Table Mountain, Cape Town: Tickets, Hours and Hiking Routes

Table Mountain is the flat-topped mountain above Cape Town, and you reach its summit either by rotating cable car or on foot up Platteklip Gorge. Table Mountain carries no “Top” in its name. The landmark is Table Mountain, Tafelberg in Afrikaans and Hoerikwaggo in Khoikhoi, and people searching for “Table Top Mountain” end up here because the shape describes itself so plainly. This guide covers the 2026 cableway fares, the seasonal operating hours, the walks on the plateau, the routes up from the bottom and the ways to get to the lower station.

We went up on a sunny day at the end of August, taking an Uber across from Simon’s Town after a morning of whale watching. The mountain had its own plans. By the time we stepped out at the top, the plateau was under thick cloud, and we still had a good time up there.

Riding the Table Mountain cableway

The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway carries you from the lower station on Tafelberg Road to the western end of the plateau in about five minutes. The cableway drops you at the ticket office, a shop and restrooms at the bottom, then a short lift or a flight of stairs takes you up to the boarding platform. We were feeling lazy and took the lift, then realised the stairs were barely a climb at all.

Our cable car turned as it went. The floor of each car is round and rotates through a full 360 degrees on the way up and down, so every passenger gets the view over the city, the Atlantic and the Cape Flats without jostling for a window. The operator asks passengers to step back from the glass and let go of the handrails before departure, which is the moment you work out what is about to happen.

The tablecloth, and why the weather decides your day

The cloud that spills over the plateau is called the tablecloth, and it forms when a south-easterly wind is pushed up the slopes into colder air until the moisture condenses. That wind blows hardest in summer, so a bright Cape Town morning is no guarantee of a view at 1,086 metres. Local legend puts the tablecloth down to a smoking contest between the Devil and a pirate named Van Hunks, which is a better story than orographic cloud.

The cableway runs weather permitting and closes in high wind. Check the live conditions on the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway app first, because it shows current wind, visibility and queue lengths at both stations. We knew the risk, went anyway rather than gambling on clear skies at the end of our trip, and walked the plateau in fog.

Table Mountain ticket prices

Table Mountain cableway tickets cost R475 (about €25, $29, £22) for an adult return booked online, against R530 (about €28, $33, £24) at the ticket office, on the rates the Cableway publishes for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Conversions use the mid-market rate on 11 September 2026 and move with the rand.

Four things are worth knowing before you buy. Children under 4 travel free. Booking online saves R55 (about €3, $3, £3) per adult, and the ticket stays valid for seven days from the date you pick, so you can watch the forecast and choose your morning. Unused tickets can be refunded, and South Africans get one free cableway ticket in their birthday month.

Buy only through Webtickets, the Cableway’s WhatsApp channel or City Sightseeing South Africa. Those are the three outlets the Cableway recognises in 2026, and tickets bought anywhere else are turned away at the gate. Older guides still list Cape Town Tourism as a valid outlet, and it no longer appears on the Cableway’s own list.

There is no fee for the mountain itself. Table Mountain National Park charges daily conservation fees at its pay points, such as Boulders and Cape Point, but the summit plateau is free to walk on. You pay for the ride, not the view. Fares change annually, so check the Cableway website for the rate on the day you plan to go.

Table Mountain opening hours

Table Mountain cableway hours change five times a year, and the first car up is either 08h00 or 08h30 depending on the season. The mountain itself has no gate and no closing time. The 2026 timetable published by the Cableway runs as follows.

The cableway also shuts completely once a year for maintenance. In 2026 it closed from Monday 27 July to Sunday 9 August and reopened on Monday 10 August. Hiking routes stay open during the shutdown, but there is no ride down, so anyone walking up in that fortnight has to walk back down as well.

Walks on top of Table Mountain

Four short walks start at the upper cable station, and all of them are flat enough for ordinary shoes. The routes fan out across the plateau and rejoin the station, so you cannot easily get lost. Their signposted lengths are listed below.

