Cape Town Beaches for Kids: Warm Water, Tidal Pools, Shark Flags

Anyone travelling to Cape Town with kids and thinking of a beach holiday needs to know one thing first: the city’s prettiest beaches aren’t the ones children most like swimming at. Clifton and Camps Bay on the Atlantic side look like something from a brochure, but the water there usually stays at 12 to 15 degrees even at the height of summer. Children run in and are back on the sand shivering within a minute.

On the other side of the peninsula, at False Bay, the water is markedly warmer in summer – on good days in Muizenberg, between 18 and 22 degrees. In exchange, the wind blows there more often, and great white sharks live there too. Both are manageable once you know how the beaches are organised.

This article expands on one section of the overview Cape Town with Kids. That article covers Table Mountain, the penguins and the tours; this one is just about the water.

Atlantic or False Bay: The Morning Decision

In Cape Town, choosing a beach depends less on the beach than on the wind. On many summer days a strong south-easterly, the Cape Doctor, blows. It sweeps sand across the False Bay beaches, while the coves at Clifton on the Atlantic side sit in the lee of the rocks.

That gives families a simple rule:

• Calm, warm day: False Bay. Muizenberg, St James, Fish Hoek. This is where you swim.
• Day with a south-easterly: the Atlantic side. Sandcastles, rocks, a picnic in Clifton or Camps Bay – but into the water feet only.

If you have a rental car, check the wind forecast in the morning and set off from there. Without a car, for a beach holiday it’s better to stay on the side where you actually want to swim. Depending on traffic, the drive from the city centre to Muizenberg takes roughly thirty to forty-five minutes.

Muizenberg: The City’s Family Beach

Muizenberg is the beach Cape Town locals take their own children to. It shelves gently, the waves break well out and roll in long and even. That’s why the surf schools are based here, and why beginners of every age are up on their boards in the morning. The colourful beach huts along the shore are the ones you know from postcards.

For a surf lesson for an older child or the whole family: the private surf lesson in Muizenberg costs from €29.24 and has 5 stars from 56 reviews. The operator’s short description doesn’t give a minimum age. Ask about that before booking, and also ask whether wetsuits come in children’s sizes. Further options involving boards, ropes and quads are listed under adventure activities.

The catch with Muizenberg is the wind. On a day with a strong south-easterly, the beach is hard going with a toddler – the sand stings your legs. Then the rule from above applies: head for the Atlantic side instead.

The Shark Spotters’ Flags

Great white sharks live in False Bay, and Cape Town has its own way of dealing with that: the organisation Shark Spotters posts lookouts at elevated points above the beaches to scan the water. A flag on the beach shows what they see.

• Green: good visibility for the spotters, no shark sighted
• Black: poor visibility, no shark sighted – the spotters can’t reliably see into the water
• Red: high alert. A shark was seen recently, one is further out, or the spotters judge shark activity to be elevated right now
• White with a black shark: a shark is in the water. A siren sounds too. Everyone out.
• No flag: no spotter is on duty.

According to Shark Spotters, four beaches are staffed all year round: Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, Caves in Kalk Bay and St James. Clovelly, Glencairn, The Hoek and Monwabisi are watched only in the summer season, from September to April, on weekends, public holidays and during school holidays.

For parents that means: swim with children at a beach that has a flag, and explain the siren to them beforehand. The spotters reduce a risk; they don’t rule it out.

Fish Hoek: The Beach with the Net

Fish Hoek has a feature you won’t find anywhere else in Cape Town: a net that separates a swimming area from the open sea. According to Shark Spotters, it’s deployed from October to May, on every day that weather and swell allow. In the evening the crew hauls it back in, so no animals get caught in it.

You can tell whether the net is out by a yellow flag below the spotters’ flag. If it’s missing, the net isn’t out that day.

The beach itself is wide, and the water in the sheltered bay is usually calm. For families with toddlers, Fish Hoek is therefore often more pleasant than Muizenberg, where the waves are bigger.

The Tidal Pools: Swimming Without Waves

The real secret of False Bay is the tidal pools built into the rocks along the False Bay coast, most of them between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay. The sea fills them at high tide, the wall keeps the waves out, and parts are shallow enough for small children to stand in.

• St James: one of the larger pools, right below the colourful beach huts everyone photographs. Correspondingly busy at weekends.
• Dalebrook in Kalk Bay: a few steps from St James beach, with a changing room and an outdoor shower, which is rare for a tidal pool. The big boulders next to it are where people warm up after the cold water.
• Wooley’s in Kalk Bay: harder to find, since it’s barely visible from the road. It has its own paddling pool for children and a deeper pool alongside.
• Miller’s Point: about an hour’s drive from the city, beyond Simon’s Town. The pool has a slide for children. Worth it if you’re heading to the penguin colony at Boulders Beach anyway.

Two things apply to all the pools. At high tide with surf running, waves break over the wall, and then it’s no place for small children. And the rocks and steps are covered in algae and slippery. Water shoes help, and an adult should stay within arm’s reach.

On the Atlantic Side: Maiden’s Cove and the Sea Point Pool

If you’re staying on the Atlantic side, you don’t have to drive across the peninsula every day. Near Camps Bay, Maiden’s Cove has two tidal pools between the granite rocks, a good spot for paddling and for the sunset. The water there, though, is just as cold as at the beach next door.

For proper swimming, Sea Point has the public Sea Point Pavilion pool right on the promenade, with several pools, including for children. Entry costs just a few rand. For parents who want their kids in a pool with an edge and supervision, this is often the more relaxed choice than the Atlantic.

When a Beach Day Isn’t a Good Idea

• Between June and August. It’s winter at the Cape, it rains, and the water is even colder. That’s the time for the whales in Hermanus (whale watching), not for the beach.
• With a strong south-easterly at False Bay. Sand in your face and waves over the pool walls. Better to head to Clifton then, or take a trip without water, such as the hop-on-hop-off bus.
• At a beach with no flag and no supervision. Not every beautiful beach is a good swimming beach. Even adults underestimate cold currents and strong surf.
• In the midday sun. The sun at the Cape is stronger than the cool wind makes it feel. Check with a pharmacy or paediatrician what sun protection is right for your child.

A beach day combines well with the Cape Peninsula: Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Simon’s Town lie on the way to the Cape. How the guided day tours there work is covered in the article on the day tour to the Cape of Good Hope, all the options are under Cape of Good Hope tours. What else Cape Town has to offer is gathered in the article on the sights of Cape Town, the full tour selection is at things to do in Cape Town.