Boulders Beach: Visiting Cape Town's Penguin Colony
How to visit the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach, including entry details and visiting etiquette.
Boulders Beach: Cape Town's Penguin Colony
Boulders Beach, near Simon's Town on the False Bay side of the peninsula, is home to a protected colony of African penguins that first settled here in the late 1980s and have grown into a genuinely large, established population. Unlike many wildlife encounters that require a boat or long hike, Boulders Beach lets visitors get remarkably close to the penguins via a boardwalk, with a section of beach where you can walk right alongside them in the sand.
Visiting the Colony
| Area | What It Offers |
|---|---|
| Boardwalk viewing area | Elevated wooden walkways with close-up views without disturbing the colony |
| Boulders swimming beach | A section where you can swim in the same sheltered cove as the penguins |
| Foxy Beach | The main viewing point with the largest concentration of penguins |
Visiting Details
There's a modest entry fee since the beach falls under Table Mountain National Park, and the colony is best visited earlier in the day before it gets busy, since it's a popular stop on Cape Peninsula day tours. Penguins are present year-round, though numbers and activity can vary somewhat by season.
Don't touch or approach the penguins directly, even where they're close to the boardwalk — they can bite, and disturbing them isn't good for the colony either.
