In Cape Town for the Sport? The Must-Do Day Between Matches

An hour from the city, 1,000 metres up, there is a gorge with a double waterfall in it and a cable running across the top. Tripadvisor has put it in the top 1% of experiences on earth for ten years running. Whatever brought you to Cape Town, this is the must-do day of the trip.

Nobody plans the days off. You book the flights around the fixture, sort the tickets, and then find yourself with three empty mornings and a hotel lobby. Those are the days you will actually remember, if you spend them properly.

Why this one

There is a lot to do around Cape Town. Here is what sets this apart.

• Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Best of the Best, ten years running. The top 1% of experiences worldwide.
• Over 1,000 five-star reviews on Tripadvisor, and over 1,000 on Google. More than 142,000 guests have flown it.
• Lonely Planet called it the second best new tourism experience in the world when it opened.
• 13 elevated platforms, connected by 11 slides and a suspension bridge over a double waterfall. The longest slide runs 320 metres. The slides start over 1,000 metres above sea level.
• Inside a World Heritage Site, run in partnership with CapeNature, in mountains almost nobody gets to stand in.

And the part that is genuinely ours: apart from the path in and the path out, the tour leaves no trail on the mountain. Between the platforms, guests travel by cable. That is how this wilderness gets visited at all without being worn down by it, and once you have seen the country it crosses you understand why it was built that way.

The day

A safari-style open-top 4x4 carries you up into the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, about half an hour of climbing with the valley opening up behind you. Then you fly, platform to platform, over fynbos and a gorge most people never see. Two guides run the whole thing, so there is nothing to learn and nothing to operate. You sit in a harness and go.

About 4.5 hours, fully guided, in groups of no more than nine. Back in the city with the afternoon still in front of you, and comfortably in time for an evening kick-off.

From age 5, with no upper age limit. Our oldest flyer so far was 93. Three generations of a touring family can do this together, which is not true of much else on the list.

For the travelling supporters

We have had a lot of Australians through here over the years, and they tend to arrive having already decided they are doing it. Fair enough. This is the kind of thing you came for.

The Barmy Army we are slightly more worried about, and only because they bring the best spirit of any touring support in the game and we would hate to send them home quiet. Bring the singing. The mountains can take it.

Rugby tours, the Sevens crowd, the cycling and running lot who come over for the big road races: same invitation. If you are going to travel this far for one fixture, give yourself a second reason to have come.

What sporting fixtures are on in Cape Town

Dates worth planning a day around:

• 27 to 31 October 2026. Cricket: South Africa v Australia, third Test, Newlands.
• 5 and 6 December 2026. Rugby: HSBC SVNS Cape Town, the World Rugby Sevens Series, Cape Town Stadium.
• 3 to 7 January 2027. Cricket: South Africa v England, the New Year's Test, Newlands.
• 7 October 2027. Australia v India, ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2027, Newlands.
• 9 October 2027. South Africa v New Zealand, Cricket World Cup, Newlands.
• 12 October 2027. Sri Lanka v Bangladesh, Cricket World Cup, Newlands.
• 2, 7 and 12 November 2027. Cricket World Cup Super Sevens fixtures, line-ups decided by the group tables.
• 17 November 2027. Cricket World Cup semi-final, Newlands.

Cape Town also has a rugby season, a Sevens weekend, and two of the biggest road races in the world. The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2027 runs from October to November 2027 across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, with seven matches at Newlands, so the city is going to be full for a long stretch of it. Fixtures, start times and tickets come from the grounds and the organisers, not from us. What we can tell you is that the days either side of a big match fill up here, and we only have nine seats a tour.

Make a day of the Elgin Valley

We are the reason to come over the pass. The valley is the reason to stay a while longer.

Elgin is apple country turned cool-climate wine country, and it is still largely undiscovered by the tour buses. Wines of Elgin will point you at the farms worth your afternoon. There are a handful of very good restaurants, and the Elgin Railway Market in an old apple warehouse beside the station is worth a few hours on its own at the weekend. Fly in the morning, eat and drink your way through the afternoon, and you have had a far better day than another queue on the waterfront.

One practical note. That version needs your own car. Our Cape Town transfer runs straight here and straight back, which is the easy option if nobody fancies driving on the left after a long flight, but it will not take you around the valley afterwards. Hire car for the full day out, transfer for the simple one.

Getting here

• About an hour from Cape Town, on the R321 near Grabouw, over Sir Lowry's Pass on the N2.
• When the Franschhoek Pass is open, the N1 through Franschhoek is a longer drive and the better one.
• Daily transfers from a central Cape Town pickup point for two guests or more.
• Book ahead. Nine seats a tour, a city full of travelling supporters, and the maths does the rest.

If you do one thing outside the city while you are here, do this. We are looking forward to hanging out with you.