Rainy days in Cape Town don’t mean that you’re stuck at home with the kids! The Mother City offers a large variety of family-friendly indoor activities that you can explore when the weather turns a bit moody. We’ve summed up our favourite activities in and around Cape Town, so your kids can keep moving, exploring, learning, and laughing — regardless of the weather outside.
Burn Off Energy at Indoor Play Parks
The number of different indoor play parks in and around Cape Town is insane! There are 21 different indoor play parks that you and the kids can explore! So lot’s of potential for a couple of rainy days in a row. Whether you like to bounce, climb or jump – there is something for everyone and you just have to make the difficult choice of which one you’re going to explore first! Here are our Top 5 choices. For a complete list of all indoor play parks, check out our article: BEST INDOOR PLAY PARKS
- Rush Extreme Trampoline Park (Claremont): Rush Claremont is a premier indoor adventure park in Cape Town, offering some of the best kids activities around. With trampolines, dodgeball, ninja warrior and more, it’s the perfect space for active play, kids parties, and family fun — rain or shine.
- Freedom Adventure Park (Canal Walk): A massive space with trampolines, jungle gyms, ninja zones, and toddler areas. You may even want to jump in yourself.
- Playrock Adventure Park (Paarl): The kids get unlimited playtime and can bounce and explore all day long. They also have an outdoor area in case the sun peaks through where the kids can play soccer and mini golf.
- Total Ninja Black River Park: A large inflatable indoor park with obstacle courses, giant walls, a toddler area and bouncing fun. This place is also strictly halal and serves delicious food choices.
- Ipic Play (Durbanville): A modern indoor adventure park for kids of all ages. Think climbing walls, virtual games, soft play, and even a toddler zone.
Get Creative and Messy
Craft projects are always fun – whether rain or shine! But on a rainy day, working indoors and creating your own masterpieces is even more epic. There are lots of fun indoor craft studios in and around Cape Town that you can try out. Here are our Top 4 places.
- Clay Cafe (Hout Bay or Paarl): Kids can paint their own ceramic plates, mugs, or ornaments while parents sip coffee (or wine, if it’s that kind of day).
- Art Jamming (V&A Waterfront & Tygervalley): No rules, just paint! Grab a canvas and let your kids create their own masterpiece.
- Tuft Crowd (Gardens): Learn a new skill and create your very own rug masterpiece from scratch.
- Glamour & Glass (Paarl): Try out something new and design and create your own glass ware to take home! Choose from many different designs and go wild with your imagination.
Edutainment: Learning Disguised as Fun
Who says an outing with the kids cannot be fun AND educational? Cape Town has many amazing places that offer exactly that! Here are our Top 5.
- Two Oceans Aquarium (V&A Waterfront): Sharks, jellyfish, penguins, and sea turtles. Always a winner — and it’s all indoors.
- Cape Town Science Centre (Observatory): Puzzles, interactive experiments, science shows, and more. It’s educational, but the kids will be too busy having fun to notice.
- Wonderdal Edutainment Centre (Stellenbosch): A tech-based indoor wonder world of games, learning, and imagination. Geared towards ages 5–13.
- Iziko Museum and Planetarium (Gardens): Dive into the history of mankind and explore many extinct and still existing species on our planet. You’ll learn about the ocean, insects, mammals and even dinosaurs. Fun for all ages!
- Hop on the City Sightseeing Bus (you can sit warm and comfy at the lower deck on a rainy day) and explore the best attractions in town. While you cruise along the streets, plug in those earphones and learn some interesting facts about Cape Town.
Eat, Drink, and Let Them Play
Cape Town has some great restaurants and cafés where kids can play and parents can (finally) sip that coffee in peace. We have curated an article with ALL restaurants that feature an indoor play area. You can read it here: RESTAURANTS WITH INDOOR PLAY. Below is our favourite Top 3 list.
- Cape Town Fish Market (Big Bay): Besides the beautiful Table Mountain view, the kids will find two play areas at this fabulous restaurant. One geared towards toddlers and a second one for older kids.
- Strolla (Sea Point): Kids can make their own pizza and then burn it off at the amazing play room that’s equipped with a huge drawing table, fat sacks, a lego wall and two monitors with age appropriate video games for the older kids.
- Doodles Beachfront Restaurant (Bloubergstrand): Their revamped indoor play area is packed with fun for all ages. Older kids can dive into computer games, while the younger ones can climb, slide, swing, draw, or chill out with kid-friendly movies on their own TV.
At-Home Rainy Day Ideas
If it’s really pouring down outside and you’d rather stay inside, here are a few cozy ideas to keep your kids busy at home:
- Bake Together – From cookies to cupcakes, let them decorate, knead and get their little hands dirty (and lick the spoon).
- Board Game Marathons – Dust off those classics and challenge them to Uno, Connect 4, or Dobble.
- Build-a-Fort & Movie Day – Grab some blankets, pile up the pillows, and let the movie marathon begin. Add some warm Popcorn for the real movie feeling.