Cape Town was founded in 1652 as a Dutch East India Company victualling station and grew into a city of about 4.8 million people wedged between a mountain range and two coasts. It is the legislative capital of South Africa, home of the parliament, and by any reasonable measure the most spectacularly sited city on the continent.
Table Mountain
The flat summit sits at 1086 m and is part of a national park that runs the whole length of the peninsula. The rotating cableway takes five minutes and turns 360 degrees on the way, so every passenger gets the view; it closes in high wind, which happens often, so go on the first clear morning rather than waiting. Walking up Platteklip Gorge takes two to three hours and is relentless but not technical. The tablecloth, a cloud that pours over the edge and evaporates, forms when the south-easter blows.
Lion Head and Signal Hill
Lion Head, 669 m, is the best short climb in the city: 45 to 90 minutes on a spiral path with chains and staples near the top, popular at full moon and at sunset. Signal Hill is reached by road and is where the noon gun has been fired every day except Sunday since 1806.
The Waterfront and the city
The V and A Waterfront is a working harbour rebuilt as a shopping and dining precinct, and it is also where boats leave for Robben Island. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa occupies a converted grain silo carved into a vaulted atrium and is worth entering for the architecture alone. In the centre, Company Gardens, the South African Museum and Long Street with its Victorian balconies cover a comfortable day on foot.
Bo-Kaap
The steep streets above the centre are painted in flat blocks of pink, lime and cobalt. The neighbourhood was settled by people brought from Southeast Asia and enslaved by the Dutch, whose descendants form the Cape Malay community; the colours date largely from the end of apartheid restrictions. It is a residential area, not an attraction — ask before photographing doorways and people.
Kirstenbosch
On the eastern slope of the mountain, Kirstenbosch grows only southern African plants and is among the finest botanical gardens in the world. The Boomslang canopy walkway curves through the treetops. Summer Sunday concerts on the lawn are a Cape Town institution.
Beaches
Clifton has four sheltered coves, Camps Bay a long strip under the Twelve Apostles, and both face the Atlantic, where the water is around 14 degrees. Muizenberg and the False Bay side are five to eight degrees warmer and are where people actually swim and learn to surf.
Practicalities
Use ride-hailing apps at night rather than walking, keep phones out of sight in the centre, and treat car break-ins as the main realistic risk. The MyCiTi bus network is safe and covers the Waterfront, the centre and Camps Bay. Renting a car is worth it for the peninsula and the Winelands.