Which places should tourists avoid in Cape Town? What the police data and the news show
Cape Town • Crime & safety • October 2026
Which places should tourists avoid in Cape Town? What the police data and the news show
Lists of places to avoid in Cape Town usually start with the townships. The police figures and three years of news reports point somewhere else as well. Most of the reported robberies of tourists since 2023 happened on the paths around Signal Hill and Lion's Head, on the road from the airport and in the city centre.
These are the situations where the records show visitors being robbed:
- Don't hike alone on quiet routes. Most of the hikers robbed on the mountain since 2023 were alone or in pairs. SANParks advises groups of four or more.
- Don't walk the lower paths of Signal Hill or Lion's Head after about 4pm. Every robbery there with a reported time happened between late afternoon and 8:15pm. For the sunset, drive to the Signal Hill viewpoint.
- Don't come down Lion's Head after dark. Start the descent while there are still people on the path.
- Don't leave the N2 at Jakes Gerwel Drive or Borcherds Quarry Road on the way from the airport. Three of the eight attacks on drivers since 2023 happened there.
- Don't stop on the roadside near the airport. One driver was robbed within five minutes of pulling over.
- Don't drive off from the airport with bags on the seats. Put everything in the boot before you leave the car park.
- Don't walk through the city centre or Bo-Kaap with your phone in your hand. Police in the centre recorded 1,913 robberies in a year, about five a day.
- Don't leave anything in a parked car. Sea Point alone recorded 1,116 car crimes in a year.
- Don't leave bags unattended on the beach or at the V&A. Theft is the most common crime in both places.
- Don't visit a township without a local guide, and don't drive through one at night. More than half of Cape Town's murders are recorded in ten police areas on the Cape Flats.
1Where murders happen, and where visitors are robbed
The South African Police Service publishes crime counts every quarter for each of the 63 police station areas in Cape Town. We compared them with the population of each area from the 2022 census. The four station areas where most visitors spend their time, the city centre, Sea Point, Camps Bay and the harbour that includes the V&A Waterfront, are home to 1.5% of Cape Town's residents. In the 12 months to June 2026 they recorded 9 of the city's 3,559 murders. They also recorded 2,114 of its 24,824 robberies and 3,270 of its 17,536 car crimes. 12
The visitor areas record 13 times more car crime than their population suggests, and a sixth of the murders
Each area's share of Cape Town's recorded crimes divided by its share of residents, 12 months to June 2026. At 1× an area has exactly its population's share; right of the line means more, left means fewer.
City centre, Sea Point, Camps Bay, V&A
1.5% of residents
The ten areas with the most murders
39.3% of residents
Mfuleni, Delft, Nyanga, Philippi East, Gugulethu, Kraaifontein, Khayelitsha, Harare, Mitchells Plain and Bishop Lavis. In counts, the four visitor areas recorded 9 murders, 2,114 robberies, 3,270 car crimes and 4,678 thefts; the ten areas 1,922 murders, 9,313 robberies, 2,137 car crimes and 5,395 thefts. Scale is logarithmic.
Measured per resident, the city centre looks extreme: about 4,900 robberies per 100,000 residents a year, nine times the city average. That rate overstates the risk, because few people live in the centre and many more work in it or visit it every day. The counts give the clearer picture. Most of the city's violent crime happens in areas visitors seldom go to, and most crime against visitors is theft and robbery. 12
2Signal Hill, Lion's Head and Table Mountain
Table Mountain National Park is not a police station area, so it does not appear in the police tables. Our figures for the park come from news reports, which we collect, check and de-duplicate for our hiking trails report. Since January 2023 we have 24 separate reports of crimes against hikers, runners and sightseers on the mountain. That is too few to calculate a rate, but enough to show where and when they happen. 3
| Where | Reports since 2023 | Time of day | What the reports describe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal Hill, lower slopes | 11 | 4pm to after dark (5 reports with a time) | Muggings on the paths above the Noon Gun and above Vista High School, including four in September 2026 alone. |
| Table Mountain approach paths | 6 | 12:40 (1 report with a time) | The Glen near Kloof Nek and Tafelberg Road; four hikers attacked in a single day in January 2026; a runner stabbed in July 2026. |
| Lion's Head | 5 | 20:15 (1 report with a time) | Hikers robbed at gunpoint in 2023; two tourists and their guide robbed at 20:15 in October 2026. |
| Silvermine, Kalk Bay mountain | 2 | Morning (Silvermine) | Five hikers held up 100 metres from the Silvermine trailhead on a Saturday morning; a German couple robbed above Kalk Bay. |
Time of day is shown only where the news reports state it.
