A great way to explore the Robben Island Museum this summer is with the 3.5-hour walking tour
Cape Town’s must-experience attractions: Robben Island Museum
The Robben Island Museum is a must-visit not only for visitors looking to learn more about South Africa’s polarised history, but also for locals. It is a compelling and enlightening trip where everyone can learn something and make unforgettable memories. With the wonderfully warm weather in Cape Town, now is the best time to book the epic 3.5-hour walking tour and explore one of the top Cape Town Big 6 attractions.
The Robben Island walking tour offers an immersive guided experience. Each tour is distinct, as the guides, who are ex-prisoners, share their personal stories, providing a unique perspective as they lead you through their experiences on Robben Island. A great reason to visit the Robben Island Museum this summer is because South Africa is celebrating 30 Years of Freedom since the end of the Apartheid, as Robben Island serves as a reminder of the struggle for equality and human rights. This is a perfect opportunity where you can take a picture on one World Heritage Site (Robben Island) of another World Heritage Site (Table Mountain).
The start of the tour
You start your journey at the V&A Waterfront, at The Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island, which features several exhibitions and serves as a terminal for Robben Island as well as a museum. This is where your tickets are scanned before you board the boat. On the boat, you will have beautiful panoramic views of Table Mountain and Cape Town as you cruise toward the island, where you can enjoy the fresh ocean breeze. The boat trip is roughly 40 minutes long (add another 40 minutes for the return voyage).
Visitors Centre
As you disembark from the boat, you are faced with the original buildings that were used when the island was still a prison, transporting you back in time. The walking tour starts at the Visitors Centre, where you learn how difficult it was to visit someone imprisoned on Robben Island. You will hear how everything in the building was monitored—visitors and prisoners were required to converse in either English or Afrikaans—and how wires were placed in consultation rooms to monitor conversations.
Ou Tronk
From there, the tour moves to the Ou Tronk, where you will see the old prison that was later turned into a medium-security facility in the 1950s. This is where you will fully grasp the harsh reality of prison life on Robben Island. Prisoners were confined to cramped cells with only thin mats to sleep on. Overcrowding forced prisoners to lie so close together that their shoulders often touched. In winter, the chilling temperatures made nights unbearable, with inadequate clothing providing little protection against the cold. They faced a relentless struggle against these harsh conditions.
Maximum Security Prison
As you journey toward the Maximum Security Prison, you will pass the Kramat, a Muslim shrine located just to the right of the prison. During this part of the tour, the recent history of these events truly hits home, as the guides at the Maximum Security Prison are all former political prisoners from the Apartheid era. They share their personal experiences of being imprisoned, providing a unique perspective. You’ll visit the courtyard where inmates worked and exercised, and spot some plants that Nelson Mandela planted to conceal his journal and political writings. Throughout your journey in the Maximum Security Prison, you’ll explore various areas, learn about the life of the inmates, and see the prison’s landmark: Nelson Mandela’s cell.
Some Attractions on the Island
After the Maximum Security Prison, the tour takes you to various locations on the island, such as the limestone quarry, where the majority of political prisoners were forced to work, or the Leprosarium Graveyard, where many patients who died of leprosy were buried. Another part of the island, in contrast to the prison, is the residential area where wardens and other staff members lived. There, you will see a church, a primary school, sports fields, and houses. Along the coast of the island you will also see various ship-wrecks, bunkers from World War Two and the van Riebeecks Quarry and the Blue Stone Quarry.
Another highlight of the tour is seeing endemic flora and fauna on the island, from the beautiful fields of yellow flowers to wildlife such as tortoises and birds, including African penguins, which you can see either at the penguin boardwalk or on the beaches of Robben Island.
Near the end of the walking tour, you will visit Alpha 1, where you can stop by the souvenir shop, buy a coffee or snack, and take a picture at the viewing point. After the tour concludes, you will head back to the V&A Waterfront with your return trip ticket that you can buy online.
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ONE DESTINATION, SIX UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES
There is no one way to explore all of the Cape Town Big 6, and much of what makes each of them so special is the variety of things to see and do at each. So if possible, take your time to explore each of the city’s most visited tourist attractions in as much depth as possible – as any local will tell you, you can spend a lifetime at each of the Big 6 and still not tire of them. Find the 3 and 4 day itineraries and tips here.