CAPE TOWN

Cape Town is the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. Today it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa.

Cape Town is not only the most popular international tourist destination in South Africa, but Africa as a whole. This is due to its good climate, natural setting, and well-developed infrastructure. The city has several well-known natural features that attract tourists, most notably Table Mountain. Many tourists also visit Cape Town's beaches, which are popular with local residents. Due to the city's unique geography, it is possible to visit several different beaches in the same day, each with a different setting and atmosphere. Though the Cape's water ranges from cold to mild, the difference between the two sides of the city is dramatic.

Both coasts are equally popular, although the beaches in affluent Clifton and elsewhere on the Atlantic Coast are better developed with restaurants and cafés, with a particularly vibrant strip of restaurants and bars accessible to the beach at Camps Bay. Boulders Beach near Simon's Town is known for its colony of African Penguins. Surfing is popular and the city hosts the Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing competition every year.

The city has several notable cultural attractions. The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, built on top of part of the docks of the Port of Cape Town, is the city's most visited tourist attraction. It is also one of the city's most popular shopping venues, with several hundred shops and the Two Oceans Aquarium. Part of the charm of the V&A, as it is locally known, is that the Port continues to operate and visitors can watch ships enter and leave. The V&A also hosts the Nelson Mandela Gateway, through which ferries depart for Robben Island.  It is possible to take a ferry from the V&A to Hout Bay, Simon's Town and the Cape Fur Seal colonies on Seal and Duiker Islands. Several companies offer tours of the Cape Flats, a mostly Coloured township, and Khayelitsha, a mostly black township. An option is to sleep overnight in Cape Town's townships. There are several B&Bs where you can spend a safe and real African night.

Cape Town is noted for its architectural heritage, with the highest density of Cape Dutch style buildings in the world. Cape Dutch style, which combines the architectural traditions of the Netherlands, Germany, France and Indonesia, is most visible in Constantia, the old government buildings in the Central Business District, and along Long Street. The annual Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, also known by its Afrikaans name of Kaapse Klopse, is a large minstrel festival held annually on 2 January or "Tweede Nuwe Jaar" (Afrikaans: Second New Year). Competing teams of minstrels parade in brightly coloured costumes, performing Cape Jazz, either carrying colourful umbrellas or playing an array of musical instruments. The Artscape Theatre Centre is the main performing arts venue in Cape Town.

The city also encloses the 36 hectare Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden that contains protected natural forest and fynbos along with a variety of animals and birds. There are over 7,000 species in cultivation at Kirstenbosch, including many rare and threatened species of the Cape Floristic Region. In 2004 this Region, including Kirstenbosch, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Cape Town's transport system links it to the rest of South Africa; it serves as the gateway to other destinations within the province. The Cape Winelands and in particular the towns of Stellenbosch,Paarl and Franschhoek are popular day trips from the city for sightseeing and wine tasting. Whale watching is popular amongst tourists: Southern Right Whales and Humpback Whales are seen off the coast during the breeding season (August to November) and Bryde's Whales andKiller Whale can be seen any time of the year.[66] The nearby town of Hermanus is known for its Whale Festival, but whales can also be seen in False Bay. Heaviside's dolphins are endemic to the area and can be seen from the coast north of Cape Town; Dusky dolphins live along the same coast and can occasionally be seen from the ferry to Robben Island. 

The only complete windmill in South Africa is Mostert's Mill, Mowbray. It was built in 1796 and restored in 1935 and again in 1995. The mill is open to the public on one Saturday a month.

Approximately 1.5 million tourists visited in Cape Town during 2004, bringing in a total of R10 billion in revenue. The forecasts for 2006 anticipate 1.6 million tourists spending a total of R12 billion. . 

Attractions

Table Mountain (1087m/3566ft), the flat-topped hill to the south of the city center, is the great landmark and emblem of Cape Town. Its summit plateau is frequently covered by a layer of clouds, the "tablecloth". Since weather conditions here are very changeable it is advisable to arrange your trip to the summit, either on foot or by road, immediately when you see it clear of clouds. The ascent is rewarded by an immense prospect of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula. On weekends Table Mountain is floodlit after dark. The best view, and the best place from which to take a photograph, is from the road up Signal Hill.

Table Mountain, built up from massive beds of sandstones and slates, forms the northern end of the Cape Peninsula. It is flanked on the east by Devil's Peak (1001m/3284ft) and on the west, beyond a wide depression, by the Lion's Head (669m/2195ft). It extends southward as a broad plateau and then falls steeply down to Orange Kloof (200m/650ft). To the east it rears above the suburb of Newlands and the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens; to the west, in the crags known as the Twelve Apostles, it looms over the bathing resorts on the Atlantic coast.

Situated as it is between the Atlantic and False Bay, Table Mountain has a mountain climate with high rainfall. Most of the annual rainfall of 1400mm/55in. occurs in the winter months, between May and September. Two reservoirs on Table Mountain (the source area of many streams) contribute to Cape Town's water supply. The particular climatic conditions have produced a varied flora (over 2200 species) and fauna. Sir Edmund Hillary, the celebrated climber, called Table Mountain one of the world's natural wonders. But it is threatened by soil erosion, the loss of native plants and invasion by alien species, uncontrolled bush fires and large numbers of visitors. In order to stop this deterioration the Table Mountain Nature Reserve was established, taking in, in addition to Table Mountain itself, Signal Hill and adjoining areas.

The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is an entertainment quarter with something of the atmosphere of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and London's Soho. It extends round two inner harbor basins, constructed in 1860, and named after Queen Victoria and her second son Alfred (later Duke of Edinburgh). Only a few years ago this was a rather squalid and rundown fishing harbor: it is now one of Cape Town's leading attractions, lively and bustling all day and much of the night. It now draws more than 13 million visitors per year, attracted by its numerous shops, jazz spots, restaurants and hotels, its two theaters (including the Dock Road Theatre, housed in a former power station), a drama school, cinemas and museums.

Wherever possible old buildings have been preserved and restored: a three-story warehouse has become a luxury hotel, a pumping-station and a former prison is now the Business School of Cape Town University. New construction is kept in the style of the surrounding buildings.

Castle of Good Hope

This is the oldest surviving stone building in South Africa, built in 1666-79 as the residence of the Governor and for the protection of the early settlers, though in fact the castle, which is in the form of a five-pointed star, was never exposed to attack.

The main gate leads into an inner courtyard. The range of buildings with an elaborate columned balcony, originally used for ceremonial and official occasions, now houses the William Fehr Collection. The collection includes pictures, porcelain, fine glass, ceramics and furniture of the 17th-19th C from South Africa, Europe and Asia.

Other parts of the castle can be seen only on conducted tours. Visitors are shown various prisons and store-rooms (in which archaeological finds are displayed) and taken up on to one of the bastions. Much of the castle is closed to the public, since it is the provincial headquarters of the South African army.

 South African Maritime Museum

The South African Maritime Museum, on the Alfred Basin, has sections devoted to the history of the port and plans for future development, the fishing industry, shipping lines and shipwrecks. The collection includes many ship models.

Also part of the museum are a number of old ships, moored in various parts of the harbor, which are open to visitors. In front of the comfortable Victoria and Alfred Hotel is the "Alwyn Vincent", a steam tug launched in Venice in 1859. The SAS "Somerset" is the only surviving submarine guardship in the world.