Cape Town is southern Africa's most beautiful, most romantic and most visited city. Indeed, few urban centers anywhere can match its setting along the mountainous Cape Peninsula spine, which slides into the Atlantic Ocean. By far the most striking - and famous - of its sights is Table Mountain, frequently shrouded by clouds, and rearing up from the middle of the city.
To appreciate Cape Town you need to spend time outdoors, as Capetonians do, hiking, picnicking or sunbathing, or often choosing mountain bikes in preference to cars and turning adventure activities into an obsession. Sailboarders from around the world head for Table Bay for some of the world's best windsurfing, and the brave (or unhinged) jump off Lion's Head and paraglide down close to the Clifton beachfront. But the city offers sedate pleasures as well, along its hundreds of paths and 150km of beaches.
Through the intense city center and up the mountain is the City Bowl (made up of the Upper and Lower city centers and the Waterfront), where lively areas, such as Long Street, the Bo-Kaap and Gardens rub shoulders with the serious new wealth of Tamboerskloof and Oranjezicht. Straggling south from the center along the eastern slope of the mountain, the predominantly white southern suburbs become progressively more affluent as you move from arty Observatory through the comfortably middle-class districts of Rondebosch and Newlands, culminating with the Constantia wine estates.
Along the coastal belt, the Atlantic seaboard is drier and sunnier, with the wealthiest areas like Clifton and Camps Bay clinging to the mountainside above the sea, white sands and rocky beaches. The False Bay coast is wetter and greener; the sea here is usually several degrees warmer than the western peninsula, making Muizenberg, Fish Hoek and Boulders Beach in Simon's Town the most popular bathing beaches in Cape Town. Curling northeast around Table Bay, the northern suburbs, taking in Parow, Milnerton and Bloubergstrand, are exceptionally dull, with a traditional Afrikaans flavour. South of these, and extending seemingly endlessly along the N2 into the interior, the coloured Cape Flats townships jostle with the desolate, litter-strewn African ghettos of Nyanga, Langa and Guguletu, which relentlessly overflow into kilometer after kilometer of iron, wood and cardboard shantytowns.
To learn more about the history of Cape Town, click here. For information on languages spoken in the area, click to The Language of Color.
To explore the wide variety of sights and sounds represented in the city, click through to Explore Cape Town and select the area of the city you want to learn about. For a list of "must sees" in the city, go to Best Of. To find out more about the wide variety of outdoor activities available in Cape Town, check out Outdoor Activities.
Here are some more links to help you plan your stay in the exciting city of Cape Town:
• Arrival and Airport Information
• City Transportation
• Eating and Drinking Establishments
• Shopping
• Find Hotels in Cape Town
Previous Destinations:
• Sydney, Australia
• Japan
• The Bahamas
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• San Diego, California
REMINDER: PASSPORT REQUIREMENTS
Traveling abroad? It's important you know your passport, visa, and health requirements, which vary by destination. Make sure you get all the information you need well in advance of your trip.
As of January 1, 2008, passports will be required for all U.S. citizens traveling to or from the United States via land as well as air or sea, regardless of destination. As of January 8, 2007, passports will be required for all U.S. citizens traveling to or from the United States via air or sea, to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
For more information on travel requirements, contact the U.S. embassies of the countries you're visiting. A complete list of U.S. embassies worldwide can be found at the Department of State Web site.
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