Cape Town

Arguably the most beautiful city in the world, Cape Town is the quintessential melting pot of creativity, colour, sounds and tastes. Also known as the Mother City, it’s home to towering Table Mountain, white-sand beaches and endless vineyards. Cape Town is a multi-cultural centre with Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and traditional African beliefs coexisting harmoniously. It’s a city of determined pioneers – from the hardy Afrikaner descendants of the original Dutch colonists and the majority coloured community to the progeny of European Jewish immigrants and Xhosa people from the Eastern Cape.

It’s mighty, flat-topped mountain is at the city’s heart, but there are plenty of other spectacular natural landscapes close by, such as Chapman’s Peak drive and Cape Point, the craggy south-western tip of Africa. Cultivated areas, such as the historic Company’s Gardens, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and Green Point Park, also make for great urban exploring.

Architecturally, the city is diverse, from 300-year-old Cape Dutch homesteads and Victorian streets to brightly-painted Bo-Kaap houses and the shack communities of the Cape Flats. Follow the lead of locals by taking advantage of all this outdoor beauty. Learn to surf, go hiking or biking on the mountain, tandem paraglide off Lion’s Head, dive with sharks or go wine tasting in Africa’s most spectacular vineyards.