City Art & Bikes - Half Day Tour Cape Town

Description

This half-day tour by bicycle takes you to all the best spots in Cape Town as well as stopping to see some outstanding artworks! The entire tour is based in Cape Town and is approximately 4 hours. The Tours start & end at the &Bikes Boutique, 32 Loop Street, Cape Town. Clients to note that cycling is done in the city center of Cape Town and cycle paths are not always provided.

Embrace Cape Town’s urban heartbeat and experience the soul and creativity of the Mother City on this tour that weaves you through a network of backroads to show off the city’s iconic street art and graffiti. Visit the historically significant District Six, the colourful Bo Kaap, and cruise through the Company’s Garden, stopping at the National Gallery on route to round off your art tour. 

Highlights

• District six 
• Bo Kaap museum & Cape dutch houses
• Comapany's garden 

Itinerary

Tours start & end at the &Bikes Boutique, 32 Loop Street, Cape Town

Start: 09h00
End: 13h30

During this half-day cycling tour, you will visit the historically significant District Six, the colourful Bo Kaap, and cruise through the Company’s Garden, stopping at the National Gallery en route. 

District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. It was established as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers, and immigrants. It was a vibrant centre with close links to the city and the port. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the process of removals and marginalisation had begun. The first to be forced out were black South Africans who were displaced from the District in 1901. As the more prosperous moved away to the suburbs, the area became a neglected ward of the city.

Situated at the foot of Signal Hill, on the fringe of the city center, and formerly known as the Malay Quarter, the Bo-Kaap’s origins date back to the 1760s when numerous “huurhuisjes” (rental houses) were built and leased to slaves. These people were known as Cape Malays and were brought from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the rest of Africa to work in the Cape. The houses are a mix of Cape Dutch and Georgian architecture, in distinctive multi-colored rows on steeply cobbled roads. The choice of colour is said to be attributed to the fact that while on a lease, all the houses had to be white. When this rule was eventually lifted, and the slaves were allowed to buy the properties, all the houses were painted bright colours by their owners as an expression of their freedom. Today the Bo-Kaap community is a significant part of our cultural heritage.

Important information