Cape Town's Sea Point Promenade
Part of the full Table Mountain and the Bo-Kaap: CPT Layover
Cape Town’s Sea Point Promenade is a flat, free seafront walk of about 2.8 kilometres along the Atlantic, from the red-and-white Green Point Lighthouse at Mouille Point to the seawater pools of the Sea Point Pavilion, with Green Point Park behind the lighthouse and the peak of Lion’s Head over the whole stretch, an outdoor half day rather than the city centre’s museums and cable car.
Lion’s Head, the peak standing over Sea Point
Lion’s Head rises 669 metres above the Atlantic suburbs of Cape Town, a steep, pointed peak between Signal Hill and Table Mountain, and from the promenade it fills the skyline above Sea Point’s apartment blocks. The trail up starts on Signal Hill Road, a short car ride above Sea Point, and circles the peak on the way up, so the view keeps changing: the City Bowl, then Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles, then the whole run of coast down which the promenade runs. Near the top the path splits, and the quicker branch climbs the steepest rock on chains and metal staples.
The trail is free, and most people take an hour to 90 minutes up and about an hour back down, so with the drive to the start it needs three hours on its own. Sunset is when the summit fills up, and a guided sunset hike up Lion’s Head can be booked ahead for anyone who would rather not find the route, or come down it in the dusk, alone. The easier view of the same coastline comes from the Table Mountain cable car, which the main Cape Town guide builds its day around.
The Green Point Lighthouse, red and white stripes since 1824
The Green Point Lighthouse stands on the seafront at Mouille Point, where the promenade begins its run west towards Sea Point. Building started in 1821, the light was first lit in April 1824, and it is the oldest operational lighthouse in South Africa: a 16-metre square tower painted in bold red and white diagonal bands, its white light flashing every ten seconds. A foghorn went in beside it in 1926, over the complaints of neighbours who had been objecting since 1923, and it is still known locally as Moaning Minnie. The tower has at times opened for short visits for a fee, but the outside, from the lawn beside the promenade, is the view worth having.
Mouille Point takes its name from the French word for an anchoring ground, after a breakwater begun here in 1743 and abandoned after only about 100 metres. Its shore has claimed ships ever since. About 50 metres off the car park where Beach Road meets Fritz Sonnenberg Road, a rusted lump of iron stands clear of the water: the engine block of the RMS Athens, a mail steamer that tried to escape Table Bay in the Great Gale of 17 May 1865, lost its boiler fires to the waves as it rounded the point and went down with all 30 on board. It is easiest to pick out at low tide.
Green Point Park’s garden of Cape plants behind Mouille Point
Green Point Park fills the ground between Mouille Point and the stadium built for the 2010 World Cup, with entrances on Bay Road and Fritz Sonnenberg Road, a couple of minutes from the lighthouse. It is free, open daily until 19:00, and much quieter than the promenade: lawns, ponds covered in water lilies, and paths laid out through wetland planting, with Signal Hill and Lion’s Head behind.
The Biodiversity Showcase Garden inside it was planted for the same World Cup, and it is laid out as three themed walks: one on how the Khoikhoi and the early Cape settlers used the plants around them, one on what makes the Cape’s plant life distinct and what threatens it, and a wetland walk recalling the seasonal marshes that once covered this common.
The promenade is a straight line along the shore rather than a loop, so a suitcase brought here would go the full distance out to the Sea Point pools and then the full distance back, or onto a bus along Beach Road.
The Sea Point Pavilion’s Olympic-sized seawater pool
The Sea Point Pavilion sits on the promenade at the Sea Point end of the walk, about 2.8 kilometres from the Green Point Lighthouse, and its pools, right beside the Atlantic, are filled with filtered seawater. The main pool is 50 metres long, the only Olympic-sized seawater pool in the city; beside it are a diving pool with springboards and a 5-metre platform and two shallow splash pools for small children, with lifeguards on duty throughout.
None of the pools is heated, but the complex stays open all year, and adult entry costs under R40, with pensioners over 60 swimming free. Past the Pavilion the promenade carries on to Queens Beach, at the edge of Bantry Bay, for anyone who still has the legs for it.
Cape Town International, about 30 minutes from Sea Point by car
Sea Point is roughly 25 kilometres from Cape Town International Airport (CPT), about 30 minutes by car in normal traffic and closer to an hour in the weekday rush on the N2. Uber and Bolt both collect along Beach Road, which makes a car the simplest way back from wherever the walk ends. There is no train.
By bus it takes a change. MyCiTi route 104 runs along Beach Road through Sea Point and Mouille Point and past the V&A Waterfront into Civic Centre station on the Foreshore, where the A01 airport bus leaves for a ride of about half an hour. Both are paid with a myconnect card loaded with enough credit for the airport surcharge. Leave Sea Point at least two and a half hours before an international departure.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near the Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town?
Walk the promenade from the red-and-white Green Point Lighthouse at Mouille Point, first lit in 1824, to the Sea Point Pavilion's seawater pools, about 2.8 kilometres of flat, paved seafront that costs nothing. Green Point Park sits just behind the lighthouse, free to enter, and the Pavilion charges a small fee for a swim in its Olympic-sized pool. Three hours covers all of it at an easy pace. Lion's Head, the peak above Sea Point, is the optional extra: the climb takes about three hours in all from the road, and a guided sunset hike is worth booking ahead if you want someone else to handle the route.
Is the Sea Point Promenade sheltered from the south-easter?
Partly. The south-easter, the strong summer wind Capetonians call the Cape Doctor, blows mostly from September to March, and Table Mountain puts part of the Atlantic side in its lee. Local kayak operators describe a moderate south-easter leaving a wind shadow from the Green Point Lighthouse to Clifton, which shrinks back towards Three Anchor Bay, midway along the promenade, once gusts pass about 17 knots. So in a moderate south-easter much of the walk is out of the worst of it, while in a strong one both ends of the promenade catch the wind.
Is the Sea Point Pavilion pool heated, and can children swim there?
The pools are filled with filtered seawater and are not heated, and the complex stays open all year. Alongside the 50-metre main pool and a diving pool with springboards and a 5-metre platform, there are two shallow splash pools for small children, and lifeguards are on duty. Adult entry is under R40, pensioners over 60 and children under two get in free, and there are changing rooms with showers and lockers.
Is the bus or a car better from Sea Point to Cape Town International Airport?
A car, for most layovers. Uber and Bolt cover Sea Point and take about 30 minutes to Cape Town International Airport (CPT), roughly 25 kilometres, in normal traffic, closer to an hour in the weekday rush on the N2. There is no train. By bus it takes a change: MyCiTi route 104 runs along Beach Road past Sea Point and Mouille Point into Civic Centre station on the Foreshore, where the A01 airport bus leaves for a ride of about half an hour, both paid with a myconnect card loaded with enough for the airport surcharge.