Robben Island Tours - Find & Book Robben Island Boat Trips & Tours with CapeScape & affordable Robben Island Tours, Cape Town.

ROBBEN ISLAND AND V&A WATERFRONT TOUR

We will proceed to the V&A Waterfront, one of Cape Town’s most popular attractions. You will have the opportunity to shop in the very upmarket Victoria and Alfred Shopping Centre

We will then visit an exclusive Diamond and Tanzanite operation. We will then proceed to Robben Island.

ROBBEN ISLAND CRUISE

The standard tour to Robben Island is 3.5 hours long, including the two half-hour ferry rides.

The Robben Island Tour includes:

• A return boat trip across Table Bay
• A visit to the infamous Maximum Security Prison
• Interaction with an ex-political prisoner
• A 45-minute bus ride with commentary
• The opportunity to explore the Murray's Bay Harbour precinct attractions, such as the Muslim shrine, or    kramat, and the Museum Shop.

To secure a place, we recommend you book early.

BRIEF HISTORY

From the 17th to the 20th centuries, Robben Island served as a place of banishment, isolation and imprisonment. Today it is a World Heritage Site and museum, a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of the price paid for freedom.

People lived on Robben Island many thousands of years ago, when the sea channel between the Island and the Cape mainland was not covered with water. Since the Dutch settled at the Cape in the mid-1600s, Robben Island has been used primarily as a prison.

Indigenous African leaders, Muslim leaders from the East Indies, Dutch and British soldiers and civilians, women, and anti-apartheid activists, including South Africa's first democratic President, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the founding leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, were all imprisoned on the Island.

Robben Island has not only been used as a prison. It was a training and defence station in World War II (1939-1945) and a hospital for people with leprosy, andthe mentally and chronically ill (1846-1931). In the 1840s, Robben Island was chosen for a hospital because it was regarded as both secure (isolating dangerous cases) and healthy (providing a good environment for cure). During this time, political and common-law prisoners were still kept on the Island. As there was no cure and little effective treatment available for leprosy, mental illness and other chronic illnesses in the 1800s, Robben Island was a kind of prison for the hospital patients too.

Since 1997 it has been a museum and a heritage site. The museum is a dynamic institution, which acts as a focal point of South African heritage.

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