V & A Waterfront, Cape Town

1 more image

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a huge shopping and entertainment area at the slopes of Table Mountain, next to the harbour. It is very popular with tourists, because of the high density of shops, restaurants and amusement possibilities, like the Aquarium or the Marine Museum.

3 more images

This part of Cape Town is situated around the historic Victoria and Alfred harbour and named after Queen Victoria and her son Alfred. It was thoroughly restored in 1990's and turned into a recreational complex with hundreds of stores, restaurants and pubs. It's here that international celebrities stay in elegant hotels when they come to Cape Town. It's also an entertainment centre with a big IMAX cinema, concert venues and museums. One of its biggest attractions with locals and tourist alike is the Two Oceans Aquarium.

V&A Waterfront is undoubtedly a nice area to stroll around, look at elegant Victorian architecture, watch harbour life, visit some shops, etc. For me, personally, it's too commercialised and business-orientated.

1 more image

One of the most fun things to do at the V&A Waterfront (which I usually consider to be a bit of a tourist trap) is to pose with the statues of South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize laureates, who are immortalised in larger-than-life bronze statues.

Four? Many people will probably remember that our first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, and former President FW de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993 for their herculean efforts in steering South Africa through a peaceful transition to multiparty democracy. With further head scratching, you may even dimly recall the irrepressible Archbishop Desmond Tutu being awarded the same prize back in 1984 for his dogged and vocal resistance against the worst injustices of apartheid which helped to keep South African issues on the world radar during the dark years of political isolation. However, most people may not know that Albert Luthuli, a former head of the African National Congress (ANC), was the first South African to win the Nobel Peace Prize - which was awarded to him in 1960 for his championing of the Defiance Campaign which opposed grand apartheid.

It is always a source of considerable amusement to me that the statues are larger than life, which reflects the personalities of the men involved - it must be the first and only time that the pint-sized Tutu has towered over anyone!

All four gentlemen are conveniently arranged in a neat row for you to pose by, with the added bonus of Table Mountain as a backdrop - a photo opportunity not to be passed up!

In the front you have a lot of spa treatments and as you walk along towards the back you have various crafts being offered. In the outdoor space out back is where they normally have performance space and lecture series are held. Check out the website to see events.

4 more images

you will find there all the time street perfomances, restaurant, cafe, shopping.... etc what ever you need to mock around..... i loved the place, the mood.....the shopping too is great.... many shops had a very good prices.... i bought many skirts and sport clothes from there....
wanna go again ... really

Whilst touristy it is most charming. Its boardwalks lined with attractive, painted-wooden buildings selling carvings, drums, guidebooks and postcards. Seals out of the water sunning themselves lazily whilst other seals leisurely bob alongside the boats - fishing boats, tourist boats, shark-cage excursion boats, big boats, little boats... Street performers positioned on every corner, drumming, singing, dancing and providing the tourists with a little bit of African atmosphere. And all the while Table Mountain looms; a huge backdrop, high over the salty waters of the bay famously riddled for its great white sharks. How squeaky clean it is. How easy it is - shops, restaurnats - everything you could need!

There are car parks here.

(the red clock tower you see in my photo is where you aim for to buy tickets to go to Robben Island. The tours depart 9am, 11am & 2pm you MUST book tickets in advance as they seel out fast!))

The Clock Tower is a beautiful red tower, recognisable by its Victorian-Gothic style. It has an old tidal gauge mechanism on the bottom floor, used to check tide levels. On the second floor is a mirror room, which was used by the Port Captain to overview the harbour.

Our daughter had booked this cruise to end a lovely day of wine touring! We got back to our hotel and got dressed up to hit the V&A Waterfront to chill out on our boat trip and have a nice dinner afterwards on the waterfront.
What we had in mind and what actually happened are two different things!
We got onto our boat and after about ten mins we started to move out of the harbour. Remembering I'm petrified of water, I can't swim but love boat trips as long as they are calm! As soon as we came out of the harbour the boat started to bob about quite a bit and I noticed the sea was not exactly calm. The further we sailed out the worse it got, and it got to the point that we were all hanging on for dear life and the boat was almost capsizing. Everyone started to laugh about it at first, especially when the waves were coming over and getting us soaked to the skin. I have to say this boat trip was the most frightening experince of my life. I really thought we were going to fall into the sea at some point. My husband who found it quite amusing at first started to get a bit worried, and told the guys to turn the boat around as it was getting too dangerous. The thing was, we had no life jackets on, nothing to hold onto only each other. We were given waterproof ponchos when it started to get really rough but by then we were soaked anyway.
I was given the impression by the leaflet and by the look of the boat we'd just sail out for a while and just cruise along, watching the sunset, drinking a glass of champagne. Instead I started fearing for us all. The guys would not take the boat back to the harbour but just brought it in a bit so it wasn't so dangerous. We had a good twenty mins or so being chucked around the boat, which was very frightening.
I wanted to complain when we eventually got off the boat, to the people that you book it with on the waterfront. As we were the last boat to sail that evening they had shut up for the night. I did complain to the guys that ran the boat, but they just laughed at me.
We all came off the boat all looking like drowned rats and we had to sit in wet clothes having our evening meal. The restuarant that we were in gave us blankets and let us sit under a patio heater to get warm again.

I wouldn't have minded so much if we had been pre warned before we set sail, that it would be very choppy. To me a champagne sunset cruise is just that, a cruise where you can chill out be relaxed and watch the sun set. We didn't do any of that but clung onto what ever you could to save yourself from being tipped overboard.

So my advice to you if you want to use this boat, be prepared, make sure you have a life jacket on, and don't dress up!