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– DESTINATIONS –
EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN TASTE
And there is something for everyone!
With great places to stay in private houses, relaxed restaurants with white tablecloths and stars to their name, local arts and crafts in chic design boutiques, converted factories and districts populated by a rainbow crowd set in strikingly beautiful natural landscapes, Cape Town is everything at once.
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Hotels
– Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel –
A stone’s throw from the city centre at the foot of Table Mountain, this hotel is an oasis of calm in the middle of a busy modern world. The rooms look straight onto the mountain and gardens. My favourites are the suites with a private balcony. An old institution that has recently been refurbished, the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel combines elegance with tradition and luxury. To cap it off, it also boasts two tennis courts, a green, two heated swimming pools, a gym and several restaurants.
– Ellerman House –
This hotel located in the chic suburb of Bantry Bay looks over the ocean, ten minutes on foot from the V&A Waterfront and close to Camps Bay with its trendy beach. Behind its Edwardian facades that are as bright as they are elegant, this hotel is imbued with a muted and classically stylish atmosphere or a more contemporary feel, depending on the room. Works of art adorn each one.
-The Silo –
More than a hotel, The Silo is a work of art. A stone’s throw from the Zeitz, the brand new museum of contemporary art, it has constructed its rooms in an old grain silo. Converted by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, the entirely concrete premises adorned with windows in the form of giant eyeballs has imbued its rooms with an abundance of colour and baroque-inspired decor. The view over the docks is splendid, the restaurant excellent and spirit of art omnipresent.
And there are many more to explore.
Why not try the experience of a private house?
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Food and drink
SInventive spaces for coffee lovers and everyone else…
– Biker-shop/ Tribe 112 / Los Muertos Motorcycles cafe and its concept store / House of Machines cafe and Truth Coffee, featuring the enormous retro-futuristic Fabulous Coffee Bean Contraption –
Woodstock/The Old Biscuit Mill and its old flourmill restored by talented architects to make the most of the local treats on offer at the popular Saturday morning food market. Hout Bay for freshly caught and ingeniously cooked fish. Modern destinations backed by Michelin-starred chefs: – Myoga, Bistrot Bizerca, Bistro Sixteen82 –
The classics:
– La Colombe –
Propelled to the top of the best restaurants in the world by the chef Franck Dangereux. And for an ever-relaxed ambiance to match the Cannes local who arrived in Cape Town at the age of 20, The Foodbarn in Noordhoek.
The most fashionable, a real must-visit:
– The Test Kitchen –
By the Michelin-starred chef Luke Dale-Roberts. An industrial ambiance and a veritable flavour laboratory for this award-winning restaurant. In the top 50 restaurants in the world, you need to book very, very far in advance. From the same chef is The Pot Luck Club, a rooftop restaurant/gallery.
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Livestyle
Ten years ago I would not have advised walking around here, but now I actively recommend it! Head for the central Long Street that is bursting with great bars and the surrounding streets that boast bakeries aplenty, such as Charly’s Bakery and Honest Chocolates, cultural trails and graffiti adorning the walls of District Six.
Escape along the roads of Cape Town; whichever way you go there are wonderful surroundings to discover and natural beauty abounds.
Shopping
Whether you go on your own or accompanied by a specialist, discover the trendiest names in the city. On Bree Street: Missibaba for its famous leather bags and Kirsten Goss for jewellery.On Hatfield Street: Okha, the shop for Scandi furniture and Woodheads for its Ugg-style boots. On Long Street, in the City Bowl district and the home of Tribal Trends: Africa Nova for elegant local souvenirs. And of course the unmissable Woodstock. Here, on Saturday mornings, the people of Cape Town flock to the three-floor factory with its mismatched bricks to find local craftspeople selling their wares: ceramics at Imiso, and homemade plant-based soaps at Karoo Moon. At number 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange is the place to find Pedersen + Lennard, the stars of the local furniture industry, and the fashion favourite Made in Maboneng. At number 160, The Woodstock Foundry is home to John Vogel’s modern riempie furniture studio and the popular jeweller Dear Rae. In the same district, you will also find galleries by some of the biggest names in the South African art world including What if the World, Goodman Gallery, Bell-Roberts and Stevenson.
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Venture into nature
In a rental car or with a chauffeur, in a vintage car or on one of the old characterful motorbikes.
Chapman’s Peak to the south of Cape Point to admire the coastal cliffs hollowed out by Italian prisoners of war during the First World War.
Clifton and Llandudno beaches with their white sands and shady rocks overlooked by large houses.
Noordhoek, from where you can gallop along Long Beach.
The tip of Africa that Sir Francis Drake described as “the fairest Cape that we saw in the whole circumference of the earth”.
Kalk Bay (on the east side of the peninsula) is a great place to stretch your legs and enjoy a home-made New York-inspired snack at Tribakery or a glass of wine with an ocean view at Harbour House.
Take a dip at Muizenberg Beach and learn to surf the waves at Surf Shack.
And if it’s a Friday, stop off at the hippy Bluebird Garage Market…
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Astuce : pour voir d’autres posts sur la même région, cliquez sur le nom du pays en sous-titre de l’article.
