Hiking Up Table Mountain

Insider’s Take

From near or far Table Mountain appears rather dauntingly impregnable, which is why the vast majority of visitors take the famed Aerial Tramway to the wonderful otherworld of its flat summit, 3,558 feet above Cape Town.

But hikers and climbers are delighted to learn that the magnificent peak has more than 60 possible routes to the top, many of them involving no more than two or three hours of straightforward hiking, a desire to experience a unique and wonderfully wild mountain, and a taste for vast views down to one of the world’s great cities and the limitless ocean at its doorstep.

We’ll make all the arrangements for a guided Table Mountain hike (or even technical climb), perhaps the classic two-to-three hour Plattenklip Gorge route—the most popular and easy summit hike—or the India Vester, 12 Apostles, or Skeleton Gorge routes, each with their own charms. And, if you’re a bit less ambitious, you’ll enjoy taking the tram up for a guided ramble on Table Mountain’s flat summit, two miles from side to side, a floristic wonderland that has more endemic species than the entire Untied Kingdom.

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