UnspecifiedCredit: AFP
Armed with local knowledge, Genevieve Swart plans one perfect day in Cape Town.
Not many people know that Cape Town is the world's most beautiful city. My grandmother, who worked there as a nurse during World War II, told me so. She'd never been to Rio, Hong Kong or New York, yet was stubbornly confident in something that took me, South African born and bred, a decade abroad to realise. Set in the shadow of Table Mountain, on bays sheltered from the sea, Cape Town occupies a peninsula at the tip of Africa, in a land deservedly known as "the Fairest Cape". And, finally, I live here.
Hollywood has discovered Cape Town: the city stars in Blood Diamond, Lord Of War and last year's Rendition, which opens with a sweeping shot of Table Mountain. Minor British royals grace us with their presence, including Earl Spencer and Prince Harry. The city is a 2010 FIFA World Cup host and National Geographic Traveller recently listed Cape Town among the top 50 cities to see in a lifetime. The secret is slipping out.
I like to introduce the city by car, to show off its spectacular mountain passes and coastal roads. Everything revolves around Table Mountain (imagine Sydney if you replaced the Opera House with Uluru). This centrepiece is affectionately known as the Mountain, as if there were only one, when actually a chain of peaks spills across the peninsula. "You can't get lost, just look up at the Mountain," locals say. This advice works until the "Tablecloth" descends in a disorientating mist. The mountain has many moods: my favourite is when cloud crashes over the Tabletop in slow waves and snowy tendrils trickle down to the city. Hikes range from easy to arduous; Mike Lundy's Best Walks In The Cape Peninsula (Struik) is an excellent guide and Hoerikwaggo Trails organises overnight treks (www.sanparks.org/parks/table-mountain/ht).
Capetonians, as with most South Africans, have little respect for speed limits and hitting the road may feel like being thrust onto a formula one race track. Old signs remain saying, "Slow Down, it's Cape Town" but this is no longer a laid-back holiday town; it's a growing commercial hub, population about 3.5 million.
Our drive would start in the north, in Bloubergstrand, Afrikaans for blue mountain beach, the best place to take the classic flat-top photo of Table Mountain. Kitesurfers love this long, windy beach. We'd stop for a bite at Ons Huisie (Our Small Home), a restaurant in a historic fisherman's cottage. Then we'd leave the north shore, ignore the McMansions lining the highway and drive towards the city centre, creeping up on Table Mountain and the sleeping lion by its side.
Lion's Head is the peak west of the Table and a tree-lined ridge stretches to the lion's rump, also known as Signal Hill. If you insist, we'll pop into the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a vast shopping mall disguised as a tourist attraction. Boats leave from here to Robben Island - South Africa's finest irony, the prison turned symbol of freedom. The windswept isle where Nelson Mandela was held is now a World Heritage site, with tours led by former inmates (www.robben-island.org.za).
We'd then stroll through the city centre, pausing at Green Market Square, where traders from all over Africa sell art, crafts and curios. Then we'd drive up Long Street - Cape Town's equivalent of Bangkok's Khaosan Road, heaving with backpacker lodges and bars, such as the trendy Neighbourhood, the Metropole Hotel's M Bar and Zula, which often has live music. Other popular watering holes are in Kloof Street ("the new Long Street") and the Waterkant district. My Friday night favourite is three-storey Relish, with panoramic views of Table Mountain (www.relish.co.za). Gigs and shows are listed in Friday's Top of the Times supplement in The Cape Times. This respectable broadsheet concentrates on serious journalism while the newer tabloids, which have sprung up like fungi overnight, are pure sensationalism. Their posters, tied to power poles, make for entertaining reading when stuck in traffic; a recent headline screamed, "A sangoma cursed my breasts!" (A sangoma is a traditional healer.)
We'd take a detour to Green Point, where a gigantic new soccer stadium is rising for the 2010 World Cup. By then it will be 16 years since democracy replaced apartheid; it's now the age of the Born Frees (similar to generation Y) and the Black Diamonds, the media's nickname for the growing black middle class.
The Mother City (another name for Cape Town), where the Dutch first set up shop in 1652, is geographically African yet as a key trading port and later a British colony, it is culturally tied to Europe and Asia. This is evident in fusion food, fashion and architecture, such as the colourful houses and Islamic influences in the Bo-Kaap area. People, faiths and languages converge in the Rainbow Nation's flagship city, home to mixed-race descendants of 17th-century slaves from Indonesia and Malaysia; a big Xhosa population (Mandela, Madiba by his clan name, is a Xhosa leader); Dutch, German, French Huguenot and British descendants, and more.
