No visit to Cape Town is complete without a trip up Table Mountain, the city's most celebrated landmark. You'll head up Kloof Nek -- the saddle between Table Mountain and Lions Head -- to the Lower Cableway Station. Ascend from the Valley Station (1,190 feet) to the Mountain Station (3,500 feet asl) in a Swiss-engineered Rotair cable car. The journey from the base to the summit takes just under four minutes. Enjoy spectacular views as the floor of the car rotates 360 degrees during the ascent and descent.
Table Mountain takes its name from the flat-topped central massif of the mountain which, viewed from the city, is surrounded by Devil's Peak on the left, Lion's Head on the right, and Signal Hill in the foreground. They form a sort of amphitheatre that encloses the city center and some of the older suburbs. Other earlier suburbs are on either side of the chain of mountains, which run like a spine through the Cape Peninsula, from Table Mountain to Cape Point -- the cape from which Cape Town takes its name.
From the summit, the natural protected area stretching from Signal Hill to Cape Point is managed by the National Parks Board. This area has one of the highest concentrations of endemic plant and animal species in any area of its size, containing a staggering 2,285 plant species -- more than in the entire United Kingdom. Return drive along the Atlantic Seaboard passing Camps Bay, Clifton and Sea Point.