Cape Town: how to get there and around
Airports, stations, ports, where the hotels are and what the numbers say, from public data rather than a brochure.
Cape Town is a city of 4.8 million people in South Africa (Western Cape), 25 m (82 ft) above sea level. The nearest large airport is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), 18 km (11 mi) from the centre. Our booking partner lists 6,750+ places to stay.
Key facts
Daylight in Cape Town runs from about 9 h 56 min a day in late June to 14 h 28 min in late December (computed for -33.93° latitude), which matters more than the forecast when a day is built around one flight or one crossing.
Getting there
Cape Town is served by one airport with scheduled flights. The closest large one is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), 18 km (11 mi) from the centre, whose 10,502-ft runway is long enough for long-haul wide-body aircraft.
Flights to Cape Town: every airport, routes and times
Buses to Cape Town · Driving and car hire
Where to stay
Our booking partner lists 6,750+ places to stay in Cape Town (statistics below are from the first 1,000). Of the 810 with a star rating, the largest group is 4-star (570), and 70 are five-star. Across 640 properties with at least 50 reviews, the average guest score is 9 out of 10. Guests have left 386,360 reviews in total.
Hotels in Cape Town: the full picture, and book
Our booking partner lists 43 hostels in Cape Town, out of 6,750 places to stay of every kind — 0.6% of everywhere it lists in the city, a small share: this is a city where nearly everything on offer is a hotel or an apartment. Across 22 hostels with at least 50 reviews, the average guest score is 7.9 out of 10, 1.1 below the 9.0 its hotels average. Guests have left 16,929 reviews across them.
Hostels in Cape Town: the full picture, and book
Nearby cities, and how to get between them
- Paarl, 55 km — buses · car rental · tours
- Somerset West, 41 km — buses · car rental · tours
- George, 373 km — flights · buses · car rental
- Worcester, 100 km — buses · car rental · tours
Twin towns and sister cities: Aachen, Haifa, Hangzhou, Nice, Saint Petersburg, Funchal, Antwerp, Pune, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, İzmir, Monterrey.
Common questions
Which airport serves Cape Town?
Cape Town International Airport (CPT), 18 km (11 mi) from the centre.
How big is Cape Town?
About 4.8 million people live in Cape Town, across 2,455 km² (GeoNames and Wikidata).
What time zone is Cape Town in?
Africa/Johannesburg, currently UTC+2.
What currency is used in Cape Town?
The Rand (ZAR). Traffic drives on the left.
Are there hostels in Cape Town?
43 of them, bookable on this site. Hostels in Cape Town.
How many hotels are there in Cape Town?
Our booking partner lists 6,750 or more places to stay in Cape Town, bookable on this site.
Which cities are near Cape Town?
Paarl (55 km), Somerset West (41 km), George (373 km), Worcester (100 km).
Where these facts come from
- GeoNames (CC BY 4.0): population, elevation, time zone, postal codes
- Wikidata (CC0): area, sister cities, visitor numbers, heritage listings, stations and ports
- OurAirports (public domain): airports, runways
- Natural Earth (public domain): map outlines
Data compiled 14 September 2026. Hotel and hostel figures are from our booking partner’s catalogue on that date. Journey times on this page are estimates from distance, not timetables; check the operator before you rely on one.