On Signal Hill and Lion's Head, six of the reports give a time. All six happened between late afternoon and after dark: on a Saturday evening in December 2024, on a German visitor's solo sunset walk in October 2025, in the late afternoon of 23 December 2025, between 4pm and 6pm on Boxing Day 2025, after 7pm in September 2026 and at 20:15 in October 2026. At that hour most walkers are at the top for the sunset and the paths lower down are quieter. In November 2023 SANParks asked tour operators to keep activities on both hills between sunrise and sunset. 34
| When | Where | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Sat evening | Signal Hill | Tourists robbed; rangers arrest two suspects (Dec 2024) |
| Sunset | Signal Hill | German visitor walking alone robbed by a man with a stick (Oct 2025) |
| Late afternoon | Signal Hill | Mugging on the tourist route; two arrested (23 Dec 2025) |
| 16:00 to 18:00 | Signal Hill, above the Noon Gun | Woman injured, her dog killed (26 Dec 2025) |
| After 19:00 | Signal Hill, above Vista High | Fourth mugging there that month (Sep 2026) |
| 20:15 | Lion's Head | Two tourists and their guide robbed (Oct 2026) |
| 12:40 | Table Mountain trail | Woman hiking up attacked (Jul 2025) |
| Morning | Silvermine, Steenberg Plateau | Group of five held up 100 m from the trailhead (Oct 2024) |
On Table Mountain the pattern is different. The robberies there with a reported time happened in daylight, and all of them were on approach paths rather than at the top: the Glen near Kloof Nek, Tafelberg Road and the lower Silvermine path, where five hikers were held up 100 metres from the start on a Saturday morning. Most of the people robbed were alone or in pairs: a German visitor on Signal Hill, a woman walking her dog above the Noon Gun, couples on the Glen and above Kalk Bay. Only two reports involved larger groups, the five hikers at Silvermine and two tourists with their guide on Lion's Head.
19 of 24 trail crime reports fell between October and January
Crime reports on the Peninsula's trails by calendar month, January 2023 to October 2026
Part of this peak is attention: newspapers cover the mountain more in summer. But it also matches when most visitors are on the trails.
Crime is not the only risk on the mountain. Since 2023 our records include five hikers found dead, two of them after confirmed falls on Lion's Head and Table Mountain. None was killed in a robbery in that period. 3
- Hike with other people, ideally four or more as SANParks advises, and choose busy routes such as the main Lion's Head path in daylight.
- For the sunset on Signal Hill, drive or take a ride to the viewpoint at the top instead of walking up from Bo-Kaap or the Noon Gun.
- On Lion's Head, start down before the light goes, while others are still on the path.
- Take only what you need: a phone, water and a little cash. Leave other valuables where you are staying.
- Save the Table Mountain National Park emergency number, 086 110 6417, before you set off. 8
The full record is in our Peninsula hiking trails report, and route advice is in Table Mountain and Lion's Head: safety in 2026.
3The road from the airport
We have 22 news reports from the N2 between the airport and the city since 2023. Most are not about travellers. They cover shootings linked to taxi routes, bodies found next to the road and the City's plan for a R114 million barrier along the highway. Eight describe attacks on people in cars. Four of these happened while the car was stopped or moving slowly: at an off-ramp, in peak-hour traffic, on the roadside and in the airport itself. One car was hit by stones at speed. For the other three the reports do not say. 56
| Date | Where | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | N2 | Smash-and-grab on a car carrying the chair of Parliament's police committee |
| Dec 2025 | Jakes Gerwel Drive off the N2 | A 64-year-old visitor, just landed, fatally stabbed in a smash-and-grab |
| Dec 2025 | Borcherds Quarry Road | Driver robbed within five minutes of pulling over |
| Jan 2026 | N2 near the airport | Car carrying visitors from Wales hit by stones; six teenagers arrested |
| Feb 2026 | Airport access road | Woman driver robbed |
| Mar 2026 | N2 at Jakes Gerwel Drive | Smash-and-grab in the morning peak |
| Aug 2026 | N2 opposite Gugulethu | Smash-and-grab at 17:15; the fleeing suspect was hit by a car |
| Sep 2026 | Inside the airport | Woman hijacked at 17:15; the airport later added security in its car parks |
- Before you leave the airport car park, put luggage, bags and phones in the boot or out of sight. The woman killed in December 2025 had landed minutes earlier.
- Stay on Airport Approach Road and the N2 between the airport and the city, even if a navigation app suggests a way round traffic.
- Don't stop on the roadside or the access roads. If something hits the car and it still drives, keep going to the airport or a petrol station.
- Keep the phone in a holder on the dashboard. Four of the eight attacks were smash-and-grabs through a window.
Every report from the corridor is in our N2 airport route report.
