Visiting Boulders Beach Without a Tour

You do not need a tour to see the penguins, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Boulders is forty kilometres from Cape Town on a good road, the gate takes a card, and the boardwalk takes an hour. What a guided day buys is the rest of the peninsula and the hour you arrive. Here is the honest arithmetic, and the Boulders Beach ticket prices for when it comes out the other way.

Can you just drive there?

Yes, easily. From the city the quick route is the M3 south to Muizenberg, then the M4 along the False Bay shore through St James, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek into Simon's Town. It is about an hour without stops and the last half hour runs beside the water. Kleintuin Road is signposted at the southern end of the town.

The scenic alternative is the Atlantic side: Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Chapman's Peak Drive, which is a toll road. Doing one out and the other back is what every guided day does and it is the right plan for a self-drive too.

What does driving actually cost?

Fuel, the Chapman's Peak toll if you use it, and the conservation fee at the gate, which you would pay on almost every tour anyway. Against a shared full-day fare from $29 per person, two people driving are usually ahead and four people driving are clearly ahead.

What it costs you instead is the car park. Kleintuin Road and Seaforth fill from mid-morning between December and February and over Easter, and the overflow is street parking with a ten to fifteen minute walk. Arrive in the first hour after opening and the problem does not exist.

Is the train a real option?

It is, and it is the most enjoyable approach to this coast. The Metrorail Southern Line runs from Cape Town station down the False Bay shore to Simon's Town, and from Muizenberg onwards the track is close enough to the water to get spray on the windows.

From Simon's Town station the walk to the Foxy Beach entrance is about twenty-five minutes along the shore road, flat and pleasant, or a five-minute taxi from the rank outside. Check the current timetable before you set out and travel in daylight. Fares and times change and the rail operator's own pages are the only source worth trusting.

What about a taxi or an e-hail?

Fine going out, unreliable coming back. Cars are plentiful in the city and scarce at a reserve gate on a quiet weekday afternoon, and the return leg is where people get stuck. If you do this, agree the return with the same driver before you get out.

Is there a bus?

Not a direct one. Getting there by public road transport means a connection and a wait at each end, and the last useful service back goes earlier than the gate closes in summer. The train is better and a guided day is better still. All four routes are compared on how to get to Boulders Beach.

What going alone gives you that a tour cannot

• The first hour after opening. No scheduled tour reaches the boardwalk at 08:00; you can.
• Two visits on one fee. The conservation fee is a daily charge, so you can walk the boardwalk, go and eat, and come back.
• As long as you like at the cove. A tour gives you an hour for everything.
• Your own lunch. Simon's Town has good places and no tour stops at the one you choose.

What a tour gives you that a car cannot

• Cape Point. Not reachable by any train or bus, and a long drive to add yourself.
• Both coast roads. A loop rather than an out-and-back.
• Somebody who knows the hour. Guides reorder stops around the crowds and the wind.
• No car park. The vehicle drops you at the gate.
• Sometimes the gate fee itself. A few fares cover every park entrance.

Side by side

Compare the tour options

Hiring a car for one day

If you are otherwise carless in Cape Town, a single day's hire for this trip is worth pricing before you dismiss it. A small car for a day, plus fuel and the Chapman's Peak toll, compares closely with two shared tour fares, and it buys the early gate, the second visit on the same fee and the lunch you chose. For three or four people it stops being close.

What to check before you commit: that your licence is accepted, that the hire includes a cross-border-free policy you will not need, and that you are comfortable on the left and on mountain passes. If either of the last two gives you pause, book a tour and enjoy the window.

Who should drive

Anyone staying in the southern suburbs or on the peninsula itself. Anyone travelling as three or four with a hire car already booked. Anyone who wants the boardwalk at opening, which is the best hour of the day by some distance. And anyone who wants to swim at the cove properly rather than glance at it.

Who should book a tour

Anyone without a car who also wants Cape Point. Anyone nervous about driving on the left, on mountain passes, in an unfamiliar city. Anyone who would rather spend the day looking out of a window than at a road. And anyone travelling in the last two weeks of December, when the car park is a genuine obstacle.

The hybrid nobody mentions

Drive to Boulders early, walk the boardwalk in the quiet hour, swim at the cove, eat in Simon's Town, and drive home over Chapman's Peak in the afternoon. That is the best version of this day and it needs a car and no guide at all. If you have one, take it.

If you do not, the half days come closest: they leave early enough to reach the boardwalk before the coaches, and they give you one or two hours there.

What a self-drive day looks like end to end

Leave the city at seven, take the M3 and the False Bay road, and you are paying at the Boulders gate a little after eight, in the first hour it is open. Walk the boardwalk while it is quiet, cross to the cove, and by ten you have done the thing most visitors queue for at midday.

Then it is yours. Breakfast in Simon's Town, an hour at the naval waterfront, and either home up the False Bay road or on to Cape Point if you want the second reserve. Back over Chapman's Peak in the afternoon makes a loop of it, and the toll is a small price for the best road on the peninsula.

What could go wrong, and what it costs you

Three things, all recoverable. The car park fills, which costs you a fifteen-minute walk. The weather turns, which costs you nothing at Boulders because the boardwalk is open in rain. Chapman's Peak closes in high wind, which costs you twenty minutes on the inland road through Fish Hoek.

The one thing that is not recoverable is arriving after the gate shuts, which from April to September is 17:00. That is the winter close, it catches summer visitors out every year, and it is on hours, fees and access along with the other three seasonal tables.

What you still have to pay either way

The conservation fee at the gate, by card, per person, every time. Going without a tour does not avoid it, and neither does most tours. The figures and the three visitor bands are on hours, fees and access, and the fare-by-fare picture is in the fees guide.

Frequently asked questions

When a guided day wins

Penguin Encounter Boulders Beach Half Tour Day from Cape Town

Two hours at the colony on a five-hour run, the longest stop here.

From $39 per person

Check Availability

Half Day Boulders Penguins and Cape Point Small Group Tour

Five to six hours: the colony, the Cape of Good Hope and Chapman's Peak.

From $54 per person

Check Availability

Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point & Penguins Private Afternoon Tour

A private afternoon start, five hours down the coast and back.

From $203 per person

Check Availability