Cape Town, South Africa: My Kind of Town

By John Wilcox 352PM GMT 09 March 2010

Fashionable Camps Bay, the place to go for extraordinary sunsets Photo ALAMY

Why Cape Town?

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I initial began essay about South Africa and the story in the early Nineties, but I trafficked to the nation as a office worker multiform times prior to that and Cape Town was regularly the prominence of any visit. The majority magnanimous of the cities during apartheid, the reduction of cultures currently gives it a vibrancy that is a breath of uninformed air to a sleepy European.

What do you miss majority when you"re away?

The liughtness of colours sea, sky, people. And right away it has embarked on a domestic tour that is sparkling and a hold dangerous. It reminds me a small of Berlin in the Sixties and Seventies outlandish and on the edge.

Where"s the most appropriate place to stay?

The Bay Hotel (0027 twenty-one 437 9701; bayhotel.co.za; doubles from �190) sprawls white and inviting, confronting the beach at select Camps Bay (pictured top). The sunsets are amazing. Take 4 days out, sinecure a car and expostulate up to Natal (roads in SA are easy and open) and drop in to an halcyon hollow in the heart of old Zululand. Here the Babanango Hotel (035 835 0062; babanangovalley.co.za; doubles from �75) offers peace, glorious food, great booze and great review from owners John Turner.

Where would you encounter friends for a drink?

Slip behind in time to the club in the Mount Nelson Hotel (021 423 1000). Such is the ambience that, after dual glorious dry martinis, you will positively see there in the dilemma the spook of the immature Winston chatting to the vision of Cecil Rhodes, whilst January Smuts looks on disapprovingly.

Favourite place for lunch?

Take a sandwich or a small parcel of biltong, and a cold bottle of Villiera Estate Chenin Blanc (voted Superquaffer of the Year 2010 at a new tasting), and get as high as you can up Table Mountain, and afterwards transport and picnic. Breathtaking.

And for dinner?

I"d head behind to Camps Bay to Blue"s Restaurant, Victoria Road (027 2143 82040). Sit on the slight patio or book a list nearby the outrageous windows and see down on the intelligent kids as they hussy along the promenade, or gawk out to sea where it is so transparent you can certainly catch a glance of Rio. Try the mussels or the epicurean beef burger.

Where would you send a first-time visitor?

Sorry, you can"t shun it. Take the wire car to the tip of Table Mountain.

What would you discuss it them to avoid?

The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront it"s overcrowded, has costly restaurants and is not often not in in atmosphere.

Public ride or taxi?

The sight complement for the suburbs is poor and easy to follow. But, since the partially profitable sell rate, the taxis are not costly and the drivers contented and fervent to help.

Handbag or moneybelt?

The supposed knowledge is moneybelt, nonetheless I"ve never ragged one. Daylight hours are customarily OK but things can be dangerous in the dull streets at night. Don"t transport around then.

What should I take home?

A duplicate of Getaway, a monthly South African transport magazine. It will show you what you"ve longed for on your revisit and have you wish to return.

And if I"ve usually time for one shop?

Craft stalls and shops abound, not all of them terribly good, but if you wish to see the real, and somewhat unusual, thing, head to Newlands in the suburbs and revisit the Montebello Design Centre. It has multiform workman studios, a forge, dual trinket makers and a pottery. Leather sandals are an necessary squeeze for me.

John Wilcox is the writer of "The Shangani Patrol", published by Headline (�19.99)