Robben Island — Nelson Mandela's Cell

Robben Island sits around 11 kilometres off Cape Town's coast, and for the second half of the twentieth century, it was where the apartheid government sent its political prisoners. Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment here, in a cell in B Section that measures roughly 2.4 by 2.1 metres.

The only way to reach the island is by ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront's Clock Tower. Ferries run at fixed times through the day, typically 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm, with the crossing taking 30 to 60 minutes depending on conditions.

Once on the island, the tour runs in two parts. A bus takes you around the island's wider sites — the lime quarry where prisoners were forced to labour, the leper graveyard, the staff settlement — before a walking tour through the maximum-security prison itself, led by a former political prisoner. Robben Island's guides are, genuinely, people who were incarcerated there. The full experience runs roughly three and a half to four hours.

Tickets are only available in advance, through the official Robben Island Museum website. There's no walk-up sales at the ferry departure point, and this is one of Cape Town's most consistently booked-out experiences.