met rather painlessly, and without breaking the bank.

In an effort to assist others making similar plans, here are my personal recommendations for fun things to do for families visiting Cape Town: many would also appeal to child-free visitors, too. I’ve also added a few general tips at the end.

Table Mountain Yes, an obvious choice, but you really have to take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. It's almost compulsory. Do it on the first clear day of your visit (you might not get another if the cloud -- named the 'tablecloth' -- decides to hang around at the top). Cost for a family of four is about Ł20, and you can take a picnic or eat at the top. It gets busy, so the earlier you get there the better, to avoid the queue and an extraordinarily long walk from where you park to the cable car station. Views from the top are spectacular.	One of the views from Table Mountain
Boulders Beach Swimming with Jackass penguins at Boulders Beach is a remarkable experience. Penguins aside, this is a great place to spend a day at the beach, with warm currents and sheltered conditions. Just past Simonstown on the False Bay coast, a short drive from Cape Town. Cost is less than a pound each.
Cape Point Not to be missed is a drive to Cape Point, through the national park. Despite its proximity to Cape Town, it's windswept, remote and spectacularly beautiful. You will probably meet up with the resident baboon population, which can be a little unnerving if you are on foot.
Simonstown Scratch Patch OK, this is one just for the kids, but ours loved it. You pay a small fee to fill a bag with polished semi-precious stones (the rejects from the processing plant), rooting around on the floor choosing your favourites. The original one is at Simonstown, but there's also one on the waterfront in town.
Hout Bay A working harbour, queue for high quality fish and chips (with an ice cold quarter bottle of crisp white wine?), and then eat them watching the boats unload their catch.
World of Birds A spectacular aviary complex outside Hout Bay, with a tremendous array of bird species, together with a range of monkeys and other animals. For us the highlight was going into the squirrel monkey enclosure and letting the cute but curious little critters climb all over us. Relatively inexpensive.
Picnic at Spier Spier, on the R310 on the way to Stellenbosch from Cape Town, offers beautifully manicured grounds around a lake: you can picnic here, buying your food and wine from the classy deli on the estate. A great lunch option. There's also a Cheetah sanctuary on the estate (free admission).
The Tavern at Groot Constantia The historical wine estate of Groot Constantia has two restaurants. I wouldn't recommend the pricier of the two, the 'Jonkershuis' (mediocre, non wine-friendly food), but the 'Tavern' has very good Austrian-pub-style food and an attractive children's play area.