The Best Apps For Exploring Cape Town

Whether you’re travelling to a new city or country, apps can really come in handy when you’re in need of useful info about a restaurant, gallery, historical landmark or hotel. Thanks to smartphone technology, there are a variety of apps available for free or for a small price to help you on your way. Here are the best options to use in Cape Town.

Cape Town Map and Walks

There is no better way to see a city than on foot and at your own pace, so this handy app by GPSmyCity is a must-have. Cape Town Map and Walks gives you over 5,500 self-guided walks in over 700 cities worldwide so you can explore the city at a fraction of the cost of what you would normally pay for a guided tour.

On the Cape Town installment, choose from 18 self-guided walking tours of the city bowl, shopping spots, the Bo-Kaap, V&A Waterfront and more. Each walking tour or travel article offers a travel route plotted on an offline map, guiding you to Cape Town’s famous attractions, monuments, interesting sights and hidden gems, so no need to join a tour group! An added bonus: no roaming or data plan is needed.

Founded by two Capetonians in 2014, Voice Map is a nifty travel app which allows you to explore cities through the eyes of local citizens. It works by using your location to play audio stories automatically and find your way around with offline maps. All you need is a GPS-enabled smartphone, a pair of earphones and you’re ready to explore. Voice Map is currently available in over 70 cities, and boasts a fast growing catalogue of audio tours uploaded by bestselling authors, expert correspondents, veteran broadcasters and passionate locals from around the world. In Cape Town alone, there are over 30 tours spanning the city, including gardens and parks, heritage landmarks, townships and coastal towns. The audio tours range between free and $6.99 depending on the tour.

Zomato

Zomato is a food website and app that takes the work out of finding the best restaurants, cafés and bars in your city. The platform’s vast community of food lovers share their reviews and photos, giving you all that you need to make an informed choice. Zomato is used by millions every day in over 10,000 cities across 23 countries.

Cape Town Bicycle Map

The Cape Town Bicycle Map was developed to encourage more people to ride a bicycle in order to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and to promote a bicycle and people-friendly city. Available as a free print map and app, the initiative has identified a network of safer, connected routes (recommended by experienced local cyclists), bicycle infrastructure, parking and bicycle-friendly venues, as well as mountain biking trails and touring routes for leisure cyclists. The current edition of the map can be found at key bookshops, information centers, bicycle shops and bicycle-friendly venues around Cape Town.

Culture Trip

The Culture Trip app is the perfect resource for your travels in a new city or country, or for informing you about places you have yet to discover in your home town. Read informative and fascinating cultural content about food, art, film, books, travel and more, for every single country in the world. Plus, you get fresh, new content daily. What’s not to love?

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.