Do You Need a Car for Cape Point?
Do you need a car for Cape Point? No: the day tours collect you from your Cape Town hotel with tolls and fuel in the price. When a hire car is worth it, the two routes down, the Chapman's Peak toll, and the park rules for drivers.
No. A day tour collects you from your Cape Town hotel and drives you to Cape Point and back, with the tolls and the fuel in the price: Kenzi Travel and Tours’ full day is US$44 per adult with hotel pickup in 13 areas (checked November 2026). Hire a car only if you want to be at the gate when it opens or stay longer than a tour’s 45 minutes at the lighthouse. Either way the park fees are the same, and you pay them at the gate.
From Cape Town: Cape Point & Boulders Beach Full-Day Tour
Kenzi Travel and Tours: ten hours, both capes, Boulders and Simon's Town; minivan, tolls and fuel included.
Check dates →From Cape Town: Cape Point and Boulders Beach Half-Day Tour
Kenzi Travel and Tours' five hours from 8:00 AM, with hotel pickup: Chapman's Peak, Boulders and both capes.
See the half day →Figures from the listings (GetYourGuide checked November 2026). Your date and group size set the price you see before paying: these figures are not a quote.
Tour or hire car, line by line
| Day tour with pickup | Your own car | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting there | Collected at your hotel; on the Kenzi day the calendar shows 8:00 AM | Roughly 64 km from the city centre to the lighthouse, by road |
| Chapman’s Peak toll | Included on the Kenzi day | R68 for a car, each direction (the road’s own tariff page, schedule from 1 July 2024) |
| Cape Point gate | R592 per non-South African adult (SANParks) | The same fee; at Cape Point SANParks takes one payment per vehicle, by card |
| Time at the lighthouse | 45 minutes on the Kenzi day | As long as the gate hours allow |
| Boulders penguins | An hour, R282 per non-South African adult at its own gate | The same fee; SANParks says parking there is limited and asks you to arrive early in the peak summer months |
Fees: SANParks, 1 November 2026 - 31 October 2027; toll: chapmanspeakdrive.co.za. Tour figures: Kenzi Travel and Tours’ full day, checked November 2026.
When a car is worth it
- The gate at opening. SANParks opens the Cape Point gate at 6am in the October-March season and at 7am from April to September. Cape Point’s own site urges an early start, to watch the sun come up over False Bay. No day tour on this site is at the gate that early.
- More than one stop’s worth of the reserve. Cape Point’s visitor page describes shipwreck walks at Olifantsbos, where the hull of the Thomas T Tucker is visible on the shore, and a walk along Kleinkommetjie Ridge of about 1.5 hours each way to the wreck of the Phyllisia. None of the tours stops there.
- A night on the peninsula. If you sleep in Simon’s Town or on the Atlantic side, Cape Point accommodation has the bases; none of them is on a tour’s pickup list.
The two ways down, as Cape Point gives them
The Atlantic side. From Cape Town towards Sea Point, along the coast road through Camps Bay and Llandudno to Hout Bay, then Chapman’s Peak Drive to Noordhoek. Turn right along the coast through Kommetjie, Soetwater, Witsand, Misty Cliffs and Scarborough, then a few kilometres inland to the park entrance on your right.
The False Bay side. Out of town on the Eastern Boulevard, then the M3 towards Claremont to its end, left towards Muizenberg and Fish Hoek, along the coast to Simon’s Town, and on along the coast road to the park entrance on your left.
The Kenzi day goes down the first way and comes back the second, so a tour shows you both.
Rules for drivers inside the park
- The speed limit in the reserve is 60 km/h, and the direct drive from the gate to Cape Point takes 10 to 15 minutes (capepoint.co.za).
- The gate closes at sunset, and Cape Point’s site says vehicles leaving after closing time are fined; SANParks gives the gate as 6am to 6pm from October to March and 7am to 5pm from April to September, and says the times may change without notice.
- SANParks’s gates at Cape Point and Boulders take debit and credit cards only.
Leave the Car at the Hotel
Kenzi Travel and Tours collects you from your hotel in 13 Cape Town areas; the minivan, tolls and fuel are in the price. One adult can book; park entry is paid at the gates.
Check dates