Overall I am not happy with the selection of South African WHS, and Robben Island ranks amongst the worst. It is worse than visiting Alcatraz by miles so if you enjoyed there then you don't miss anything here. For some reason it is one of the most popular attraction Cape Town has to offer as if everyone is obligated to see it, with a whole bunch of your groups from all ages. It may just be on my day but aside from one school tour the tourists were 97% European Whites so I guess they dig that place. No Chinese groups, one single guest from Nigeria, and I wouldn't go as far as calling the other guests “Eurotrash” but it seems their idea of Africa is Cape Town alone and it was very fitting with the crowd that hangs around the waterfront and shops at the mall and sits in the overpriced restaurants rather than see the rest of the country.

Anyhow so the tour starts with a long line to get into the boat. A hefty price tag (380 Rand or something) gives you a nice seat on a catamaran and we were also lucky to see humpback whales on the way. The ride was roughly 40min with a safety video, ads, a coffee shop onboard and nice views of the bay. Upon arrival you get shuffled into a bus that takes another 45min, 15 of which are another rest stop with a small shop, a view of the bay again, 6 penguins and some oystercatchers. Whereas I found the guide entertaining and the facts about the island interesting, most is not about the prison. When we finally got to the prison (some buses start there first and do the village and quarry tour afterwards), you see the cell of Nelson Mandela, identical to all other cells, listen to a talk in the heat of the yard and then get to sit in a bigger shared cell for more rehearsed stories about prison life. The guards are former inmates and I'm happy they got a job here, but he surely doesn't earn a tip for the boring lecture. I think half of the people fell asleep. I listened to another guide on the way out of the max security facility and I think your experience will largely depends on your guide for this part.

Getting back on the boat was really annoying with everyone trying to cram into the small ticket booth to scan your ticket and avoiding the sun outside. Just shows me that everyone is glad to be back to leave as fast as possible, even though the boat doesn't leave until everyone is on board anyway.

Later on when I took a taxi ride to my apartment I told the driver how disappointing the tour was and he said he never went there, it is only for tourists - well, I was a tourist for a day but would not go if it is not a world heritage site. Basically I find the impact to the world a little limited but I guess nobody could have denied a place Mandela was incarcerated for so long. I did not ask the "guide" why he thinks the place is worthy of a UNESCO title, I doubt he can answer that question, the entire staff was rather lacking and interested in their job aside from the bus tour commentator (but I'm not interested in finding out where other guests are from and that he can greet them in their language - this is a waste of time on any tour).