Table Mountain is one of the main things that instantly comes to mind when you think about South Africa and at 3563ft tall, its quite the impressive backdrop to Cape Town. Now obviously being the little travel bug that I am and wanting to immerse myself in the culture of every place that I visit, Table Mountain was an inevitable part of our trip. We decided against the cable car route in favour of hiking and I just needed to write a post to explain why you need to climb Table Mountain rather than taking the easy way up. How else can you truly experience so beautiful?

Its free!
Paying for a cable car to the top will cost you around £15 which isn’t a lot, but hiking up is free and gives you more time to enjoy the mountain and properly experience Cape Town from the sky.

You’ll feel like a power ranger on the way up.
Not even kidding. Some of the rocks were the size of me with staples and ropes to help you climb so I actually felt like a little stealthy ninja being able to get to the top.

Its a bloody good workout.
Table Mountain is a lot higher than you’d think and hiking can be tough, so its a great workout. As I’m writing this two days post hike, my entire body is sore (especially my legs) so its almost like I spent an hour in a sweaty gym on leg day but with much better views.

The views are much better.
On the way up you see views that you don’t get from a cable car or from the top. Theres the little glimpses of the city through rocks or even sitting on overhanging rocks to enjoy the clouds rolling over the Cape Town. I actually preferred the views on the way up/down more than those from the top.

Sense of achievement.
This was the main thing that pushed me to keep going when I was exhausted. There is nothing better than getting to the top and realising you just climbed a bloody high mountain (3000ft to be precise).

I’ll be honest, part of me wanted to go up in a cable car at first but I’m so glad tha we pushed through and hiked because being able to tell people I climbed Table Mountain is pretty cool. I’d whole heartedly recommend taking the trip if you visit Cape Town but definitely start after 2pm to avoid the midday heat - it also means you’ll catch the sunset on the way down!

Have you been to Cape Town? I’d love some recommendations of what else I can/should do while I’m here. Theres another few posts coming but it doesn’t hurt to add to our ever growing list.