Capetown
Valery Gherman | February 1st, 2007
Within the past ten years, since apartheid ended in South Africa, the country has emerged as an attractive destination for tourists. With its beautiful beaches, world-class wine regions, natural beauty, and cosmopolitan lifestyle Capetown has become the country’s most popular destination. Its currency, the Rand, is relatively weak so the opportunity to indulge in luxury without holding your breath is just a bonus. Here is a rundown of my most memorable places.
Markets
V & A Waterfronts
Situated on Capetown’s waterfront is the most bustling shopping area in the city, V & A is made up of two huge shopping malls and craft markets. The highlight was definitely the Red Shed Art And Craft Market, which happens to be South Africa’s largest indoor craft market. You can spend an hour or two checking out authentic, and some pretty unauthentic African crafts here.
Green Market Square
Green Market Square, which was once the scene of slave markets, is now the site of Capetown’s most vibrant and well-known flea market. There are lots of great little artifacts to be found from around the continent. I scored a pretty cool Ethiopian Scarf and some nice wooden bowls.
Beaches – Atlantic Seaboard
Clifton Beach
Made up of 4 small adjoining coves named accordingly from 1st to 4th and separated by granite boulders, Clifton makes up the most glamorous beaches in Capetown. While all the beaches are all equally beautiful, with its fine white sand and the backdrop of Lion’s Head and Table Mountain, beach number 4 is by far the chicest most scenery place to be, full of beautiful people adorned in designer beach wear and large sunglasses.
Beach access is by steep winding steps from the small road above, with cute little bungalows nestled into the hillside. Many of these were built for returning soldiers who fought for the English in the First World War. Mixed in with luxurious apartment buildings further up the beach overlooking the ocean, it reminded me of a trendy Mediterranean beach. The beaches are wind free for most of the year due to the shelter of the mountains, but even in the middle of summer, the water is freezing (even in sweltering African heat) due to the Antarctic current along the Atlantic west coast. We lasted approximately 5 minutes, before freezing our asses off.
Clifton has a resident surf lifesaving club, with basic facilities and if the water is too cold, the best thing to do is rent a deck chair and beach umbrella, wait for a beach vendor with ice cream and drinks to come by and enjoy the day.
Camps Bay
Neighboring Clifton Beach is Camps Bay, another affluent beach suburb. The beach also shares the beautiful backdrop of mountains and it is much more accessible. There is a tidal pool, and grass area with barbeque spots, as well as beach volleyball tournaments. I really enjoyed it but the only drawback of the beach for me, was the fact that there was so much dog crap everywhere. I did like the overall feeling of the place, and was envious of the locals running around with their dogs. But in that heat, and on the beach, I didn’t enjoy having to watch my step.
The biggest highlight of the area really was the abundance of great restaurants, and shops just across the road from the beach, making it our number one spot for lunch.
Lundudnoe
Just a few miles further was my favorite beach Lundudnoe nestled in a peaceful neighborhood with stunning homes overlooking the beach. Situated in a slightly more beachy suburb, without the cafes and shops, it definitely offers more natural beauty. Tucked amongst spectacular granite boulders, and within a short distance from the other more action packed ‘fabulous’ beaches it seemed to be a popular spot for surfers, even if they had to wear a full steamer wetsuit in the middle of summer.
Activities
Robben Island Museum
One of my regrets was missing the opportunity to visit Robben Island. Only a twenty-minute ferry ride takes you the museum, which was the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life. The boat is run buy ex-prison guards and the tour is given by ex-prisoners.
Vietnam Huey Helicopter Tour
I definitely recommend going for a helicopter tour in an original Vietnam Huey helicopter. They offer a bunch of different tour options around the peninsula and you get to wear replica flak jackets and goggles if you want. The pilot told us the chopper we flew in was used in the movie Apocalypse Now and they even started the tour with The Doors song ‘The End’ to get us in the mood. It’s definitely a thrilling ride, as you are strapped in with no doors, and some pretty low altitude combat style flying.
Originally they had run into some legal problems getting an operating license due to the helicopters being ex- military and being unable to commercially sell flight tours. They eventually got around it by offering a one day Huey Club membership, with a T-shirt, and members could get a ‘free’ ride. I guess they have sorted it out now, as I recall just paying for the flight, and well worth every Rand.
Average price for a thirty-minute tour-R900 (USD $130)
Wine Trail
We had the pleasure of taking an afternoon trip through the Stellenbosch region, South Africa’s oldest wine route. The area has more than 110 cellars in the region, many of which are open to the public for tastings of some the world’s finest and highly awarded wines. Just 30 minutes from the city and set amongst spectacular mountains and countryside, the drive for the scenery alone is well worth it.
We ended up at the Spier Wine estate, the largest in the region. The estate itself is a kind of wine resort and spa with a golf course, horse riding and a cheetah park outreach program.
Moyo at Spier was where we enjoyed an unforgettable dining experience set in a tree-lined garden with a huge Boudouin tent serving a spectacular buffet of pan- African cuisine spanning the continent. We enjoyed our feast from one of the many tree huts in the garden, overlooking the fires blazing from 44-gallon drums. The waitresses tried painting our faces in traditional white dots, but after seeing tables of German tourists in African tribal make up, we thought we’d just enjoy our meal. Yeah, the place was a bit on the more touristy side, but definitely not in a bad way.
