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A wonderful start and the best place to get a grip of Cape Town’s layout is from the top of Table Mountain. A cable car whisks visitors to the summit offering amazing views. From here, head back down and take a taxi to Government Avenue. This delightful oak-shaded pedestrian road takes you past Company’s Garden, some of the city’s finest museums and colonial buildings. Head east to the superb District Six Museum, or wander towards Greenmarket Square. The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a tourist-friendly development packed with shops, bars and restaurants and has an excellent aquarium. You can observe seals cavorting in the water and buskers entertaining diners, while watching the everyday life of a working harbour. The Nelson Mandela Gateway is here too, where you catch the ferry to Robben Island. Tours take three hours and provide an insight to the Machiavellian workings of the apartheid system. To explore the great outdoors, take a drive to Cape of Good Hope, a beautifully wild area offering panoramic views and good walks as well as a couple of wild beaches perfect for a picnic. Drive back along the False Bay Seaboard and stop off at Boulders Beach, a haven for a huge colony of African penguins. They are amazingly nonchalant about humans, and you can get very close and watch them waddling about their business. Spend half a day exploring the Southern Suburbs which stretch around Table Mountain. The obvious highlight is the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. They are amongst the finest in the world and stunning, not least due to their setting, creeping up the slopes of Table Mountain. Similarly beautiful is the wealthy area of Constantia with its lush setting and excellent vineyards. In sharp contrast are the nearby Cape Flats, an enormous spread of townships and shantytowns. They are best visited on a tour which takes half a day. The Whale Coast is a true highlight during the late winter and spring months, when huge numbers of Southern Right whales come into the bays to calve. Hermanus, just an hour from Cape Town, is hailed as having the best land-based whale watching in the world. You could come here for a day trip, but it is a pleasant spot to spend a night by the sea. Spend a lazy day at one of the beaches on the Atlantic Seaboard. These are some of the most beautiful in the world – perfect arches of white sand fringed by turquoise water. Camps Bay and Clifton have the added advantage of being frequented by Cape Town's movers and shakers, making them perfect for a few hours of people watching. Alternatively, drive around the mountain to False Bay, with its pretty towns, child-friendly beaches and warm waters. Both seaboards have an excellent choice of seafood restaurants, perfect for a large, end-of-holiday meal.
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