Cape Town is the most beautiful city in the world — a claim made by many cities, but here it is almost inarguable: Table Mountain (the flat-topped mountain that dominates the city's skyline, one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, 1,086m and covered in fynbos — the unique floral kingdom found nowhere else on earth) forms the backdrop to a city wedged between the mountain and two oceans (Atlantic to the west, False Bay/Indian Ocean to the east), with one of the finest wine regions on earth (Stellenbosch, Franschhoek) 30 minutes inland. South Africa's legislative capital (population 4.6 million) has Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years), the Cape of Good Hope (the southwestern tip of Africa), the Bo-Kaap (the rainbow-coloured Malay Quarter), the V&A Waterfront and one of the most diverse and complex societies on earth — still working through the legacy of apartheid with remarkable resilience and creativity.
Table Mountain (the most climbed mountain in Africa — cableway opens at 8am in summer, 8:30am in winter, first car up is always the least crowded; alternatively the Platteklip Gorge hiking route takes 2.5 hrs for the summit and is free) gives a 360° panorama of extraordinary scale: Cape Town, Robben Island and Table Bay to the north, the Cape Peninsula to the south, and the Atlantic Seaboard with its string of beaches to the west. The fynbos biome on top (6,000 plant species, more per hectare than the Amazon) is unique on earth.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Victoria & Alfred Waterfront (the 1860 Alfred Basin and Victoria Basin still functioning as a working fishing and commercial harbour, redeveloped from the 1990s as the finest waterfront precinct in Africa) has the best Cape seafood restaurants in the city (fish & chips from the waterfront stalls, linefish at Quay Four, the extraordinary snoek (the firm-fleshed barracuda-like Cape fish, traditionally braai-smoked with apricot jam)), the Cape Wheel and the Two Oceans Aquarium.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRobben Island (the island in Table Bay 11km from the V&A Waterfront, UNESCO — the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment, along with Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and hundreds of other anti-apartheid activists) is the most important historical site in South Africa. The ferry (1 hr, included in ticket) and the tour by former political prisoners of the prison (and Mandela's cell, B Section, Cell 5) is one of the most moving experiences in Africa. Book weeks in advance.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBo-Kaap (the rainbow-coloured Malay Quarter on the slopes of Signal Hill — the most photographed street in Cape Town, the cobblestoned Chiappini and Wale Streets lined with houses painted in every pastel colour imaginable) is also the home of Cape Malay cuisine: the cooking brought by enslaved people from Malaysia, Indonesia, India and the rest of Asia by the Dutch VOC from the 1650s — the bobotie (spiced minced meat baked with an egg custard topping, the "national dish" of South Africa), bredie (stew), samoosas and koesisters (spiced doughnuts in syrup).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideChapman's Peak Drive (the 9km road carved into the sheer cliffs of Chapman's Peak between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, 593m above the Atlantic Ocean — 114 curves dynamited into solid granite, opened 1922, one of the great coastal drives on earth) is best driven southward (Hout Bay to Noordhoek) in morning light: the Atlantic below, the mountain above, and on clear days, the view of the Sentinel (the sandstone cliff at Hout Bay) and the Twelve Apostles (the buttresses of Table Mountain).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBoulders Beach (Simon's Town, False Bay — the protected beach of 3,000+ African penguins nesting among the granite boulders, one of only a few mainland penguin colonies in the world) is the most accessible penguin encounter in Africa: the boardwalks bring you to within 1 metre of incubating adults, and the beach allows swimming among the penguins (they are completely habituated to humans). African penguins (formerly Jackass penguins, named for their braying call) are endangered — 60,000 remain vs 1.5 million a century ago.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCape Point (Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve — the southwestern tip of the Cape Peninsula, 75km from Cape Town, 284m cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean — technically not the southernmost point of Africa (that's Cape Agulhas, 155km further east) but the most dramatic, with the old lighthouse on the cliff top and the new lighthouse on the point, and the final meeting of the Benguela Cold Current from Antarctica with the Agulhas Warm Current from the Indian Ocean creating the extraordinary visibility and colour of the sea here).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideClifton Beach (the four protected coves below the Twelve Apostles buttresses of Table Mountain, sheltered from the prevailing Southeaster wind — the most exclusive beach addresses in Cape Town, with boulders separating four beaches numbered 1–4) is the finest urban beach in Africa for the Atlantic sunset: the cold water (16–19°C, thanks to the Benguela Current) keeps it from being a swimming beach but the golden light on the mountain and the beach is extraordinary. Bring a picnic and a glass of Méthode Cap Classique.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCape Town has two of the world's 50 best restaurants: The Test Kitchen (Luke Dale Roberts — the creative South African restaurant in Woodstock, previously #1 in Africa for 8 consecutive years) and La Colombe (Constantia — French technique, South African ingredients, the finest tasting menu in the Western Cape). Book 3+ months in advance. If unavailable: The Shortmarket Club or Kloof Street House are excellent alternatives.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideStellenbosch (the second-oldest European settlement in South Africa, 1679 — 150 wine estates in the valley between the Stellenbosch and Simonsberg mountains) produces the finest wines in the southern hemisphere: Kanonkop (the most celebrated Pinotage producer), Rust en Vrede (the finest Bordeaux blends), Waterford (Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon), and Delaire Graff (the finest view estate in Stellenbosch, with an art collection including Damien Hirst and the finest restaurant view in the Cape Winelands). Most estates: ZAR 200–400 for a tasting of 5–6 wines.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFranschhoek ("French Corner" — the village settled by French Huguenot refugees after 1688, whose surnames — Du Plessis, De Villiers, Le Roux, Joubert — dominate the Cape to this day, with the Huguenot Monument at the top of the valley) is the food and wine capital of the Cape Winelands: The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français (one of the 50 best restaurants in the world for many years), Babel at Babylonstoren (the most beautiful wine farm in the Cape), and the Franschhoek Motor Museum (the finest private car collection in Africa).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideA South African braai (barbecue — but more than a barbecue: the national social ritual of South Africa, legally recognized as part of South African heritage. Boerewors (the spiral beef-and-pork sausage seasoned with coriander and nutmeg), lamb chops, chicken sosaties (skewers with apricot marinade), braai broodjies (toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches, grilled over coals) with a bottle of Chenin Blanc or Pinotage, while watching the Atlantic sunset from Camps Bay Beach with Table Mountain behind.
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