Looking for ways to keep the kids amused while in Cape Town? These six museums offer lots for them (and you) to discover. Dinosaurs, whales, submarines and Dinky Toys – who said museums were just for grown ups?
1. IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM
The almost 200-year-old South African Museum houses over a million specimens of scientific importance, ranging from fossils almost 700-million years old to insects and fish caught last week. Kids can learn about stone tools made by people 120 000 years ago and traditional clothes from the last century.
Did you know? For every object on exhibition at the South African Museum, there are thousands more carefully stored away.
Without museum collections there would be no permanent record of extinct animals like dinosaurs. Neither would we have examples of artefacts made by our ancestors two million years ago or cultural objects used by people over the centuries. Today’s collections will show our grand-children what our world was like.
Kids will love…
- Shark World.
- Virtual Earth. From a touch screen you are able to select different views of our changing earth, such as the earth at night, ozone hole evolution, earth surface temperatures, etc.
- The Dinosaurs.
- Wonders of Nature. This exhibit includes the petrified skull of a 250- million-year-old mammal-like reptile, a whale skull and vertebra, the shell of a giant clam, and an iron meteorite that may date back to the beginning of the solar system.
- The Whale Well, which includes a 20.5 metre blue whale skeleton and where you can listen to the sounds of whales communicating underwater.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3800
Address: 25 Queen Victoria Street, Gardens, Cape Town
Operating hours: Daily from 10h00 to 17h00
Closed on Workers’ Day and Christmas Day
Children under five years enter for free (excluding the Planetarium) and family tickets are available.
There is a restaurant facility.
* For a little added fun you can also take the kids for a stroll through the Company Gardens before or after the museum, and stop to feed the squirrels.
2. THE PLANETARIUM (also located inside the South African Museum building)
Experience a celestial theatre where you are transported through the wonders of the universe. The ultimate in armchair travel. Inside the domed auditorium, they can recreate the night sky, so whatever the weather outside, the Planetarium sky is always clear, an extraordinary audio-visual experience for old and young. They also have a lovely program for children.
Kids will love…
Davy Dragon’s Guide to the Night Sky at 12h00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Please contact the planetarium to confirm these times.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3900
Address: 25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town
Operating hours: The planetarium is open daily, except on Worker’s Day, Christmas Day and the first Monday of the month (excluding school holidays). There are shows from Monday to Friday at 14h00, at 20h00 on Tuesday evenings and at 12h00 (for children), 13h00 and 14h30 on Saturdays and Sundays.
3. KOOPMANS-DE WET HOUSE
This is the oldest house museum in the country and belonged to a well-to-do Cape family during the late 18th Century. The walls and items in the museum tell the story of the family who lived in the house over the years. Their personalities and causes come out in newspaper clippings and writings. Recent research has brought to light the names and professions of some who lived in the house at the time, as well as the kinds of activities they would have pursued.
The house opened its doors as a museum in 1914, after the deaths of its last private owners, Marie Koopmans-de Wet and her sister Margaritha. It houses some of the best pieces of Cape furniture and silver in the country, in addition to a priceless collection of ceramics.
Kids will love…
Being transported back in time to see how moneyed people lived in 18th Century Cape Town.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3935
Address: 35 Strand Street, Cape Town
Open from Monday to Friday from 10h00 to 17h00
Closed on Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day and Workers’ Day
Children under five years enter for free and family tickets are available.
4. CASTLE OF GOOD HOPE
The Castle of Good Hope was built between 1666 and 1679 by Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a maritime replenishment station and a defensive fort, and is the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa.
During 1664, tensions between Britain and the Netherlands rose amid rumours of war. Commander Zacharias Wagenaer was instructed to build a pentagonal fortress out of stone. The five bastions were named after the main titles of William III of Orange-Nassau: Leerdam, Buuren, Katzenellenbogen, Nassau, and Oranje.
