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Robben Island Museum

Taking the solemn but uplifting 3.5-hour tour of Robben Island's notorious maximum-security prison (now a World Heritage Site) is a must for anyone interested in South African political history. The former island prison, which sits off Cape Town's Atlantic coast, is where Nelson Mandela served 18 of his 27 years as a political prisoner. Visitors arrive by ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway and are then bused with a guide around the island's windswept scrubby interior, stopping at the lime quarry where internees did hard labor. Later there's a chilling walk through stone prison blocks with an ex-political-prisoner guide and a stop at Mandela's old 8' x 8' cell, where his tin cup and saucer still poignantly remain.