Atlanta to Cape Town flight path: ATL to CPT

Sit on the Right side of the plane for the best views on flights from Atlanta to Cape Town. The left side offers little beyond open ocean and flat departure terrain, while the right side delivers both a long stretch of African coastline visibility during descent and the spectacular Table Mountain approach into Cape Town, making it the clear scenic winner for the full journey.

During takeoff from The William B Hartsfield Atlanta International (ATL), sit on the Right side for the best views. ATL's runways run east-west, and departures toward the south for this routing put the setting sun and the outer suburbs of metro Atlanta on the right side briefly before the aircraft settles onto its long oceanic track. It's not dramatic, but it's marginally more interesting than the featureless left side. Notable sights include: Atlanta suburban sprawl, Chattahoochee River bends, Hartsfield-Jackson runway complex.

When landing at Cape Town International (CPT), sit on the Right side for the best views. Arriving into Cape Town on runway 19 means flying south, putting the iconic flat-topped Table Mountain and the Atlantic coastline of the Cape Peninsula on the right side of the aircraft during final descent. This is one of the most dramatic mountain-and-ocean approaches in commercial aviation. Notable sights include: Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Atlantic seaboard coastline, Table Bay harbor.

The flight from The William B Hartsfield Atlanta International (ATL) to Cape Town International (CPT) takes 15h 30m.

Mid-Atlantic Ocean with no land visible for several hours, followed by a distant glimpse of the West African coastline near Gabon and the Congo before the route curves south toward Angola and Namibia's Skeleton Coast.