South of the city, the Cape Peninsula narrows into a long, mountainous finger of land that runs all the way to the dramatic headlands of Cape Point — a landscape of fishing harbours, white beaches, fynbos-covered ridges and small seaside towns strung along both the False Bay and Atlantic coasts. It is the wild counterpoint to the city centre, easily reached on a full day's drive but feeling far more remote.
On the warmer False Bay side, the railway line threads through a chain of villages: artsy Kalk Bay with its working fishing harbour, antique shops and well-loved pubs; sleepy Fish Hoek; and historic Simon's Town, the old Royal Navy base whose most famous resident was Just Nuisance, the Great Dane enlisted into the navy in the 1940s. Just beyond lies Boulders Beach, where a colony of African penguins waddles among the granite boulders and swims in the sheltered coves. The peninsula ends in the Cape of Good Hope reserve, where Cape Point's lighthouse looks out over the meeting of the oceans. On the Atlantic side, the harbour town of Hout Bay and the cliff-hugging toll road of Chapman's Peak Drive offer some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the country.
This is a day's outing rather than a base — bring a car or join a peninsula tour, pack a swimsuit and a windbreaker, and allow time to stop for fish and chips by a harbour and to walk among the penguins.