Simon’s Town for Curious Kids: Penguins, Submarines and a Famous Dog

History, ghosts, the navy, penguins, submarines and a famous dog… what’s not to love?

Every corner of Simon’s Town has a story. Simon’s Town is well-known suburb in Cape Town, and you’ll drive through it on your way to see the famous African penguins. It’s not a town, it’s a lively a suburb in Cape Town. Having grown up in Cape Town, I have been there so many times and as kids we used to go to the Scratch Patch to dig for ‘diamonds.’

But its grown and developed so much more since then, it’s definitely worth exploring and is a great day out for kids.

My daughter and I started off with quick visit to the Simon’s Town Museum. The building is a historical building erected by Governor Joachim van Plettenberg in 1777.

To be honest, it’s not the sort of place where you’ll spend hours wandering through exhibits. We had the museum almost entirely to ourselves, and a fairly quick visit was enough to see everything.

That said, I was surprised by some of the stories we discovered. Simon’s Town has a fascinating naval history, and there were a few exhibits that helped put the town’s role in South Africa’s maritime past into perspective. If you’re already exploring the area, it’s worth a short stop—especially if you have curious kids who enjoy history—but I wouldn’t make it the main reason for visiting Simon’s Town.

Meeting Just Nuisance: South Africa’s Most Famous Dog

There is, however, a great section in the museum dedicated to Just Nuisance, the Great Dane who was the only dog officially enlisted in the Royal Navy from around 1937 to about 1944!

My grandad was in the Royal Navy, and he used to tell us stories of how when he used to catch the train to work at the naval base, Just Nuisance would sometimes be on the train!

Besides the museum, there is a statue of Just Nuisance in Jubilee Square (one of the few remaining town squares) in Simon’s Town and at the end of the day we followed directions on Google Maps up the mountain and visited his grave. Where we parked was quite eerie – it looked like a deserted town straight out of The Walking Dead. But the views from the gravesite over False Bay are really amazing.

Following the Simon’s Town Historical Mile

From the museum, you can drive back onto the Main Road, find parking and walk. From here to the end of the East Dockyard will take you about 2 hours, but probably longer as you stop along the way. This walk is well known as the Simon’s Town Historic Mile.

The tour has been implemented using Google Earth and to access it you will need the Google Earth App installed on your mobile device. Once installed go to the device Settings – Apps & notifications – Earth – Advanced – Open by default – Open supported links and click on Open in this app. Also check that Under Supported links earth.app.goo.gl is selected

But seriously, this really is the perfect place to explore on foot. Along the Main Road there are loads of little shops filled with antiques, art, ceramics, and if you enjoy thrifting, there’s some great places for thrifting here too.

Some of the buildings in Simon’s Town are really old – you can tell by the Cape Dutch architecture but that makes sense as the Dutch founded Simon’s Town in the mid-1700’s. And in between all the shopping, you’ll find coffee shops, restaurants and an ice-cream shop which is the perfect way to end your walk in summer.

One thing Simon’s Town certainly doesn’t lack is somewhere to eat. Fran’s, overlooking Jubilee Square, is perfect for a quick and casual lunch, while Bertha’s and Saveur are great options if you’d rather linger over a meal with harbour views. But besides that, just about every way you turn there is somewhere you can grab something to eat. We decided on my daughter’s favourite, a tiny Korean restaurant that serves the most amazing food! If you’re in the area, you should try it.

Exploring a Real Submarine

Once completely stuffed, we walked on to the Submarine Museum which probably took all of five minutes.

Visiting Details:
Open: Tuesdays to Sundays
Cost: Currently R80 per adult and R40 per child under 12.
Tours: Every 20 – 30 minutes

In 2003, the SAS Assegaai submarine was decommissioned and turned into a museum boat. Both my daughter and I were really surprised at how interesting this was, and also how tight a space these naval crew have to live in for any length of time when at sea. An ex-submariner (?) was our guide and took us into the sub, sharing stories from his sea days, explaining about life in a submarine, how they survive, how they take turns sleeping, how they get water for drinking, showering and washing. It was fascinating to walk through and just imagine how people live in this seriously cramped space. This is something I had never done before and we both highly recommend it.

Because we didn’t rush our explorations, we decided to call it a day as we didn’t want to get stuck in traffic (navy traffic in the afternoon from around 15h30 can be hectic), and now we have a reason to go back and finish exploring the rest.

What We Still Want to Explore Next Time

• Boulders Beach and the penguins… again. They’re too cute.
• South African Navy Museum
• Scratch Patch (and play a round of Cave Golf)
• Look at doing a Ghost Tour. I mean there are old buildings, the area is old so there must be something lurking out there, right?