Cape Town

Whilst post apartheid freedom has turned the Western Cape into a cultural melting pot, the lines drawn by the Group Areas Act continue to separate locations according to their character, if not their color. Language and cultural differences are no longer the barriers they once were, but regions continue to grasp onto their strong personalities and traditions. For this reason, Cape Town holidays in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha will offer you an insider's experience of Xhosa cuisine and energy that District Six will match by serving up Malay curries and serious jazz. The wealthier suburbs of Camps Bay and Hout Bay offer more generic tourist destinations, whereas Seapoint and the beachfront's southern suburbs act as eclectic artistic hubs.  

  The apartheid legacy has left an aftermath in the townships that is transcended only by the locals' vibrant smiles and communal lifestyles. Xhosa culture will cram the experience with the warmth and inclusiveness of community members. Tours are usually experienced in SA's iconic microbuses, which carry tourists beneath the poverty lines to experience rich African lifestyles. Kayelitsha locals are fanatical about dance. Contemporary youths bounce to local kwaito at the myriad shebeens on the flats while of traditional dancers in authentic costumes bop to the throb of drums and rattles. Traditional African beer and cracked maize will be served up at local restaurants, where meals are often accompanied by live marimba bands.   

Camps Bay and Hout Bay will give your Cape Town holiday a glittering sheen buzzing with trendy nightlife, local club rhythms and connoisseur-worthy cafes. Cape Town is famous for the beauty of its people, and sidewalk eateries let you watch bikini clad passers by as they hit the surf. Kalk Bay, Simons Town and Muisenberg offer a more eclectic beachside lifestyle complete with local theatrical productions and exhibitions. Extreme adventurers opt for Bloubergstrand, which kicks up a wind fierce enough for the pluckiest kite surfer. 

The Waterfront towers above most other Cape Town regions as a tourist destination. Shop for international haut couture at the mall itself, and enjoy international cuisine at its finest at the mall's premium restaurants. Stroll through the harbor and become acquainted with the seals that people-watch near the shore. Weekend trips will yield a buzzing atmosphere crammed with live music in the open square. Expect to see traditionally garbed Xhosa and Zulu dancers, whose marimba beats compete seamlessly with the sounds of jazzy buskers. The Waterfront's surrounds are home to some of the most sparkling hotels in Cape Town. The city is a favorite filming location for Hollywood A-listers, so a holiday in Cape Town usually comes with its fair share of celebrity spotting. 

  Cape Town seasons are as tardy as the city's locals: Seasons always arrive late and stay long after their welcome. The city received its nickname, The Cape of Storms, in the fourteen hundreds due to its black, tempestuous winter downpours that begin in June.  

Summer, which arrives two months late in November, is subjected to The Cape Doctor, a vicious South Easter that clears the region of pollution. Despite its positive impacts, the summer gales are notoriously detested by visitors and locals alike. The climate is generally temperate throughout the year, with clear winter days bringing a comfortable chill to the air. Moderate summers are dotted with occasional heat waves, which are more common between December and January. 

Summer Visits

Heat waves are best whiled away in air conditioned Cape Town hotels and shopping malls, but when the temperature wanes, the weather is primed for oceanic pastimes. Surfing enthusiasts will adore Cape Town's internationally renowned swells. Extreme surfers take on Bloubergstrand's bone-crunching waves, whilst more sedate water babies congregate at Muisenberg, Long Beach and Scarborough. Extremists dare to combat the Dungeons' infamous breaks. Those who prefer to experience the ocean from beneath the surface scuba dive in a region that is famous for its variety of marine ecosystems. Seal Island off Hout Bay lets you view Cape Fur Seals in their kelp forest habitat. Pyramid Rock lets you get close and personal with several species of shark. Vulcan Rock's reef is home to the occasional great white shark, but divers are more frequently treated to a vast array of marine life in a reef-based landscape. 

Mother Nature's Autumn

  Hiking is a popular local pastime in autumn, making holidays in Cape Town incomplete without the inclusion of a few walking trails. Local second hand bookshops will introduce earlier hiking publications detailing the lesser known trails in the region. Table Mountain is the hiking Mecca of Cape Town, but Silvermine hides some of the most beautiful vistas in the country. An autumnal holiday in Cape Town comes with unusual cloud formations that transform Lion's Head into a fantastical vista. The uncanny autumn skylines form a spectacular backdrop that is best viewed from a mountaintop. Booking into a Cape Town hotel between April and June will give you comfy climates ideal for hiking.   

Winter Migrations

  The whale watching aficionado generally books into a hotel in Cape Town during August, since this is the most populace month for Southern Right whales, but those who arrive a month early will have the opportunity to view the early arrivals at a more demure pace. July's mid-winter crowds are thinner, which makes Seal Island and Cape Point boat tours easier to book. Southern Rights, Humpbacks and Brydes whales are common sights, but Lady Luck sometimes blesses visitors with rare Orca sightings. Those who prefer their marine creatures to have sharper teeth book into a Cape Town hotel near Simons Town so that they have direct access to the neighborhood's shark cage diving tours.   

Spring Moodiness

Booking into a Cape Town hotel between September and November will give your Cape Town holiday a temperamental climate with spells of showers, tropical heat and glum, grey days. There is no better season for wildlife viewing. The Two Oceans Aquarium houses more than 3000 marine creatures in dramatically lit tanks, each with its own superb marine vista. Touch exhibits, feedings and tank dives let you become more closely acquainted with all things oceanic. To see marine life in its natural habitat, Simons Town's Boulders Beach is home to a massive penguin colony. Hout Bay's Butterfly World lets you enter an environment so magical you will expect to see fairies amongst the fluttering wings of the exotic residents.