Travel Guides | Cape Town Travel Guide
Cape Town Travel Guide
About the author
Francisca Kellett first visited Africa as an anthropology student in the mid-1990s, and has since found it hard to stay away. She has travelled extensively in southern and eastern Africa, straying occasionally as far as Egypt and Morocco, although South Africa remains her preferred port of call. A journalist and photographer, Francisca has contributed to a number of guidebooks, newspapers, travel magazines and websites. She also specializes in development issues and writes political and environmental reviews for African news magazines. As well as being the author of this pocket handbook she is also a contributor of the South Africa Handbook. When not in Africa, she lives in the rather less exotic location of North London.
Collective charisma
The main thing that will grab your attention though is the people. Cape Town’s population has an even greater collective charisma than Table Mountain, a mix of cultures, religions and ethnicities that drive the pulse of the city. Known as the ‘Mother City’ of South Africa, its uneasy past – seat of colonial rule, platform of apartheid and hotbed of political struggle – has done little to quench the communal vivacity that is so palpable in Cape Town today. The fabric of the city is undeniably energetic, from the waves that pound the shoreline to the countless festivals that fill the streets, yet Capetonians are renowned for their nonchalant attitude and come-what-may approach. This is the source of much contention for the rest of South Africa, which seems to fluctuate between despising Cape Town for its blasé and careless approach and applauding it for the very lifestyle that creates such an outlook. In typical Cape Town fashion, people seem little bothered by what outsiders think, content instead to bask in the reflected splendour of their city.
Cape capers
And who could blame them. This bewildering mix of environments and communities makes Cape Town an instantly likeable and captivating place. Around the city are some of the South Africa’s highlights, from the stunning natural beauty and historical Cape Dutch wine estates of the Winelands, to the pretty seaside resorts and superb whale watching of the Whale Coast. Few places in the world can offer mountain hiking and lazing on a beach in one morning, and tasting world-class wines or drinking home-brewed beer in a township shebeen in the evening. No big deal, you’ll soon be thinking – just like a Capetonian.
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