After Green Point, we'd descend on Camps Bay, an affluent suburb but not as posh as its neighbour, Clifton, where parking space-sized property fetches millions. A Camps Bay bar overlooking the Atlantic is the place to watch the sunset and sip on a sundowner, a South African tradition that provides a daily excuse for a beer. More local lingo: a barbecue is a braai, a ute is a bakkie, a petrol station is a garage and a traffic light is a robot (yes, we've heard all the jokes). "Car guards" watch parked cars and it's customary to tip these informal service providers 2 rand (30 cents) to 5 rand.
Camps Bay marks the start of a breathtaking coastal road to Hout Bay; with the Twelve Apostles mountains looming above, it's like an inner-city version of Victoria's Great Ocean Road. I used to drive this way to work.
Huddled in a valley, Hout Bay has a backdrop of hazy peaks that looks unreal, like a painting or film set, and its busy harbour supplies Mariners Wharf eateries with the freshest fish. In Hout Bay, rich and poor live side by side, with tours into Imizamo Yethu township giving insights into residents' lives (for a local guide, see http://www.suedafrika.net/imizamoyethu).
Hout Bay Library has one of the city's most incongruous signs, stating that it is "proudly gun-free". Many tourists in South Africa worry about safety - take routine precautions and heed local advice (such as, don't walk alone on the mountain) and crime is unlikely to affect a Cape Town stay.
One coastal route from Hout Bay is a feat of World War I-era engineering. Chapman's Peak Drive is nine kilometres of 114 curves along cliff edges, with the Atlantic below, a mountain and wire-mesh nets to catch rockfalls.
We'd drive past Kirstenbosch, the botanical garden, meandering south from leafy Newlands (see a match at Newlands Cricket Ground or rugby at Newlands Stadium) and head along an inner-city wine route that takes in five vineyards, including Groot Constantia, South Africa's oldest vineyard, founded in 1685, with elegant examples of Cape Dutch architecture. Download a map at http://www.constantiawineroute.co.za.
We'd head to False Bay and its seaside suburbs where, in spring, humpback and southern right whales swim metres off the coast. False Bay is also where great white sharks breach. We'd beach hop from Muizenberg, a popular surf spot. Trains also travel this arc of False Bay, with tracks next to the sea, and are a sensible alternative to midsummer traffic.
Our next stops would be St James, where iconic red, yellow and blue beach huts stand by an ocean bath, and Kalk Bay, with its decor, art and antique shops, and quaint harbour of brightly painted fishing boats. On the wharves, fishermen and women gut and sell tuna and snoek (a tasty Cape game fish), while seals hover in green shallows waiting for scraps. Next to Kalk Bay pier is Live Bait, my world-favourite restaurant: the decor is weathered seaside chic, the meals gourmet and the views fabulous. It's part of the Harbour House complex (www.harbourhouse.co.za).
We'd continue to Fish Hoek, a seaside family village, and Simon's Town, home to South Africa's navy and a colony of protected penguins. Here it's common to see battleships in the bay and at Boulders Beach to have an African penguin swim circles round you or waddle earnestly past on the sand. Children love it.
Finally, we'd go to the lighthouse at Cape Point, where baboons, antelope and ostrich roam in a nature reserve. We'd visit the Cape of Good Hope, aka the Cape of Storms, where scuba divers explore four centuries of shipwrecks.
After you've had your photo taken by the sign declaring "the most south-western point of the African continent", my tour would be over with much still to see. But this has been just an introductory drive. Next time.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
The cheapest fare is with Thai at $1499, with an aircraft change in Bangkok en route to Johannesburg and then with South African Airways (SAA) to Cape Town. Singapore Airlines has a fare for $1560, where you change aircraft in Singapore; Malaysia Airlines flies with a change of aircraft in KL for the same fare. A fare with Qantas is $1863 flying non-stop from Sydney to Johannesburg and then on SAA to Cape Town (Melbourne passengers fly Qantas to Sydney to connect). South African Airways flies for $1798: non-stop from Perth to Johannesburg where you change aircraft; Melbourne and Sydney passengers use Qantas to connect. (Fares are low-season return from Melbourne and Sydney and do not include tax.)
Staying there
* In the city: historic Mount Nelson Hotel, see http://www.mountnelson.co.za.
* To party in Long Street: Daddy Long Legs is a quirky small hotel, see http://www.daddylonglegs.co.za.
* Scenic luxury stays: try Ezard House (www.ezardhouse.com), Les Cascades de Bantry Bay (www.lescascades.co.za), Ellerman House (www.ellerman.co.za) and Twelve Apostles Hotel (www.12apostleshotel.com).
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.