Cape Town is a city with one of the safest, most established and most efficient public transport systems in South Africa. The system includes the MyCiti bus service which is a bus rapid transit system allowing travellers to take the bus service from Cape Town International Airport to the city for a relatively affordable price.
The MyCiti airport service forms part of an integrated public transport system which operates across all major areas in Cape Town. The airport service departs every half an hour and every hour on the hour, and operates between 05h00 and 2100 on weekdays, and between 06h00 and 21h00 on weekends and public holidays.
From a safety perspective, it is relatively safe to use the service, as the bus stops are not open to the general public who have not swiped their cards to enter the bus stops, and MyCiti provides security personnel at all bus stops as well as one some buses.
In order to make use of the bus service from Cape Town International Airport, it is necessary to buy a MyCity card (which is available for sale at the airport bus terminal and costs around R20), and to load credit on the card for purposes of trips.
The cost for the journey from Cape Town International Airport to the Civic Centre (which is the main downtown bus terminal), is around R70, and the journey time is around half an hour.
It is a good idea to load additional credit on your card (a total amount of about R150 is recommended), as it can also be used for the MyCiti service in and around Cape Town during your stay, including for trips to Camps Bay, Hout Bay, Century City and other popular tourist spots.
It takes about 10 – 15 minutes to walk from the MyCiti stop at the Cape Town International Airport to the airline terminals, and so if you are using the bus service from Cape Town International Airport, the total time to set aside from a planning perspective to comfortably make it to your flight on time, is about an hour for travel to the airport.
The MyCiti bus service from Cape Town International Airport is also disabled-friendly, and the buses are able to accommodate wheelchairs and have hydraulics in order to lower the level of the bus and make it easier for disabled commuters to climb on and disembark. The drivers are also generally patient and accommodating when it comes to disabled passengers.
As you will see once you start using the service during your stay, MyCiti is widely used as a form of public transport for local commuters on a daily basis, as well as by local and international tourists to the city.
If you are planning on using it on a daily basis during your stay in Cape Town, it is recommended that you avoid the routes that travel through the main arteries during peak commuting hours on weekdays (between 07:00 and 10:00 and between 16:00 and 18:00), as it can become very crowded to the point where commuters are required to stand during the journey. During those times, it would be advisable to rather use Uber for your public transport needs, as Uber also offers a cost-effective and efficient alternative for transport around the Cape Town area.
