While Muizenberg is Dutch for ‘mice mountain’ it was more likely named after Wynand Willem Muijs who commanded a small outpost in the area in 1743.

Muizenberg was the Queen of Cozy Murders, Agatha Christie, favourite place to surf when she was in South Africa with her first husband. She wasn’t alone in liking Muizenberg. For many years Muizenberg was Cape Town’s favourite resort. Today it is regarded as a wonderful swimming beach with plenty for the whole family to do. Super slides, mini golf, miles and miles of sandy beach, and the perfect conditions for learning to surf are just some of the attractions of this lovely town. The surfing community meets mostly at 'Surfer's Corner'.

While it was the location for the small but significant Battle of Muizenberg in 1795, Muizenberg started as a resort for the rich to build their holiday homes after the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in 1886. The famous architect, Sir Herbert Baker, designed his house ‘Sand Hills’ on Atlantic Road, as well as ‘Vergenoegd’ on the same road, and ‘Coel an Mar’ on the town’s Main Road.

Many of the buildings in Muizenberg date from the Victorian and Edwardian heydays and are built in the art deco style. There were so many holidaymakers at one time that the beach in front of the pavilion was called ‘The Snake Pit’.

Speaking of the beach, the one at Muizenberg stretches all the way from False Bay to the Strand, a distance of over 20km. Humans aren’t the only ones to enjoy the sea here. Great White sharks do so as well. A shark watch operates out of Muizenberg.  

A line of steep cliffs above the town is popular with rock-climbers. It’s also popular with nesting birds, and when they are here, parts of the cliff are off limits to humans. Fish also like to spawn in Muizenberg – in the Zandvlei estuary to be precise. It’s one of the most important spawning sites on the coastline. The Zandvlei enters the ocean in Muizenberg and is also home to the Imperial Yacht Club and Peninsula Canoe Club.

But it’s not all just sand, surf and spawning, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African centre for education and research in mathematical sciences is based in Muizenberg.

Art galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, and museums like the Rhodes Cottage Museum, the SAPS (South African Police), the Masque Theatre and the Venetian inspired Casa Labia, a national monument, and sumptuous restaurant all make Muizenberg a great place to visit.