A Fitness Lovers Guide To Cape Town

While there are plenty of gyms and fitness centers around Cape Town, you might not be in town long enough or aren’t willing to spend hundreds of rand on a membership. Luckily, Cape Town has a multitude of outdoor spaces where you can exercise for a small fee or absolutely free!
On any given day, the Sea Point Promenade is filled with families, dog-walkers and tourists enjoying the stunning sea views and sunshine, but it’s also a great place to work out. Whether you enjoy walking, running or rollerblading, this seaside promenade is the perfect place to get into shape. There’s even a free outdoor gym with a range of equipment to give you a full body workout. If you’re not into running or leg-pressing, hop on one of the rental bikes offered by Discovery Vitality and pedal to your heart’s content.

Situated next to the Cape Town Stadium, the Green Point Park is a green oasis in the middle of the Mother City. The large park is perfect for exercising on the manicured lawns or walking and cycling along the designated pathways. There’s also an outdoor gym for adults and play parks to keep children occupied.

Need to up your running mileage? Join ParkRun for an easy five-kilometer run at the Green Point Park every Saturday at 8am. Entry is free but you need to register on their website if you wish to be timed. Check out their site for other park runs held around Cape Town.

Runners participating in the weekly ParkRun at Green Point Park, Cape Town

Outdoor boot camps like Adventure Boot Camp and O2 Fit Club will whip you into shape in no time. Packages range in price and number of sessions, and include wellness assessments, nutrition advice and professional coaches.

If you love walking, Cape Town has a multitude of hiking trails for beginners to more advanced trailblazers. The Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) offers many popular hiking trails ranging in difficulty and time from 45 minutes to four hours one-way. Watch the sun rise over the Hottentots Holland Mountains or see it set over the Atlantic from your perch on top of Lion’s Head.

Further south, the Silvermine Nature Reserve offers some of the best hikes and mountain-biking trails in the TMNP. Make your way through scenic fynbos landscapes and over mountains. When you return, a dip in the large reservoir will leave you feeling refreshed. If you’re looking for a family-friendly walk, try the Silvermine Reservoir trail, which takes you around the lake-size reservoir along a pram and wheelchair-friendly boardwalk.

The Elephant Eye Cave trail is another popular route that takes you to a fern-covered cave with stunning views of the city. Entry to the Silvermine Nature Reserve is R40 per adult, R20 per child or free for Wild Card holders. The suburb of Fish Hoek and the Cape Point Nature Reserve also offer magnificent mountain and coastal hikes ranging from easy to moderate.

There’s nothing like cycling down a Cape Peninsula road in summer with the wind blowing through your hair. Cape Town has plenty of biking trails to choose from, ranging from seaside road routes to peaceful trails through the Cape Winelands. Many companies like Awol Tours and iRide Africa offer bicycle hire and day tours with professional guides. Cape Town also plays host to the world-renowned Cape Town Cycle Tour, a 109-kilometer route around the Cape Peninsula, as well as several mountain bike challenges.

Cyclists participating in the Cape Town Cycle Tour

If you’re a natural water baby, do some laps at one of the Cape Town city council’s public swimming pools. The facilities offer pools for adults and children and are maintained regularly. The most popular sites include the Sea Point Swimming Pools, which boasts an Olympic-sized pool with views of the Atlantic ocean, and the Long Street Baths. The council pools are open year-round and admission is inexpensive.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.