Overlooked by flat-topped Table Mountain, with its cable car, walking trails and abseiling, Cape Town is one of the world's most beautiful cities. Fill your days here visiting beaches and Constantia wine estates, wandering the V&A Waterfront, catching the ferry to Robben Island and, above all, meeting the easy-going Cape locals. In complement to its considerable natural charms, the city is benefitting from ongoing urban renewal, with world-class restaurants, hip food markets and design-savvy arcades opening in once-industrial neighbourhoods such as Woodstock and the Waterfront's Silo District.
In 2014, The New York Times and the Daily Telegraph named Cape Town the best place in the world to visit. The magnificent Table Mountain crowns the city of vibrant cultures, cuisines, and landscapes. Cape Town is a perfect travel destination for nature enthusiasts, adventure seekers, nightlife lovers, and history fanatics alike. The history of the city is remarkable and moving and can be experienced by a visit to famous museums such as District 7 and Robben Island. The prized Zeitz Mocca, a spectacular contemporary art museum in the heart of the city, has also become a popular sight. The historic Company’s Garden, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, and Green Point Urban Park are beautifully cultivated areas that will make exploring the city a pleasure. The V&A Waterfront is a bustling entertainment quarter where you can find some of best restaurants and chefs in South Africa. The ever-popular Clifton beach boasts of glistening white sand lined with smooth granite boulders and is washed by crisp blue seas. For a different vantage point of the Peninsula, you can drive along the bends of Chapman’s Peak, stop for a seafood feast at Hout Bay or Noordhoek and reach Cape Point where the currents of the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet. Be sure to visit a wine estate to sample some of the Cape’s wines and don’t miss the adorable penguins at Boulders Beach.
South Africa’s most visited site, the V&A Waterfront, combines a beautifully designed mall, a magnificent harbor against the backdrop of Table Mountain with an array of hotels, historical monuments, and exciting family-friendly activities. It is the best place to go in Cape Town for a shopping spree, followed-up by a pleasure cruise from the harbor, a lunch of freshly trawled kingklip or prawns at Harbor House, or sushi at Willoughby & Co. The Watershed Design Market is the perfect place to browse and buy local crafts. You’ll find Cape Town’s best shopping areas in small pockets and streets such as Longstreet and Green Market Square. On Saturdays, there are an assortment of markets, the Old Biscuit Mill Neighbourhood’s Market being the most popular.
With so much to see and experience in Cape Town, you’ll want to dart to every attraction and soak up the sights and sounds to make the most of your holiday. You’ll easily be able to catch a safe and reliable MyCiti bus from the city centre to visit most attractions and some outlying areas. There’s also a direct bus from the airport to the CBD. If you’re not renting a vehicle for your stay, you will most likely need to use private transport at some stage. Your safest and cheapest choice is to contact an Uber. Hopping on and off the red double-decker bus is the most popular way to visit attractions on a day tour. Cape Town is the perfect city to walk around by foot and explore the lively city and discover the many landmarks.
The best hotels in Cape Town are not limited to areas with easy access to top attractions such as the high slopes of Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront. Each of Cape Town’s wide variety of neighbourhoods boasts of their own unique sights, people, foods, and landmarks. Whether you’re visiting for a soothing beach getaway or to experience the vivacity of this energetic city, there are a diversity of choices from cheap and budget hotels, Airbnb to luxury accommodation like Manna Bay, Compass house and the ever popular Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel.
Direct flights to Cape Town are available from Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, East London, Goerge, Kimberley and Hoedspruit. The estimate travel time ranges between 1 hour 30 minute to 2 hours. Cape Town International Airport is approximately 20km from Cape Town’s city centre. From the airport, there are a number of ways to get to and from the airport. You can hire a car, call an Uber, take a metered taxi, take the MyCiTi bus, or hire a shuttle. The MyCiTi bus operates from 5:30 am – 9:30 pm daily, and operates between the airport and the Civic Centre, where you can connect to other routes. You need a myconnect card to ride it, which costs R35 and is available from the airport and other MyCiTi stations. Most big car rental companies are represented and can be found just outside the central terminal. There are also shuttle services available.
It’s no secret that the flat-topped Table Mountain is the most photographed landmark in South Africa. Rising 1,087 meters south of the city center, it is the crown of Cape Town. If the day is clear and your stay in Cape Town is short, the most preferred attraction to visit is the top of Table Mountain. There are many species of plants and florals endemic to this mountain, and a quaint restaurant offering a stunning view of the city from above. For adventure lovers wishing to summit the mountain by foot, there is a choice between 350 different routes varying in difficulty to reach the top. For those with less energy, a revolving cableway climbs to the summit, covering the distance of 1,244 meters in seven minutes. The ride in the cableway will provide you with magnificent vistas of the Mother City, Robben Island, and the Peninsula. For fantastic views of Table Mountain, hike or drive up Signal Hill or Lion’s Head, both having superb vantages to photograph the mountain.