4The city centre, Bo-Kaap and the Waterfront
robberies, about five a day, down from 2,209 the year before. Police also recorded 2,018 car crimes, 3,282 thefts and seven murders. The station area includes Bo-Kaap and the Foreshore.
in the same 12 months, with 8 robberies and no murder. At the Waterfront the main risk is a bag or phone being taken when left unattended.
Both cases in our records of tourists robbed in Bo-Kaap involved phones. In April 2023 a visitor filming herself on one of the painted streets was grabbed around the neck by a man who tried to take her phone. In January 2024 another visitor's phone was taken in the same area. 17
- Take your photo, then put the phone away before you walk on. Use a wrist strap if you film while walking.
- After dark, take a ride for anything more than a few blocks between restaurants and bars.
- In Woodstock, home of the Old Biscuit Mill market, police recorded 471 robberies and 726 car crimes in the year. Go during market hours, park in the managed car parks and leave nothing in the car.
See also our City Bowl crime report and Woodstock crime report.
5The townships
Ten police station areas recorded 1,922 murders in the 12 months to June 2026, more than half of the city's total. Nyanga recorded 218 and Philippi East 196. Sea Point recorded one. These figures shape daily life for the people who live there. Our records cannot show how often visitors are affected: we follow news about visitors on the mountain, on the N2 and in the Atlantic and southern suburbs, not inside the townships. 1
Many visitors go to Langa, Gugulethu or Khayelitsha on organised tours. Go with a local guide or an established operator. Don't drive in on your own at night, and don't follow a navigation app through a township to save time.
Our ranking of Cape Town's safest and most dangerous neighbourhoods covers the residential picture in more detail.
6Places that are safer than their reputation
Robberies down from 51 to 15
The yearly count fell by more than two thirds in four years. Theft is more common, with 193 cases in the year, so keep bags and phones with you on the beach.
One murder in the year
Serious violence is among the lowest in the city. Car crime is the problem: 1,116 cases, up from 880 the year before. Our Sea Point safety FAQ covers it street by street.
17 robberies and one murder in the year
The station area that includes the penguin colony at Boulders has the lowest robbery rate on the Peninsula.
Higher figures, larger areas
Hout Bay recorded 33 murders and Muizenberg 78, up from 36 four years earlier. Both police areas reach well beyond the harbour and the surf beach. The Hout Bay and Muizenberg reports break the figures down.
7Map: where visitors were robbed, 2023 to 2026
Each circle is a place, sized by the number of separate news reports of crimes against hikers, sightseers or drivers since January 2023. Positions are approximate. Tap a circle for details.
8How we did this
The police figures are SAPS counts for the 63 station areas in the City of Cape Town for the 12 months to 30 June 2026, released on 28 August 2026. Rates per 100,000 residents use the City's 2022 census figures for each police precinct. They are recorded crimes: some crimes are never reported, and a station area is larger than the suburb it is named after.
The counts for the mountain and the airport road come from news reports, which we collect, check and de-duplicate for our crime reports. Newspapers are more likely to report a robbery of a tourist on Lion's Head than one of a resident in Nyanga, so these counts show what happened to visitors, not every crime.
For that reason we have not given each place a single danger score. We show where and when the reported cases happened.
Sources
- South African Police Service, quarterly crime statistics by police station, 2026/27 first-quarter release (28 August 2026) and earlier releases; City of Cape Town metro stations. https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php
- City of Cape Town, Census 2022 police precinct profiles (population per station area). https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/education-and-research-materials/data-statistics-and-research/cape-town-census
- Cape Town Data, crime incident records for the Peninsula hiking trails, City Bowl, Atlantic Seaboard, Muizenberg and Hout Bay reports, January 2023 to October 2026, compiled from news and community reports. https://capetowndata.com/en/reports/crime/hiking-trails/
- SANParks letter to tour operators on Signal Hill and Lion's Head, reported in November 2023; Cape Town ETC, Signal Hill and Lion's Head robbery reports, December 2025 to October 2026.
- Cape Town Data, N2 airport route report: news records January 2023 to October 2026. https://capetowndata.com/en/reports/crime/n2-airport-route/
- Daily Maverick (August 2025), Cape Town ETC (December 2025), Daily Voice (December 2025), Smile 90.4FM (January and March 2026), 2oceansvibe News (February 2026), Cape Town ETC (August 2026), News24 and TygerBurger (September 2026), on the attacks listed in section 3.
- The South African and IOL (April 2023, January 2024), on robberies of tourists in Bo-Kaap.
- SANParks, "Table Mountain National Park records positive festive season numbers" (29 January 2025), and Table Mountain National Park contact page. https://www.sanparks.org/news/table-mountain-national-park-records-positive-festive-season-numbers
- Photo: "Lion's Head at Dusk" by Marcelo Novais, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lion%27s_Head_at_Dusk_(Unsplash).jpg
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed and verified by humans.
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