Boulders Beach in Cape Town

However often we visit Cape Town, we never tire of Boulders Beach.The main visitor centre with the wooden boardwalks down into the penguin colony are great, and lots of other tourists have written excellent accounts of this. However, for us, the bigger attraction is the tiny Boulders Beach about 750m south, where you are actually allowed on the beach - this is also less well known, so less busy and fortunately largely spared the coach tour parties.In good weather, it is such a ridiculously idyllic setting that it might as well be out of an Enid Blyton book! The beach is tiny and shaped like a horseshoe, and the sand is strewn with enormous granite boulders. The penguins park off on and between the boulders and are pretty unfazed by the tourists except when they get exceedingly close. The cove is very protected and the beach slopes very gently, so it is a perfect swimming spot for kids and yourself, provided that you have a polar bear in your ancestry and thus relish icy water - mind you, you'll forget all that as you see the penguins zipping around underwater like torpedoes, so close that you can almost touch them.For obvious reasons, the best time to visit is during the day on weekdays and out of school holidays, but any time - and regardless of the crowds - it's a magical place that I would defy anyone not to have a marvellous time in! Then repair to the excellent Boulders Beach Cafe for an excellent lunch and a view out over False Bay to die for!