A common question we get is “when is the best time to visit Cape Town”
The good news, there’s never a bad time to visit Cape Town! We have a page here that gives you an idea, photographically, what you can expect from each season, as there are differences!
In this blog we’re going to go into a little more detail to help you decide when is best based on your photographic preferences.
Firstly you need to decide what is you’re main photographic preference, landscapes, wildlife or just Cape Town in general?
If it’s Cape Town in general, we recommend summer (Nov thru to March) when it’s sunny with a festive vibe, the ocean rich blue, there’s 14hrs of daylight and very little rain.
Photographically there are disadvantages though, firstly it can get very busy (we strongly recommend avoiding 15 Dec – 5 Jan) with crowded tourist locations, frequent traffic jams and harsh light. You can try avoiding this by rising at 5am for softer light and fewer people but this isn’t always possible.
Nov, Feb, are our months of good choice with March as the best of the summer months.
If you wish to shoot the famous ‘Table Cloth’ of Table Mountain summer is also the best time for it. However you need to understand when the ‘Table Cloth’ is visible there is a hurricane strength wind blowing which can make tripod use at times impossible! And it’s these fierce summer winds combined with infrequent clouds that make summer not an ideal time for landscape photography.
If you’re a dedicated landscape photographer you’ll want to visit autumn (April) when the crowds lessen, the winds die down, temperatures cool, the haze clears, clouds become more frequent and the rains (though not common) start to bring colour back into the landscape.
This progressively gets better as autumn moves in proper. May to mid-June are the best time for landscape photography in Cape Town with colour infused landscapes, numerous wind free days and clouds for colourful skies. This is also the season when sea-mist, though not common, is most likely.
As Autumn changes to winter the rain season starts (around mid-June), that said the rains can start as early as May and with climate change nothing is certain. Though Autumn is definitely our pick for landscape photography the Spring months Sept-October are also good however it tends to be wetter and windier which is why we prefer Autumn.
Now if you’re a wildlife photographer July thru Oct (winter and spring) are the best months for you. Some think you’re crazy to visit Cape Town in winter but those in the know, refer to winter as the ‘secret season’, it may not sound appealing to visit during the cold rain season but let’s look at it carefully.
Firstly the weather, how bad is it really? Not as bad as you think, yes it’s colder and it rains (but it’s not that cold see climate chart here) but over the past few years, Cape Town has been getting progressively drier, in fact 2017 saw Cape Town’s worse drought on record. Also during the Cape winter season the weather changes rapidly so there is seldom long uninterrupted spells of any kind of weather. Every cold front has its shoulder days which are often calm, clear and perfect for photography as you can photograph all day with the softer light.
And even when it rains there are still amazing photographic opportunities to be had. In order to stand out from the crowd these days you need to push yourself and this often means shooting when most are not! In the rain you could potentially get poignant images of sodden baboons, birds shaking off the rain or streets shots of people getting wet!
The reason they call this the secret season is once you realize the weather isn’t too bad you will have Cape Town without crowds, Cape Town when much is discounted or on special, plus photographically the landscapes are rich in colour, furthermore there are certain things you cannot experience at any other time! See this page too
- SHARK SAFARI the season in the False Bay runs mid-April to Sept but they are at their peak June-Aug and its these same months that are the only time to photograph them breaching!
- NAMAQUALAND FLOWERS one of the greatest wild flower shows on earth (Aug-Sept). The wild flowers of Cape Town also peak at these times and can extend into October.
- WHALE WATCHING though the whales are visible May to Nov, the peak viewing months are Aug-Oct.
- WILDLIFE SAFARIS many come to Southern Africa specifically for Safari and the best time for Safari is over the winter/spring period (July-Oct). Unlike Cape Town the rest of the country is experiencing the dry season, so the foliage dies back, the animals concentrate the waterholes, which makes it easier to find and photograph wildlife.
You’re now one of those who are know the Cape Town ‘secret’ what you do with it is now up to you 😉