What to Expect From Living in Cape Town
Why would anyone go and live in Cape Town? Simply because Cape Town has it all: beaches, mountains, gardens, adventure trips, wildlife, wine, awesome braai, and an amazing nightlife.
In this post, I’m going to try to answer most of the questions that friends have asked me for tips on living in Cape Town. Most of these are related to maintaining the quality of life one enjoys in their homeland.
What to Expect From Living in Cape Town
Is Cape Town safe?
As you might already be expecting, my answer to this question is: “ABSOLUTELY!”. However, many potential visitors give up on traveling around South Africa even before discovering the amazing things to do out there due to the stereotypical idea that the place is dangerous.
Why is this the case? For one thing, popular areas are often protected by security guards. However, you shouldn’t be scared to simply walk around town. Before the World Cup in 2010, security increased enormously.
Cultural Differences in South Africa
I think a lot of tourists aren’t aware of certain cultural differences in South Africa and this can often cause needless fear. For instance, when parking your car on the street you’ll probably meet a lot of poor men asking you for money in exchange for looking after your car. A lot of tourists freak out without understanding that these people are completely harmless and you’re not obligated to give them any money.
Public Transportation in Cape Town
If you’re willing to take the minibus you need to have 2 things in mind:
- You can never be sure that the bus is going where it claims it’s going.
- When the bus comes, you simply have to wave to make it stop for you. Even if you’re on the other side of the street the bus might jump in the middle of traffic and stop so that you can safely walk across the street.
Once you set your mind to it, you can actually have a lot of fun riding Capetonian minibusses. The minibusses even have a TV screen inside (I was amazed by that!) and despite the crowded environment, everyone seems to be pretty happy.
South African minibusses remind me a lot of Mexico City buses because the rules are pretty much the same in both. However, in Cape Town there is a special procedure if you’re sitting in the front seat of the minibus. The driver is busy driving and therefore needs help to collect the money.
The person sitting in the front seat collects the money from every passenger, counts it, and manages the whole ride. My advice: if you’re not good at math, don’t sit there!
Remember that drivers are super nice, a few times I was actually dropped off literally in front of my doorstep because the bus driver had a good day and dropped all of the remaining passengers at their final destinations.
Apart from the minibusses, Cape Town has a number of new red buses. In order to get on board, you need to purchase a special card available at every bigger supermarket.
Cost of living in Cape Town
The costs of living in Cape Town is considered to be 65% cheaper than in London/UK and 62% cheaper than in New York/USA. Renting an apartment is definitely the most expensive (and hardest) part of the Cape Town experience.
I was lucky enough to get a long-term deal at a guesthouse, but for a simple room in a shared house you might end up paying between R4000 and R5500.
On the other hand, eating out is cheaper than cooking at home, so I was doing this pretty much every second day.
Working in Cape Town as an expat
Before I moved to Cape Town I was searching for expats’ opinions on how life was and I found this piece:
“The downside is doing business here or working here.The pace is slooooooooooooow. The attitude to sticking to deadlines, and answering emails is the equivalent of a hippy looking at you through a dope haze, shrugging and saying: “Meh” before taking another puff.”
The funny thing is that he’s actually right. The downtown area is full of people during their lunch break (a very long break) and people seem quite relaxed about it.
Does every household in South Africa have a maid?
In Cape Town, most working households have at least one maid. No, it’s not a person paid per hour that comes with a long list of things they won’t do (like in England). In Cape Town, a lot of middle-class houses have a person all day every day.
You can also easily get a nanny, gardener or handyman without breaking the bank. Some of the maids live with their employers as well, much like in Mexico.
Visas to South Africa
Most people from Western countries don’t need a tourist visa to visit for up to 3 months. However, that’s the only easy part of going to South Africa. I’m not going to lie and say that organizing a work visa, student visa, or simply an extension of a tourist visa is easy because it’s not.
A student visa is slightly more difficult to obtain, but not impossible. Another option is also an investment visa that will grant you permanent residency.
South Africa and Cape Town are still waiting for me 🙂 And I would love to try out the public transport, cause wherever I go it’s so fun to see how specific it is! 🙂
Oh yeah, it’s definitely an experience 🙂
Honestly, I’m a bit afraid of visiting Cape Town. All people I know who went there were robbed or something like that. Not very encouraging.
Well, I guess it all depends… I found Cape Town very safe, a lot of people got robbed in London or any other big cities 🙁
Dear Anna,
Love you website.
