Robben Island Ticket + Former Prisoner Guide

Recommended by 94% of travelers

Badge of Excellence

Cape Town, South Africa

High interest

Booked 2 times today.

4 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Offered in: English

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Overview

What's Included

Tickets to Robben Island

Private transportation

ZAR100.00 per booking

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup point

The Nelson Mandela Gateway To Robben Island
V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

Pickup details

All Tourists will be collected at the The Nelson Mandela Gateway To Robben Island, V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront , for instructions of the proceedings of the tour.

Ticket Redemption Point

The Nelson Mandela Gateway To Robben Island, V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

What To Expect

Robben Island Museum

Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Service animals allowed
Near public transportation

Infant seats available
Transportation is wheelchair accessible
Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Most travelers can participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

4.3

based on 16 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Interesting tour

Hilly_R, Feb 2026

A very interesting tour of Robben Island. However we don’t expect to be in such a huge group of people, not quite the intimate experience we were expecting for the price

Response from Host, Feb 2026

Thank you for your feedback. We’re glad you found your visit to Robben Island interesting and meaningful. We understand that the group size was larger than expected. Please note that group sizes are managed by the Robben Island Museum and can be bigger during busy periods. As tour operators, we always guarantee confirmed Robben Island tickets — even when they are sold out and even for last-minute bookings — ensuring our guests don’t miss this important experience. We appreciate your review and your support.

Disappointing tour on what should’ve been an amazing experience

Kerrie_W, Jun 2025

Trying to write a fair review of this tour is difficult. The island itself and the experience of Nelson Mandela is something we should all educate ourselves on to ensure that the future does not follow the past and to allow us to respect not only Nelson Mandela but other political prisoners. I had looked forward to that tour. The major disappointment was the bus tour prior to the prison. We followed the instructions on our booking to the letter on disembarking the ferry and heading to the buses waiting there. We boarded the bus which was filling rapidly and headed to the next available seats towards the back. The guide Thaibo was engaging with the passengers in the front and responding to questions from them. When the tour commenced we found it was a bilingual tour which had not been advised either visually or verbally when boarding the bus. The bus was full , people were standing and we found we were amongst the Spanish crowd with a Spanish interpreter talking loudly to provide information to his crew. People were standing around our seat listening to him in Spanish which meant we were unable to move forward and engage in any of the English question and and answers and we missed so much of the trip. At our first point where we could get off the bus I immediately approached Thabo, and said how disappointing it was we couldn’t hear and we had no knowledge that it was a bilingual tour bus My intent was to ask that we would be allowed to redo the tour with an English group as we had missed so much of the information. Any professional guide would’ve listened to the concern raised and worked with the client for a resolution. This guide, however was purely interested in the blame game and and stated we must’ve got on the wrong bus and he had stated it was bilingual as people were getting on. He made no attempt to listen to me and instead continually overrode me every time I tried to talk to him. A professional guide would have worked for a resolution this guy had no interest in a resolution. The more disappointing point was as he went back to the bus having ignored me and made no attempt to resolve the issue he was overheard by myself talking to passengers making derogatory and insulting comments about me. How totally unprofessional ! He had refused to give me his name at that time and just continually overrode me when I tried to talk and said he would get his manager to meet me at the end of the tour. It was still my intention to try and redo the tour and achieve what we had paid for , that is an English speaking tour of the island so we could embrace the experience fully. It was no surprise to see neither him nor his manager turned up at the end of the tour and made any attempt to resolve the issue. As stated ,we follow the instructions in our booking to the letter. To have a bilingual tour with two separate tour guides talking without use of personal headphones and just yelling the information and trying to respond to questions and answers in two different languages with a poorly thought out and poorly managed exercise. So it would be difficult to provide a sufficient rating for this tour because of the woeful and unprofessional manner of the bus tour and the tour guide I have travelled extensively throughout the world and I have never met a more unprofessional Guide who is only interested in self preservation rather than providing what his customers had paid for which was an English speaking tour of the island. The tour of the prison itself with the ex prisoner guide was exceptional and should be experienced by all but not with the guide on the bus as he ruined the whole trip.

Response from Host, Jun 2025

Dear Kerry Williams Thank you for taking the time to share your experience in such detail. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and are deeply sorry to hear that your visit to Robben Island did not meet your expectations — especially given the historical and emotional importance of the site. We are pleased to hear that the prison tour led by the ex-political prisoner was a meaningful and powerful experience for you. This part of the tour is something we are immensely proud to offer and we agree it is essential for everyone to hear those firsthand accounts. However, we are very concerned and disappointed to learn of your experience during the bus portion of the tour. It is absolutely not the experience we strive to provide. Your account of the lack of clear communication regarding the bilingual nature of the tour, the inability to hear the guide, the crowding, and most distressingly, the conduct of the guide you encountered, is troubling. Our guides are expected to be professional, respectful, and solution-oriented at all times. We regret that this was not your experience and we take your comments seriously. The behavior you describe — including refusing to listen, assigning blame rather than seeking a resolution, and making inappropriate remarks — is unacceptable. We will be conducting a thorough internal review, including speaking directly with the guide in question, to ensure this situation is addressed appropriately and not repeated. We also acknowledge that clearer instructions and better logistical planning should have been provided to ensure guests are aware of the format of the bus tour, including language arrangements. Your suggestion about using personal headsets for multilingual tours is a constructive one and we will take it under consideration as we review our procedures. Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and disappointment this part of the tour caused. If you would be willing, we would very much like the opportunity to speak with you directly to learn more and to see how we can make amends for the experience. You can reach us at [contact information]. Thank you once again for bringing this to our attention. We are committed to improving and to ensuring that future visitors have a respectful, informative, and enriching experience — as they should when visiting such a significant place.