Visit the highlight of Cape Town, the impressive Table Mountain and immediately you understand how the city is. Left and right are mountains like the ‘Devil’s Peak’, ‘Lions Head’ and ‘Signal Hill’, with behind it the cerulean-blue sea and the city centre called ‘City Bowl’.
> Cape Town - Bantry Bay
> Cape Town - Bo-Kaap
> Cape Town - Camps
> Cape Town - City Bowl
> Cape Town - Clifton Bay
> Cape Town - District Six
> Cape Town - Green Point
> Cape Town - Mouille Point
> Cape Town - Sea Point
> Cape Town - Waterfront
> Cape Town – Just outside town
Cape Town - Bantry Bay
At the feet of the mountains ‘Signal Hill’ and ‘Lions Head’ you can find Bantry Bay with its beautiful beaches, sheltered from the wind. This coastal area is also known as ‘the Cape Riviera’ because of the many luxury houses and apartments, breathtaking coastline and the most famous pearl-white beaches of Cape Town. Bantry bay also offers entry to unspoiled mountain-trails, lovely walks and first-class golf courses.
Cape Town - Bo-Kaap
Bo-Kaap is ‘the Muslim-quarter with the colored houses’. This little area with mosques and Arabic orientated shops is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Cape Town. The bumpy streets are filled with houses from the 17th century with exuberant colors, of cheerful blue and lime-green to canary yellow and pink. Especially in and around ‘Chiappini Street’ and ‘Rose Street’. The use of cheerful colors is originated due to the slaves who used them as an expression of the just acquired freedom. The use of color is still held in honor.
Cape Town - Camps Bay
You can find dozens cafes and restaurants on the beach and boulevard of the chic ‘Camps Bay’. You can drink delicious cocktails and sundowners in the trendy bars and clubs which also can be found there; to enjoy a marvelous sunset and a late night..
Camps Bay is by car only a quarter of an hour away from Cape Town. You’re at the right place in Camps Bay for beautiful and luxurious accommodations, beaches, cerulean-blue water, the boulevard with trendy bars and restaurants and the sunset as most import highlights.
Cape Town - City Bowl
The centre of Cape Town, the ‘City Bowl’ has a small, modern business district, many Victorian houses and relatively little high-rise buildings. It feels a little ‘rustic’ in the two most famous streets ‘Kloof Street’ and ‘Long Street’ of the flourishing city. You can find a lot of authentic buildings with character in Long Street. The shops, bars and restaurants are, on the other hand, decorated very trendy or with a ‘traditional African’ decoration inside.
There are a lot of trendy clubs, shops of young fashion-designers and lounge-bars in ‘Kloof Steet’. You can have a peaceful stay in the ‘Tamboerskloof’, with the many residential houses with city gardens nearby and cozy coffee-shops on the corner of the street. In the surrounding areas ‘Garden’, ‘Oranjezicht’ and ‘Vredendal’ are many lovely, luxurious houses in beautiful wide streets.
Cape Town - Clifton Bay
On the edge of town, a bit more south than ‘Camps Bays’ you will find the beach of ‘Clifton Bay’. The water of the Atlantic Ocean is usually too cold to swim in, but the white beach, the sun-beds and the parasols create a beautiful setting to watch a lovely sunrise at ‘Clifton Bay’. ‘Clifton Bay’ is divided into four different beaches which are simply called ‘beach 1’, ‘beach 2’, etcetera, with big, granite rocks. Beaches 1 and 2 in particular are true ‘glamour-beaches’.
Cape Town - District Six
‘District Six’ is the residential area which was evacuated in the sixties en seventies because it had to become a ‘white area’. The district was returned to the former residents in the year 2000. The ‘District Six’ museum gives a good picture of the impact of the ‘apartheid’ and is located in the ‘Buitenkant Street.’
Cape Town - Green Point
On the feet of ‘Signal Hill’ you’ll find Greenpoint District, right above ‘Mouille Point’ and near the centre of Cape Town. This area is rigorous renewed recently. The old station is demolished and the golf courses will mostly be moved, due to the building of the Greenpoint stadium for the Soccer World Cup in 2010, which takes place between June the eleventh and July the eleventh in South-Africa in 2010. The old, traditional flea- and art market on Sunday, with African art, curiosa and wannahaves is still present and is lovely to combine with a Sunday-brunch at the ‘Waterfront’.
Cape Town - Mouille Point
The famous ‘Mouille Point-promenade’ seems endless and perfectly lends itself for a long walk. It’s the favorite spot of joggers, skaters and people who take a walk with their dog. ‘Mouille Point’ is located at a rocky coast and has an old lighthouse, a few good restaurants and beautiful apartments.
Cape Town - Sea Point
If you follow the shore you automatically will reach ‘Seapoint’. In the past this was the area to go for shopping and go out until ‘Waterfront’ was developed. In the last few years ‘Seapoint’ also came in a positive evolvement which led to many restaurants on ‘Main Street’ and ‘Regent Street’.
Cape Town - Waterfront
City and Harbour come together in the old harbour area called ‘Waterfront’. The old, collapsed harbour-buildings and characteristic houses are renovated and new, modern apartments joined the district. The ambitious renovation project is a great success, with the addition of cozy markets, cinemas, fish-restaurants, museums, trendy bars and the ‘Victoria Warf Shopping Centre’. The seals really appreciate their ‘new’ homes, they still like to relax in the sun on the piers in the middle of the harbour.
Waterfront is also the departure-place of the ferry to ‘Robben Island’, the prison that kept Nelson Mandela prisoner for 18 years; now a museum and the symbol of ‘apartheid’. De boat trip with tour takes about three hours.
Cape Town – Just outside town
When you rent a car, Cape Town is the ideal place to make various daytrips just outside town. By car, you will drive to the vineyards of ‘Stellenbosch’, ‘Paarl’ and ‘Franschhoek’ in less than one hour. The perfectly maintained estates are a feast for the eyes. When you take the ‘route du vin’, via ‘Stellenbosch’ to ‘Franschhoek’, it might remind you of the ‘Provence’ with its sloping hills, cozy terraces and French names of houses and restaurants. There are many wineries where you can go for a tasting or a lovely lunch in the gardens of the wineries.
A trip to the south, towards the Cape of Good Hope on the Cape peninsula, will take you through a winding mountain-route along cliffs and the mountain-range called ‘the twelve apostles’. The view on the most southwestern tip of South-Africa is more than spectacular. From July to November, near Llandudno, you can spot a lot of whales on the white beaches just out of town.
If you want to see more ‘wildlife’ you definitely have to go to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve (a beautiful park with nice hiking-trails and quiet beaches) and just beneath ‘Simon’s Town’ there is a penguin-colony living (on ‘Boulders Beach’).
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