Cape Town airport

Cape Town (CPT) airport serves the western side of South Africa and acts as the gateway to other airports in southern Africa. It's the second largest airport in the country with about 8 million passengers in 2023.

If you need their website it is

www.airports.co.za/airports/cape-tow-international-airport

In addition, a full airport map can be found here www.airports.co.za/airports/cape-town-international-airport/at-the-airport/parking-maps

Should you need to pick anyone up (perhaps joining you on your trip) then the P1 Parkade 1 car park offers free parking for twenty minutes on the ground floor. It can be used for drop off too.

There are some shops and restaurants within the airport but it is limited really. We've always found the eating areas fairly busy.

There are lounges available, with a Bidvest Premier in both the domestic and international departure areas.

When you arrive you will join the queue in the immigration hall (toilets just inside to the left of the entrance), then head to baggage reclaim followed by customs. It usually takes about thirty minutes to complete all of this. I think we have only beaten our bags to the reclaim once! If you need further information about visas and entry requirements it is easiest to head to the official government pages of your own country then follow the links.

For example, for the UK head to

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/south-africa/entry-requirements

which will then direct you to https://dirco.gov.za/uk/ Do note that if you just searched for "Visa South Africa" you will find various quasi-official sites that will "help" you get a visa for a fee, and that is likely to be totally unnecessary. Should you need to transfer to a domestic flight on arrival it's an easy walk between the two areas.

To get into the city we would recommend hiring a car. The various companies can be found in the Transport Plaza that is in front of the Central Terminal. There's a pedestrian route to get there - if it takes you down a slope and you have a trolley do note that it is quite steep!

You will find Avis/Budget, Europcar, First, Bluu, Hertz, Sani, Tempest, Woodford, Capital. We have always used Avis (because of their range of branches across the country) and not had any problems.

Alternatively you might want to use a taxi. You should only use authorised companies and they operate from outside the Central Terminal building. There is an official kiosk that you can head to (open 0500 to 0000). You can also use Uber and Bolt via their respective apps. You will also find Citi Hopper and Centurion, both operating all day until midnight.

There are some bus services into the city, departing from the International inner lane. There are no trains at the airport. Our general recommendation would always be to hire a car unless you only intend to stay in Cape Town, in which case a taxi might be an option.