Compared
Helicopter or cable car in Cape Town? Two views of the same mountain
One costs about a fiftieth of the other, and they are not competing products. The cable car puts you on top of Table Mountain for a couple of hours. The helicopter shows you the mountain, the city and the peninsula from above for twelve minutes. This page is what each one gives you, what each one cannot, and what to do if you only have money or weather for one.
Quick answer
They answer different questions. The cable car takes about five minutes to climb 700 metres and leaves you free to walk the plateau, and it costs a small fraction of a flight. A helicopter flight from $170 shows you the shape of the mountain, the bowl of the city and the coast running south — the geography, not the summit. If you can do both, do both, and do the flight first. If you can only do one and the budget is the constraint, take the cable car.
Cable car and helicopter, side by side
- Cable car time
- ~5 minutes upplus as long as you like on top
- Helicopter time
- 12–48 minutesplus ~45 minutes of check-in
- Cable car cost
- A small fraction of a flighta standard tourist ticket
- Helicopter cost
- From $170per person
- What the cable car gives
- The summityou stand on the plateau
- What the flight gives
- The shapemountain, bowl, coast, in one frame
- Cable car weather
- Closes in wind and cloudoften, and at short notice
- Flight weather
- Cancels in windusually afternoon rather than morning
- Best combination
- Flight, then cable carthe flight explains what you then walk on
- Neither one
- Lands on the mountainno scenic flight is permitted to
What each one actually shows you
The summit, or the geography
From the top you stand on the mountain; from the air you see what it is.
The cable car takes you to the top. That means the plateau, the reservoirs, the dassies sunning themselves on the rocks, the walk out to Maclear’s Beacon if you have the time, and the view down onto the city bowl from a fixed point. It is a place, and you can stay in it. The rotating floor of the car is a good gimmick and the queue in December is a bad one.
The helicopter never lands on the mountain and is not allowed to. What it does is show you the mountain as an object: how thin the plateau is, how the back slope falls away towards Constantia, how the Twelve Apostles continue the ridge south, how the city is squeezed into a bowl between the mountain and the sea, and how close Robben Island is across the bay. None of that is visible from the top, because from the top you are standing on the thing you are trying to look at.
There is one more difference that decides it for a lot of people. The cable car depends on the mountain being clear; the helicopter depends on the wind being low. Those are different conditions. A day with the tablecloth down over the plateau is a bad cable car day and can be a spectacular flight. A windy blue-sky afternoon is the reverse.
If you can only do one
The honest recommendation, by traveller
Five situations, and the cable car only wins two of them.
First visit, normal budget, several days in the city. The cable car, without hesitation. It is one of the world’s great cheap experiences and the plateau deserves two hours. Put the flight on the list for another trip.
Two days in Cape Town on a cruise stop or a stopover. The flight. It compresses the geography of the whole peninsula into twelve minutes, it leaves from the middle of town, and it does not depend on a queue.
You are marking something — anniversary, birthday, proposal. The flight, and one of the two listings that include champagne, at $172 or $352. The cable car is many things; private is not one of them.
Somebody in the party cannot manage uneven ground. The flight. The top of the mountain is a rocky plateau with steps and slabs; the helicopter is a seat with a harness and a view, and several listings on this page are marked wheelchair accessible on the operator’s own listing.
The weather is against you. Check both. Cloud on the plateau closes the cable car and not necessarily the flight; strong wind does the opposite. On a marginal day the answer is whichever one is still running.
If you do take the flight, the twelve-minute Waterfront loop is the one with the mountain in the window for almost the whole time — and it is the cheapest on the page.
Table Mountain from the air→Doing both in one day
Six practical notes if you are combining them
It is an easy day to arrange and a very good one.
- Fly first, walk second
The flight gives you the map; the plateau then means something. Doing it the other way round works, but people who fly first describe the mountain better afterwards.
- Take the first flight slot of the morning
It is the slot least likely to be moved by wind, and it leaves the whole rest of the day for the mountain.
- Book the cable car ticket online the night before
The queue at the lower station is the single worst part of the experience in summer, and a timed online ticket removes most of it.
- Check the mountain before you commit to the cable car
If the tablecloth is down, the top is inside a cloud and you will see nothing. The cableway publishes conditions, and locals simply look up.
- Allow for the wind closing the cableway later in the day
It happens often, and it strands people at the top waiting for the last car. Go up early.
- Do not schedule anything tight between them
A twelve-minute flight is a ninety-minute visit, and the cable car is a two-hour commitment once you count the queue.
The cable car itself
What the ride up is, in numbers
Five minutes, seven hundred metres, a rotating floor and a plateau you can stay on.
The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway opened in 1929 and has been rebuilt twice. The current cars date from 1997, carry sixty-five people each, and have a floor that rotates through a full turn during the ascent so that everybody gets every view without moving.
The climb takes about four to five minutes and rises roughly seven hundred metres from the lower station on Tafelberg Road to the upper station on the western end of the plateau. In season the cars run every ten to fifteen minutes from early morning to sunset, and the last car down is the number to check before you go up.
On top there are paved paths, a cafe, and a plateau you can walk on for as long as you like. The dassies — rock hyraxes, roughly rabbit-sized, unbothered by people — are the wildlife everybody photographs. The walk east along the plateau towards Maclear’s Beacon takes about an hour each way and loses most of the crowd within ten minutes.
Which one fails in which weather
Five conditions, and what happens to each option
This is the practical difference between the two on any given morning.
- Strong wind, clear sky
The cableway closes and helicopters are usually grounded too. A bad day for both, and the commonest summer afternoon.
- Cloud on the plateau, calm air
The cable car runs into a white-out and shows you nothing. The flight is fine, and flying beside the tablecloth is a highlight.
- Light rain, no wind
The cableway usually runs; the view is poor. Helicopters may fly, and the light after rain is often superb.
- Calm, clear morning
Both are at their best. Fly first, then go up: the flight explains what you are about to walk on.
- Windy morning forecast to ease
The cableway often opens later in the day; helicopter slots may move rather than cancel. Ask, and take the offer to be moved.
Common questions
Helicopter or cable car, answered
Is a helicopter better than the Table Mountain cable car?
Neither is better; they show different things. The cable car puts you on the plateau for a small fraction of the price. The helicopter shows you the mountain, the city bowl and the coast as one piece of geography.
Can a helicopter land on Table Mountain?
No. The mountain is a national park and no scenic flight on this page lands on it.
Which is more likely to be cancelled?
They fail in different weather. Cloud on the plateau closes the cable car; strong wind grounds helicopters, usually in the afternoon rather than the morning.
If I only have money for one, which should it be?
For most first-time visitors with a few days in the city, the cable car. For a short stopover, or for an occasion, the flight.
Can you do both in one day?
Easily. Take the first flight slot in the morning and go up the mountain afterwards, with a timed cable car ticket booked online the night before.
Does the helicopter fly over the top of the mountain?
Flights pass above and alongside the massif, and one twenty-four-minute flight circles it completely. None of them lands, and none hovers over the plateau.
Go deeper
More on flying over Cape Town
Which flight is best
One recommendation for each kind of visitor, and why.
CostWhat it costs
From $170 to $698, and what a minute in the air is worth.
The mountainTable Mountain from the air
What the flat top looks like from above, and which flight circles it.
The ApostlesThe Twelve Apostles
The buttresses along the Atlantic, and which flights reach them.
The heliportFlights from the Waterfront
Where the pad is, how check-in works, and what the hour looks like.
The seaboardCamps Bay and Hout Bay
Eighteen to twenty-seven minutes down the Atlantic coast.
