Simons Town offers the best holiday accommodation in Cape Town, South Africa, including Self Catering, B&B's, and Hotels, Camping and Backpackers. Simon's Town has stunning views in the most beautiful environment of the Cape Peninsula. Nestled on False Bay within easy distance of Cape Town International Airport, our village is rich in history, character, atmosphere and warmth. Our neighbours are whales, penguins and seals with world heritage status bird life, fishing and the beauty of Table Mountain and Cape Point.
A walk along Simon’s Town's Historic Mile, from the railway station in St George's Street to the East Dockyard gates. takes visitors back in time to the days of seafaring adventure and naval expeditions.
The history of Simon’s Town reads like a naval adventure.
Ships of all shapes and sizes – frigates, corvettes, sloops, pirate brigantines and, lately, hi-tech submarines – have docked at Simon’s Town somewhere between 1741 and today. And with them came the legends: battles at sea, pirate booty, encounters in strange lands and sad news of another shipwreck somewhere along the 3 000-odd kilometres of South Africa’s coastline.
As you wander down St George’s Street – also called the Historic Mile – you will pass ancient filigreed buildings from another era. The Historic Mile extends from the railway station to the East Dockyard gates, with intriguing little alleyways leading off it.
Although Simon’s Town was established by the Dutch – and named after governor Simon van der Stel – it was really with the establishment of the Royal Navy Base there in 1806 that the little settlement became such a legendary port of call.
Slip back in time and you could find yourself in the company of a rather dashing young British Naval lieutenant called Horatio Nelson, on shore leave from the HMS Badger, stalking this very street in search of a rowdy pub that served a decent repast.
There are four museums in Simon’s Town, all worth a look.
The Warrior Toy Museum near Jubilee Square (where the statue of beer-drinking Great Dane Able Seaman Just Nuisance stands) displays cars, trains, dolls and lead soldiers fashioned long ago.
The South African Naval Museum has interesting displays about both the Royal Navy and the South African Navy, including a submarine diorama.
The Heritage Museum chronicles Simon’s Town’s rich Muslim past, while a visit to the Simon’s Town Museum is the best way to lift the historic veil from this fascinating seaside town.
How to get there
Simon’s Town is about 40km from Cape Town and lies on False Bay on the Cape Point Route.
Best time to visit
Because there are so many indoor venues such as museums, great restaurants, pubs and bookshops, visits to Simon’s Town are not that weather-dependent.
Around the area
Nearby Kalk Bay is a great destination. Take the water taxi from Simon’s Town for a special experience, and perhaps have lunch at Kalk Bay Harbour or the Olympia Cafe. You're also not far from Cape Point, which is well worth a visit.
- Boulders Beach, a few kilometres to the south of Simon's Town is reputed to be amongst the very best beaches in the Cape, and is internationally renowned for being home to one of only three South African colonies of the African (Jackass) Penguins.
- The False Bay Yacht Club is conveniently situated adjacent to the Simon's Town Waterfront Centre in the town. Boat charters and sea kayaking are some of the many activities offered from the centre, and professionally managed and run deepsea fishing and whalewatching charters are available.
- The Heritage Museum in Amlay House on King George Street, also worth a visit, features many aspects of the Muslim community, and the nearby Mosque is absolutely beautiful.
- There are a host of spas and body boutiques to delight in
- Visit Cape Point which is a short drive away and take some fabulous photographs at the lighthouse
The town officially called Simon's Town, but often referred to as Simonstown, was originally named Simon's Vlek after Simon van der Stel, the Dutch governor of the Cape Colony between 1677 and 1699, who surveyed the bay east of Cape Town in 1687 and earmarked it as a safe winter harbour during the months of May to September for which it was finally proclaimed in 1741
Progress may have come slowly to Simon’s Town, but it has certainly left its mark. The town grew rapidly when it became a Royal Naval Base and the home of the South Atlantic Squadron under the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806, thanks largely to the construction of a huge man-made sandstone breakwater.
Admiral Lord Nelson himself is also said to have come ashore from his ship to be nursed through an illness in the late 1770s, on the first of his two visits, long before the British occupation.
Over 300 ships were repaired at Simon’s Town during the Second World War, and the completion of the modern Simon's Town harbour and the Selborne dry-dock took place by 1910.
When in 1957 the Naval Base was finally handed over to the South African Government, at least 125 Allied ships had been sunk by the Germans, Japanese and Italians, in relatively close proximity to Simon’s Town.
Situated on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula on the shores of False Bay, Simon’s Town remains an important naval base to this day, and the town which rises steeply above the harbour up the mountainsides is rich in both architectural and natural beauty, as well as Cape history and strange legends and tales.
A famous resident of the town was Able Seaman Just Nuisance, RN, the only dog ever to be enlisted in the Royal Navy, to whom a statue has been erected in Jubilee Square. The sailors' had a favourite Great Dane who was a resident in the town, and request was sent to the British parliament asking for him to be enlisted in the Navy. Permission was granted and the dog was brought to the Recruiting Officer, who inquired: “Name?” “Nuisance, Sir”, the sailor replied. “First name?” “Just Nuisance, Sir,” the sailor stated, giving birth to a great legend.
Peopled with many descendants of the world’s sailing and exploring nations, as well as many slave families from the 17th century, and many of South Africa’s indigenous people’s who were drawn to the area from across Southern Africa, Simon’s Town has a rich and multicultural heritage, although it does somewhat resemble an old and quaint Victorian seaside town today.
Admiralty House on St. George’s, originally a private dwelling, dates from 1814 as does the Wesleyan Chapel which was built in 1828 and represents the oldest of its type of church in South Africa. Both are said to be haunted by several different ghosts!
An interesting 17th century Muslim Kramat (or grave) was discovered among the trees on a terrace above Runciman's Drive in the 1800s. Whoever is interred in the Kramat may be unknown, but its location appears to have a strange spiritual aura. Muslims still hold the site as 'Moestajap', a word used to express inexplicable spiritual happenings.
Another interesting building is the Dutch East India Company Hospital with three front-facing gables. Constructed on the mountainside above the Residency in 1764, it was here that author and playwright Edgar Wallace served as a medical orderly in the late 1890s.
Robert Brown, generally regarded as one of finest figures in the history of British botany, called at Simon’s Town during 1801, where, for the first time, he saw members of South Africa’s national flower, the Proteaceae, growing in their natural habitats.
On returning to London in 1805, Brown began assembling a major monograph on the species, which formed the basis of his work: 'On the Proteaceae of Jussieu'. This great work embodies not only a revised classification of the whole family Proteaceae but also a monograph of the genus Protea itself, in which thirty-nine species were recognized.
The town has several museums which are worth visiting. Simon's Town Museum highlights events in the development of Simon's Town through the centuries. The South African Naval Museum in the Mast House (1815) alongside the Simon's Town Museum, displays models of ships and related maritime events.
The Heritage Museum in Amlay House on King George Street, also worth a visit, features many aspects of the Muslim community, and the nearby Mosque is absolutely beautiful.