I would, however, not classify Cape Town as safe. Especially not absolutely. We, who live here, don’t see it as safe. You can’t even leave your phone on the table while eating. You have to vigilant all the time. You definetely can’t do night trips anywhere. Don’t be fooled by visiting the so-called townships for a cultural experience. There are lots of gang operations and lots of racial hate. Poverty is strive and people really and truly don’t value the lives of another. The murder rate is one of the highest in the world, especially compared to the population size. I feel you should change the comment to something else, but not ‘safe’. It really and truly is not safe. We lock ourselves in our houses as if we are prisoners. We can’t leave a window open, because of hi-jacking and stealing. Our kids are being grabbed for human trafficking. Even our young adult women. It is not safe here.
You just described any big city really – London, New York, Mexico City, etc. Places like Mogadishu are not safe, but for a regular person this is safe enough.
Hello John, you tell that you have to lock the windows etc, do you live in a gated community with protection? I’m asking this because we maybe have to move there with my young son and looking for options in gated/protected houses. Hope to hear from you. Regards priscilla
I totally agree with you John! I’m “ABSOLUTELY” astounded the writer is prepare to mislead people so completely! I was born and lived in London for 39yrs, and now live in Houston, after living in two other US cities, so I’m no stranger to big city life, and what it means. Furthermore, I’ve travelled on business to Africa 32 times, 27 of those were to SA, and mainly Cape Town. I was also able at one time to live in Cape Town for year. Unlike most visitor or people living in Cape Town, I was able to reside in what is probably the safest area of the city, Clifton, where we had armed mobile security services day and night, but nonetheless safety was our major concern, especially when it gets dark, and you’re outside the confines of your safe suburb! Let me say the social divide is clear for all to see, leading to the mindset of, life having no value to certain sector of society; they will happily kill you for 100 rand (about $5.50), or a mobile phone, it just the way their minds work. Let’s not forget the murder rate is 69 per 100k, and the safety index is 84.36%, not good. While downtown areas are bustling during the day, and may have additional security, especially tourist areas, as 19:00 comes around, and businesses have closed for the day, it is not a place I wanted to be! Also if you have money and drive a high end car, it draws instant attention to you like having a flashing neon light on your roof. One evening I had a meeting that went until 22:00; on leaving the carpark I noticed I was being followed; by significantly breaking the speed limit and a running a red light at an intersection I lost them. So concerned I drove several loops of Victoria Rd and Kloof Rd before continuing to my house, just encase! It’s not all bad if you don’t leave Clifton, Camp Bay or Bantry Bay, where life is great, and the beaches are wonderful all year. I met some of the nicest people you could imagine; I’m still in touch and see several of them 12yrs on, and 8,500 miles away; unfortunately not as much as I would like.. To sum it up, it’s the most paradoxical place I’ve ever been, because the bit’s I loved, I really loved, (best wine in the world!), but also the things I hate, I really hated! That’s how Cape Town makes you feel, except for the sun sets, which are by far the most beautiful I’ve seen anywhere bar none. If it wasn’t for the constant omnipresence of impending violence, I could have ignored it’s other failings, and happily spent many years there!
Your lying you just want to discourage people who want to go white people are just fearful of black people for some stupid reason
Have you already seen a white man? There is no white human being on earth.
that’s absolutely true ,we Asians are laughing when people consider themselves as white and black although those colours doesn’t exist on them and also hate themselves like babies.
Just met a person from Capetown and she said only the rich are protected Its not safe at all like tourism promotes . Just an opinion but i think ill hang of visiting.
I was a tourist in Cape Town, from Seattle, US. We were newbies to Africa so let our travel agent do all the planning. She booked us 5 star all the way for 12 days. This ment that our 3 Cape Town days we had a full time guide who was an Afrikaner (African of Dutch descent). He had been a former cop. His position was that some people in Cape Town over react re: safety. We (two women) did walk around “downtown” one day without guide, visited shops, had lunch, dinner. I never had a feeling that it was unsafe until I got in the taxi and it was driven by a person who had been labeled “colored” during apartide. OMG, did he rail against Africans (he was African/Indian from India). I was actually intimidated by his hatred and had it not been so far to our B&B would have walked home. The black Africans we met were well behaved, polite, friendly. Cape Town is a large city, it’s urban, it has gritty parts, it has poor people who are desperate, just as an
y city.
Oh, forgot to say, I LOVE Africa and just got back from the great migration in Tanzania.