The fortress included a church, bakery, various workshops, living quarters, shops and cells. During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), part of the castle was used as a prison, and the former cells remain to this day. The bell over the main entrance is the oldest in South Africa. It was cast in Amsterdam in 1697 and weighs just over 300 kilograms (660 lb). It could be heard 10 kilometres away and so was used to announce the time and to warn citizens in case of danger.
To this day, soldiers are present at the Castle in honour of its history and safeguarding of the facility, guard duties and military ceremonies. The Castle is the seat of the military in the Cape, and houses the Castle Military Museum and Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Here one can get a glimpse of life at the Cape during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Did you know? Although today the Castle is far away from the sea, it was originally built on the beach. The area where the Cape Town station now stands was originally under the ocean and has been built on land reclaimed over the years.
Kids will love…
- Seeing the soldiers perform their military duties
- Watching the live (and very loud) cannon-firing demonstration on the lawns (at 10:00 and 12:00)
- Visiting the torture chamber and the upstairs prisons, where you can still see the engravings made by the prisoners on the doors.
- The story of Fritz Joubert Duquesne, a well-known castle prisoner. Although the walls of the castle were extremely thick, Duquesne dug away the cement around the stones with an iron spoon night after night. He nearly escaped one night, but a large stone slipped and pinned him in his tunnel. The next morning, a guard found him unconscious but alive.
There is a grass covered courtyard to sit and relax as well as a cafe where you can order lunch or a drink.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 787 1260
Address: Corner Darling and Buitenkant Streets, City Centre, Cape Town
Opening times: Monday – Sunday: 9am to 4pm, closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
5. THE SOUTH AFRICAN NAVAL MUSEUM
The SA Navy Museum is housed in and around the original Dockyard Magazine which, from 1810 when the Royal Navy moved its headquarters from Cape Town to Simon’s Town, was extended to become the three-storey building it is today. It’s a must-visit if you are interested in ships and submarines, their weapons, their equipment, the people who serve (and served) in them.
Throughout the years the building served ships as a magazine and storehouse, mast house (handling masts some 36 metres long), sail loft, boat shed, rigging shop, store for a rocket wagon and lifesaving apparatus, and as St. George’s Church.
The SA Navy Museum collection, which is continuously being expanded, includes ship and submarine models, a life-size ship’s bridge, a life-size submarine’s operations and control room, naval guns, torpedoes, an anti-submarine mortar, sea mines, mine-sweeping equipment, diving equipment, naval small craft, naval uniforms, portraits of naval personnel, the South African training ship ‘General Botha’, and more.
The SA Naval Museum is a part of the South African Navy and is staffed by Naval Personnel and civilian volunteers.
Kids will love…
The submarine tour (how did they sleep in those narrow beds?), the helicopter and all the boats on display.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 787 4686/4635
Address: Naval Dockyard, St George’s Street, Simons Town
Opening times: Monday – Sunday: 9:30am – 3:30pm, closed on Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
6. WARRIOR TOY MUSEUM
The Warrior Toy Museum in Simon’s Town houses a permanent display of 4 000 model cars, 500 dolls and teddy bears, miniature doll’s houses and rooms, two fully operating railroads, lead soldier displays, Meccano, ships and many other miscellaneous toys and models. The toy museum also has a sales section for collectors. Percy van Zyl, the fun-loving curator of the museum, has created a haven for collectors of cars, buses, airplanes, trucks and lead soldiers.
There are shelves of ‘celebrity’ toy cars such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mr Bean’s mini. You’ll also see a battalion of toy soldiers standing side by side with spear-wielding Zulus. Other interesting exhibits include an Asah miniature piano and a circus tent full of acrobatic figures. There’s also a frightening number of glassy-eyed porcelain dolls with far-off stares that could give the Bride of Chucky a run for her money.
Kids will love…
All of it.
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0)21 786 1395
Address: St George’s Street (next to the Town Hall), Simon’s Town
Opening times: Monday – Sunday: 10am – 4pm