All About Cape Town - A Destination Guide
Currently one of the best-value travel destinations in the world
, Cape Town is also frequented by famous film-stars, musicians and models. And why not? Cape Town is absolutely beautiful, with blue skies, warm weather and cool, clear nights.Dangling between the cold Atlantic and the warm Indian Ocean, Capetown is a melting pot of different culture, language and landscape. Apart from delicious seafood and some of the world's best wines, there are also a number of significant landmarks which tend to be of interest to tourists.
Table Mountain remains the definitive symbol of Cape Town, dominating the landscape of South Africa's capital city. Climbing the mountain comes recommended, as the views from its summit are spectacular and the route is littered with hiking paths. There is even a Cableway which can help lazier holiday makers to reach the peak. Take a walk up Table Mountain. Climb it, abseil down it, get married on it or have something to eat on it. Table Mountain is a must-see.
Cape Town boasts seventy excellent golf courses in beautiful surroundings, so if you like swinging around your irons why not consider Cape Town for a sporting excursion?
If you like your wine, then why not trek to the winelands region. It is just a short distance from the city, but is one of the most picturesque areas. There are three main wine routes, passing through Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek. You will come to appreciate the Cape's wine making history in a beautiful environment.
The best way to discover the winelands is on wheels, stopping periodically at traditional Cape Dutch homesteads, where you can sample farm produce, take a tour of the cellars or simply enjoy a nice lunch in a stunning landscape. Cheese and wine tasting is popular in the vineyards.
Just 11km off the coast of Cape Town, Robben Island is known as the the home of Nelson Mandela for 18 years during his incarceration under apartheid governments. The Island was used as a prison from the seventeenth century right up until the end of the twentieth. Tours to Robben Island leave from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront, cruise for forty minutes across Table Bay before landing on the island where guides will tell what life was really like there.
Robben Island is an important landmark in Cape Town, and it is to their credit that they have turned an island prison into a world-wide icon of the universality of human rights, hope and peace.
by: john mce