Is Cape Town safe?

We put Cape Town at 5/10 for people travelling alone (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), lower than its postcard reputation and higher than its headlines suggest. Most of the violent crime behind South Africa's statistics happens in the Cape Flats, in Nyanga, Mitchells Plain, Manenberg and Hanover Park, and visitors rarely cross into those areas unless a GPS reroutes them off the N2. What reaches visitors in the City Bowl is opportunistic theft: phones get lifted from cafe tables on Long Street and Bree Street, and a stranger offering to help at an ATM tends to be running a card swap. The CBD empties when offices close around 6pm, and by 8pm the blocks between Adderley Street and Buitengracht feel hollow, with shuttered shopfronts and the smell of fried vetkoek gone from the corners. Our rule for the City Bowl is to walk in daylight and ride after dark, with your phone in a front pocket rather than held out at a corner.

Table Mountain is where solo travellers take the biggest risk without realising it. Hikers have been mugged on Lion's Head, Platteklip Gorge and the Devil's Peak contour path, usually on quiet weekday mornings or near sunset when the trails thin out, and we would not hike any of them alone. Join a guided small group, or climb Lion's Head on a Saturday morning, when it is busy enough that you hear other boots scraping on the chains, and save the national park's emergency line, 086 110 6417, before you set off. Table Mountain weather is a hazard of its own: at 7pm on 19 October it was 14.2°C under a clear sky and felt closer to 12°C, and the southeaster can pull cloud over the cableway summit within an hour. The Signal Hill sunset car park sees regular car break-ins, so leave the seats empty. At Clifton and Llandudno the Atlantic stays cold enough to numb your feet in minutes, and the rip currents there pull hard.

Transport decisions shape most of your safety in Cape Town. Uber and Bolt are both cheap: a ride from Sea Point to the V&A Waterfront currently runs R60 to R100, roughly US$4 to US$6 at 16.43 rand to the dollar, and you should check the number plate before you get in. The MyCiTi bus, paid for with a myconnect card, is the safest public option along the Atlantic Seaboard and out to the airport. We'd skip Metrorail trains and minibus taxis until you have local company, because robbery reports cluster on both. After dark, the V&A Waterfront keeps private security and crowds until about 10pm. A woman eating alone will likely find the Kloof Street restaurants in Gardens calmer than the Long Street bar strip, where drink spiking gets reported. Sea Point Promenade stays lit and full of joggers at dusk, with waves slapping the rocks below.

Having company makes Cape Town safer, and finding it is straightforward. The free Green Point parkrun starts at 8am every Saturday beside the stadium, with plenty of runners heading for coffee afterwards. On Saturday 24 October the Stormers play the Scarlets at DHL Stadium, and Green Point will be full of fans walking to the game that evening. Small-group day tours to Cape Point and the Boulders Beach penguins put you with 8 to 14 people rather than 40, and some operators waive the single supplement. Visit Langa or Khayelitsha with a guide who lives there, never in a hired car on your own. If you do drive, stay off the N2 near the Borcherds Quarry exit after 10pm, where rocks left on the road have been used to stop cars for robbery. From a mobile, 112 reaches emergency services and 10177 calls an ambulance.