Full Day Private Walk to Freedom & Robben Island

My husband and I did this tour with Aslam Benjamin. His personality and effort made this more than a great tour. It was exemplary!! Aslam was extremely knowledgeable and thorough; he was conversational and humorous. We saw many sides of Cape Town. We were very excited to see that he was our guide the next day as well!

We actually took the half day Walk to Freedom tour with Shadley as our guide. The tour was excellent and very informative. Shadley was very funny, but also knowledgeable about the city and able to answer any questions that we had. The tour gave a very informative look into the political history of South Africa, from the early days of colonization through apartheid to the present day. Visiting Langa, the cultural center there, as well as District 6, and the District 6 museum gave a great representation of where South Africa was, where it is now, and hope for continued change into the future.

We took this tour with Ilios travel in January 2020 and the whole experience was frustrating and the customer service we encountered left a lot to be desired. We were led to believe that Ilios would call us the day before to confirm the departure time but they never did so we assumed they would pick us up at the time on our itinerary which was 8:30. We had arranged an early breakfast at our accommodation for 8.00. At 7:45 Ilios turned up, we were not fully ready for breakfast never mind the tour but the guide quite sarcastically when we explained the situation asked me to go and tell the rest of the bus why they would be delayed. At this point in hindsight we wish we had never gone on the trip and told him to leave without us. The first part of the trip which included a visit to Langa was very good, we bought some ceramics and had the chance to play the drums as well as learn about the history of the township. We learnt about the different social and economic aspects within the area. Next we visited District Six and drove through the streets which was to end with a visit to the District Six Museum. Unfortunately it was closed. Much to the surprise of the guide. A lot of head scratching followed and eventually we were taken to the slavery museum instead. With time to fill we then went to Bo-Kaap, we were actually the only people on the tour who had not been before but obviously there was time to kill. The afternoon should have been the highlight as this is when we were to visit Robben Island. At this point we were told that the rest of the bus would be on the 1pm ferry but we were on the 3pm ferry! We asked why this was and a shrug of the shoulders followed. We arrived at the Waterfront at 12 giving the rest of the tour enough time to have lunch before the Ferry but leaving ourselves 3 hours to kill. After the early start this was most disappointing. We felt like we had wasted all morning baring the trip to Langa and the guide seemed not to care telling us to 'relax as we were on holiday'. As we had a packed schedule whilst in Cape Town we could have used this time much more effectively. He then told the other members of the tour that someone would meet them to take them back to their hotels but not us as it would be past the end of the day. His attitude at this point was appalling and he told us to 'stop stressing'. He then called the office and said someone would be there to meet us. We also asked what time we would get back as we had a dinner reservation and he said he didn't know. The Robben Island trip was great but because of the weather the last Ferry back did not leave until after 7 meaning we were back extremely late. The guide was there to meet us as promised but sat in silence all the way back to our accommodation, clearly annoyed. In summary the day was shockingly organised and i would not recommend using this company. You can book the Ferry and Robben Island trip without using Ilios and that it what i recommend you do.