Robben Island

OVERVIEW

Ponder the struggle against apartheid at Robben Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site best known as the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. You’ll learn that for over four centuries, Robben Island was a place of punishment for exiles and criminals as well as a place of confinement for lepers, lunatics and the sick, and from 1960 was used by the apartheid regime to isolate political prisoners such as Mandela. Discover that the last of the political inmates was released in 1991 and the site subsequently opened to the public as the Robben Island Museum, with many of the former political prisoners becoming guides. After a pleasant ferry ride with Cape Town and Table Mountain as your backdrop, arrive at Robben Island and board a bus for a 45-minute orientation drive, seeing the old leper colony, a Muslim shrine and a shipwreck before visiting the limestone quarry where political inmates performed backbreaking labor. Embark on an approximately 45-minute walking tour through the maximum-security block and cherish an opportunity to look into Mandela’s compact former cell. As you return to the mainland by ferry, let your thoughts linger on this stirring and uplifting sojourn.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Explore infamous Robben Island, once the prison that held Nelson Mandela and today a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Tour the island by coach, passing a shipwreck, a Muslim shrine and a former leper colony.
• Gaze at a limestone quarry where political prisoners, including Mandela, arduously toiled.
• Roam the maximum-security block and peer into the tiny cell where Mandela spent most of his time.
• Take in splendid vistas of Cape Town and Table Mountain during the ferry crossings to and from the island.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.