The Beautiful Cape Town - South Africa

Cape Town is the second most heavily populated city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape Town. Cape town is known as a Mother City of Africa, and the Western Cape, an area which is regarded as one of the most beautiful regions in the world. The City is a rare cultural gem, resulting from the join up of Indonesian, French, Dutch, British and German settlers, the local Bushman and Hottentot tribes and the Bantu tribes from the north.

Cape Town boasts a huge number of things to do, ranging from outdoor activities and adventures in the sun to a busy night life under neon signs of course the shopping! This is a city of culture, built on a history that reflects in the architecture, cuisine, music and dance. Together with a warm summer and temperate winter climate and a friendly community Cape Town is an ideal holiday destination throughout the year.

Major Attractions

Table Mountain & Cableway: The top of Table Mountain offers spectacular views in all directions and gives a birds eye view of the city. A trip up the famous Table Mountain is one of the tourist highlights Cape Town has to offer. It can only be done on days when the mountain is not covered with its "table cloth" or hidden in dense fog. On sunny days it provides a fabulous panoramic view of the city, the Atlantic Ocean and the mountain tops of the Cape Peninsula.

On the mountain the wind is usually much stronger than in the city. Pick a quiet day to go up. The cableway doesn't operate when the winds are blowing strongly. One can access the top of Table Mountain by either taking the cableway or hiking. The cableway is obviously more popular, so there are long queues at the ticket counter in high season. Remember to bring your camera, as there are wonderful photo opportunities.

Robben Island: This is the place where the city housed its unloved, unwanted and undesirables, from lepers to common criminals and political prisoners. But it's most famous for being Nelson Mandela's home for 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. ?So make sure you take a tour of this site to gain a fascinating glimpse into a grim past and how stoic resistance overcame an oppressive regime.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden: The beauty and diversity of the Cape flora, can be seen here as it grows only indigenous South African plants. The estate covers 528 hectares and supports a diverse fynbos flora and natural forest. The cultivated garden (36 hectares) displays collections of South African plants, particularly those from the winter rainfall region of the country. It was founded in back in 1913!

Boulders Penguin Colony: It is home to a growing colony of the vulnerable African Penguin. Wooden walkways allow visitors to view the penguins in their natural habitat and there is also a new information center. Children will love it here, plus Boulders Beach is also worth a stop so that you can all relax and go for a swim.

Cape Point & Table Mountain National Park: Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on May 29, 1998 for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain Chain, and in particular the rare fynbos vegetation. The park contains two well-known landmarks: Table Mountain, for which the park is named and the Cape of Good Hope, the south western most extremity of Africa.

Castle of Good Hope: The Castle of Good Hope is the oldest surviving building in South Africa. Built between 1666 and 1679, this pentagonal fortification replaced a small clay and timber fort built by Commander Jan van Riebeeck in 1652.

V&A Waterfront: With over 400 stores the V&A Waterfront caters to all your shopping needs in a huge range that will suit any budget or taste. It's a hit with all the visitors with a blend of Victorian architecture, maritime tradition, and African culture ensures a shopping environment that is lively and cosmopolitan. You can browse among international and local designer boutiques, jewelry showrooms, art galleries, craft and lifestyle stores. Guess what? There's over 5200 open-air and under-ground parking bays, patrolled and monitored 24 hours a day for greater peace of mind. So you can just imagine the number of people that visit the waterfront each day!

World of Birds: This is the largest bird park in Africa with over 3 000 birds (and small animals) of 400 different species are uniquely presented in more than 100 spacious landscaped walk through aviaries, allowing you the most intimate closeness with nature! Visitors are able to walk through the aviaries and experience close-up encounters with cranes and guineafowl, monkeys and meerkats, owls and eagles. The sanctuary also cares for injured birds and is a breeding center for threatened species. Great for the whole family especially the kids.

Rhodes Memorial: It is found at the base of Devil's Peak, provides spectacular views towards both Table Bay and False Bay and the Hottentots Holland mountains in the far distance.

Rhodes Memorial, built in remembrance of Cecil John Rhodes who contributed greatly to the formation of the sub continent, lies on the northern flank of Table Mountain, at the base of Devil's Peak. Built on the site where Rhodes was said to sit and restlessly contemplate his future, the memorial was designed by Sir Francis Macey and Sir Herbert Baker, and built with money raised by the citizens of Cape Town. The memorial today is a popular venue for tea or lunch at the restaurant, which now occupies the original cottage.

Township Tours: A Township tour in Cape Town is highly recommended. Townships were created as living areas for non-whites under the old political system of Apartheid. Townships are still home to a large percentage of Cape Town's population today. Most of Cape Town's townships are concentrated in the area known as the Cape Flats which lie to the East of Table Mountain. Township tours are walking tours, they usually last half a day or so and include a visit to a shebeen (otherwise known as a pub, hooray!), school, orphanage, community center and a traditional healer.

Cape Winelands: The fertile green valleys of the Cape Winelands are surrounded by proud mountain ranges. Towns and villages have many historic homesteads and monuments, and every so often fruit orchards are to be seen, whose produce may be found in all corners of the world. It is the Mediterranean climate and winter rainfall of the south-western Cape that produces some of the best wines in the country. The rich,fertiles oils along the Breede River Valley and especially the areas of Somerset West, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, have become world famous for their whites, reds, sherries, ports and brandies.

Beaches:

• The most popular beach is Clifton Beach. Certainly the trendiest of all Cape Town's beaches, filled to the brim with gorgeous young people showing off their bodies. Not a great place for swimming since the Atlantic is absolutely freezing here. But who cares you are here to show off and be seen.

• For families are the beaches in Muizenburg and Fish Hoek along the False Bay coast. It's warmer than the Atlantic coast so the kids can actually swim and there's a lifeguard on duty as well as plenty of entertainment at the Pavilion.
• To Watch whales you must go to False Bay in October and November.

• For nudists there is Sandy Bay, Cape Town's unofficial nudist beach. It's a bit windy (hahaha) and there are no amenities nearby but it's a quiet beach.
• To see penguins you need to visit Boulder's Beach. It's a good spot for kids and while the main population of penguins are now separated from the swimming beach, there are still plenty of penguins who will swim alongside you. A small fee is charged to visit this beach.  
• To take long beautiful walks Noordhoek Beach is recommended. It has 8km's of fine sand with a shipwreck to explore midway.

Cape Town offers plenty to keep kids entertained. While the selection of ideas here is by no means exhaustive, there is sure to be something that will appeal to the young ones.

Transport: Getting around Cape Town is easy. Public transport options around Cape Town include city buses, taxis, Rikkis, commuter trains and minibuses. The way most South Africans get around is by minibus taxi. They are cheap, efficient and plentiful. You can hail them like you would a cab anywhere in the world.

Cape town has many popular Luxurious hotels. Cape Grace Hotel is a gentle elegance of a luxurious small hotel with Table Mountain as the majestic background.

For a pleasant end to a lovely day there are many suggestions - a home brewed beer at the V&A Waterfront, an encounter with some not-so-shy "dassies" on top of Table Mountain, a boat cruise to world famous Robben Island, or how about a peaceful sundowner on Signal Hill, where the stars twinkle above and the myriad of Cape Town's city lights twinkle below ...

With Cape Town's spectacular geography and its amazing vibe it is not hard to see why it is consistently voted amongst the worlds best cities. It is also South Africa's oldest city, the point at which South Africa as we know it today started. So enjoy your trip and don't forget to carry your camera to capture the spectacular beauty of nature.

(Sources: aboutcapetown.com, cape-town.info, cybercapetown.com)