1. Dassie Walk: about 15 minutes, the shortest of the four, with views north, south and west.
2. Agama Walk: about 30 minutes, the most popular route, giving 360 degree views over Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula.
3. Klipspringer Walk: 1.4 km (0.9 mi) and about 45 minutes, running along the plateau edge to the top of Platteklip Gorge.
4. Maclear’s Beacon walk: roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) each way and about 45 minutes in one direction, crossing the length of the plateau to the highest point.

We took the longest of the loops and added a detour onto one of the trails that drops off the edge. It came to a little over an hour on mostly level ground, with plenty of stops. The plateau carries more than 2,000 plant species, most of them fynbos, and in fog the shrubs are what you look at instead of the city.

The animal you will actually meet is the dassie, or rock hyrax. Dassies look like large guinea pigs and are, improbably, closer relatives of the elephant than of any rodent. We saw a good number of them and none were shy. One walked straight up to us hoping for food, which is exactly what you must not give it, because feeding the animals is prohibited in the park.

Free guided walks leave hourly from 09h00 to 15h00 from the Twelve Apostles Terrace, below the TEN67 Eatery. They run for 30 minutes, are led by Cableway staff and cover the mountain’s history and how the cableway works. Free audio tours through the VoiceMap app cover both stations for anyone who would rather wander at their own pace.

Food at the top is at TEN67 Eatery, VIEWS by De Grendel, the KLOUD Bar and the Dairy Den ice cream counter, with the TAP Bar down at the lower station. A universal access pathway at the upper station makes part of the plateau reachable by wheelchair.

Hiking up Table Mountain

Platteklip Gorge is the standard route up Table Mountain and takes most walkers 1.5 to 2 hours. The gorge splits the cliffs of the main plateau and climbs in switchbacks and staircases, with no scrambling over boulders and no exposed ledges. The Cableway describes it as the safest way up, well patrolled and well maintained, and it is also the busiest, so expect company in summer. António de Saldanha came up this way on the first recorded ascent, in 1503.

You still need to take it seriously. Carry more water than you think you need, wear sunscreen and a hat, and start early in summer, because the gorge holds heat and offers almost no shade. If you have a poor head for heights, as I do, the narrow sections along the slopes will feel longer than they are.

Other routes up Table Mountain

Table Mountain has a long list of alternative ascents, and three of them come up repeatedly. Each demands more than Platteklip does, in different ways.

1. India Venster: 2.9 km (1.8 mi) from beside the lower cable station, marked by yellow footprints, with real climbing sections. It is a poor choice as a descent and suits experienced hikers only.
2. The Pipe Track: about 6 km (3.7 mi) of easy contour walking along the Atlantic side beneath the Twelve Apostles, which is a fine half-day walk in its own right rather than a summit route.
3. Skeleton Gorge and the Smuts Track: the ascent from Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, shaded for much of its length, which makes it kinder than Platteklip on a hot day.

Never hike alone, go in daylight, and tell someone your route. In bad weather the cableway closes without much notice, so plan on being able to walk down if you walked up.

How to get to Table Mountain

Head for Tafelberg Road, which is the address of the lower cable station. Five ways of reaching it are listed below, cheapest last.

1. On foot: walk up from the lower station car park by any of the routes above, then ride down or walk back.
2. By taxi or ride-hailing: the simplest option from the city, and what we did from Simon’s Town. Uber works across Cape Town, and you can sign up through our Uber invite link.
3. By car: set your navigation to “Tafelberg Road”. Parking along the road fills early, and a free shuttle runs between the lower Tafelberg Road parking area and the station on busy days.
4. By City Sightseeing bus: the hop-on hop-off red bus stops at the lower cableway station, and its tickets are valid for the cableway queue as one of the three recognised outlets.
5. By MyCiTi bus: take route 106 or 107 to the Kloof Nek stop and change to the free MyCiTi Table Mountain 110 shuttle, which runs every 15 to 20 minutes daily from 07h30 to 19h00.

