If you want to enjoy some sport on your Cape Town holidays, you're in luck. Learn about 4 of the best sports to try whilst in South Africa's capital.

4 Sports to Try In and Around Cape Town

With its unique location between two oceans and with the mighty Table Mountain looming in the backdrop, it is unsurprising that Cape Town is such a great place for sports and adventure travel. On the beaches, the oceans, the mountains and the stunning surrounding countryside, there is a hugely diverse range of sports and activities on offer for Cape Town holidays.

If you'd like to get active whilst visiting South Africa's capital, here are four of the sports you should consider trying out.

Paragliding

With the panoramic views offered from the top of Table Mountain and Lion's Head, it is no surprise that Cape Town is such a popular destination for paragliding. The area also has consistently excellent thermal currents, meaning that you get great gliding to go with your striking views.

If you are already an experienced paraglider, you'll be able to rent equipment without a problem on your Cape Town holidays, but even if you are a total novice, you can still get involved. A number of places in Cape Town offer courses to get you qualified, where you undertake tandem flights with an instructor until you are skilled enough to go solo!

Surfing

Cape Town has long been known as a surfers paradise – it is regarded as having some of the best surf spots in the world. With so many beaches located on both sides of the Cape Peninsula, even if one break isn't producing good waves, you are sure to find another nearby that does. Keep an eye out for Sunset Reef – it produces some truly staggering waves when the weather conditions are just right.

There are numerous surf schools and equipment shops all along the Peninsula, giving you plenty of opportunities to go surfing on your Cape Town holidays. Note that the water tends to be pretty chilly, and so a full wetsuit is usually required to surf for any length of time – surfers come for the quality of the waves, not the temperature of the water!

Horse Riding

Horse riding along a beach is a truly exhilarating experience, and Cape Town is an excellent place to go for a day's riding – half day and full day rides are available from a number of stables in and around the city. Noordhoek’s Long Beach is regarded as being one of the best beach riding destinations in the world, but the lush landscapes around Cape Town and Table Mountain provide some excellent places to ride as well.

Scuba Diving

Cape Town's coast is dotted with excellent dive sites. The Cape has always been a treacherous place to navigate, and so there are numerous shipwrecks to explore beneath the waves during your Cape Town holidays. But away from the wrecks, there are also soft corals, kelp forests, and an abundance of marine wildlife.

The dive sites on False Bay can be dived all year round, though in summer the visibility level can be poor. The Atlantic Ocean dive sites are usually visited in summer due to the colder water. There are almost too many sites to pick out highlights, but Smits Wrecks (with an astonishing five shipwrecks) and Oudekrall (with the spectacular Justin's Caves) are two of the very best.