A hire car turns the mountain into one stop on a wider Cape Peninsula loop, down through Chapman’s Peak to Cape Point and back along False Bay. Compare rates through DiscoverCars before you land if you want that freedom.

Best time to visit Table Mountain

Late winter and early spring, roughly August to October, bring the mildest crowds and a reasonable chance of a clear plateau. We were there at the end of August and the top was already busy, so the height of summer from November to February is worth avoiding if queues bother you. Summer also brings the south-easter, which is the wind that wraps the mountain in the tablecloth. Weekday mornings are quieter than weekend afternoons in any month, and the first car up usually means calmer air and a shorter wait than midday.

Table Mountain facts

Table Mountain sits inside Table Mountain National Park, which runs from the city down the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point. The mountain is the northern end of a sandstone range that forms the spine of the peninsula, with Devil’s Peak to the east, Lion’s Head to the west and the Twelve Apostles along the Atlantic coast. Together with Signal Hill these heights form the amphitheatre that holds the City Bowl and Table Bay.

How high is Table Mountain? The highest point stands 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level, at the eastern end of the plateau, and it is marked by Maclear’s Beacon. Sir Thomas Maclear built that stone cairn in 1865 for a survey, and it sits about 19 metres (62 ft) higher than the cable station at the western end.

Why is Table Mountain flat? The summit is a plateau of hard, near-horizontal sandstone roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) from side to side, edged by cliffs. Softer rock around it wore away over a very long time while the resistant sandstone cap did not, which is what left the table.

Is Table Mountain a World Heritage Site? Table Mountain National Park is one of the components of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, inscribed by UNESCO in 2004. The mountain is also one of the New7Wonders of Nature, named in the global public vote that closed in 2011.

Does it snow on Table Mountain? Snow does fall occasionally in the South African winter, and it lies in centimetres rather than metres. It is rare enough that it makes the local news when it happens.

Where to stay in Cape Town

Blackheath Lodge is where we would stay again, on the Atlantic Seaboard about 15 minutes from the lower cable station. We split five nights between a self-catering flat in Green Point and Blackheath Lodge, and the lodge was the better half of the stay. It sits on a quiet tree-lined street under Signal Hill, with 19 individually decorated rooms, a heated saltwater pool, secure off-street parking and breakfast on the terrace. Cape Town fills up over the December and January holidays, so book that window early and check prices and availability at Blackheath Lodge here.

The mountain anchors almost every Cape Town itinerary, and most visitors fold it into a longer route through the Western Cape and the Garden Route. Our wider guide to South Africa sets out how those pieces fit together.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Five things we would tell anyone going up Table Mountain are listed below, most useful first.

1. Buy online, then wait for the weather. An online ticket is valid for seven days from your chosen date and refundable if you never use it, so buy early in your trip and go on the clearest morning rather than the day that suits your itinerary. We went on a booked day and got fog.
2. Check the shutdown before you book flights. The cableway closes for roughly two weeks of maintenance every year. In 2026 that was 27 July to 9 August, and the dates move, so look them up if you are travelling in the South African winter.
3. Take the stairs at the lower station. The lift up to the boarding platform is barely a storey, and the queue for it is often longer than the climb. We took the lift and felt silly afterwards.
4. Do not feed the dassies, however close they come. Ours walked right up expecting a snack. Feeding the animals is prohibited in the park, and a hyrax that learns to beg stops foraging.
5. Claim the birthday ticket if you hold a South African ID. South Africans ride free once during their birthday month, and the offer still stands if the birthday falls inside the maintenance shutdown.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trip up Table Mountain and around the Cape Peninsula, on cableway tickets provided by the Cape Town tourism board with no conditions attached to the write-up. The team covers Cape Town and the wider Western Cape for independent travellers, including the tours, hotels and car hire worth booking, and updates this page when fares, operating hours and shutdown dates change.