The beauty of Cape Town is that the city is as diverse as it is small, allowing you to experience an incredible variety of atmospheres in just a hop, skip and a quick cab ride.

In the beach bars of Camps Bay many people spend their time watching sunsets. Simply walk along the Camp’s Bay beach strip and take your pick of the rowdy cocktail bars and beach-side cafes with excellent food and wine.

Once the day’s heat is a warm memory and the cooler balmy night sets in, most people head into the belly of the city for the bars of Long Street – the heart of Cape Town’s nightlife.

Bars range from the sophisticated to the completely laid-back. Park your car and take a stroll up this always lively, loud and bustling African street. Pass roadside food vendors and pop into whatever bar takes your fancy.

Pubs, plush lounge bars, sports bars, cocktail lounges and open air cafes all draw you in before sending you off and onto the next adventure.

Alternatively, simply head for the Waterfront and find a comfortable place to have a pint and something to snack on.
As an old harbour town, Cape Town has always had a busy nightlife. For a long time it was concentrated in Long Street and in the Main Road of Sea Point.

With the massive increase in the number of visitors after the end of Apartheid, the entertainment industry also started to boom. New pubs, music pubs, discotheques and nightclubs mushroomed up all over town. The development of the Waterfront still strengthened this tendency.
The biggest nightclub of Africa called Dockside is situated next to the fun park Ratanga Junction. The temple-like building houses a gigantic discotheque for up to 5000 people, bars, restaurants and conference facilities. They also have live music and big theme parties. The light and sound technique is of the best and with the hydraulic lift even a car can be heaved to the stage.

Here is my selection of the top hotspots:

1. Trailer Park on the roof of the Granddaddy: Chill out on an inner-city rooftop and enjoy laid back people and atmosphere.

2. HQ Bar: The up market bar in HQ restaurant – an excellent and cosy drinks spot.

4. Boo Radleys: Conversation, sensation, and a chef’s passion in a 50s style restaurant-bar. The crowd is diverse with 25 to 45 year olds.

5. New Space Theatre: Fringe theatre on Long Street.

6. Kink Bar: Edgy and off-beat club-vibe bar with loads of character. From minimal to tango on Park Road – it rocks – with an added surprise upstairs. Go there to see what all the fuss is about.

7. Hemisphere’s SKYY Lounge: Party 31 floors up. Make a reservation for the SKYY Lounge and you’ll have a VIP view of the dance floor, a private table with its own fridge and bottle of SKYY Vodka.

8. Asoka: Catch some excellent Cape Town jazz every Tuesday at Asoka, the popular Cape Town night club and bar is trendy, minimalist, and is perfect for laid-back nights out with style.

9. Club Chevelle: Chevelle is the latest addition to Cape Town nightlife. The 5-star club definitely has people talking and queuing to get a taste of the good life.

10. Bombay Bicycle Club: Expect the quirky to conformists.

Cape Town and the Cape region are famous for award winning wines and scenic vineyards which have so much character and charm about them. Many regions have perfected the art of winemaking so be sure to put together a schedule to visit the wine farms.

We booked a 3 day Cape Wine Tasting Tour and spent three fantastic days sampling the finest wines and soaking up the sunshine in the beautiful vineyards of the Cape Winelands. The wine tasting took place at a huge variety of wine cellars, accompanied by an expert guide. Our Cape Wine Tasting Tour was rounded off with a Wine and Food pairing course.
Whether you’re interested in learning more about South African wine-making, or if you simply love good food and wine, this tour will be a great treat! We enjoyed every ‘tasty’ minute of it.
With the following itinerary we would like to give you some insight into the tour we experienced.

Day 1: Franschoek
In the morning our guide collected us from our guest house in Cape Town and whisked us over the Hottentots Holland mountain range to the Paul Cluver winery. This winemaker offers a range of fine wines in the tradition of the old Cape wine masters. Continuing eastward the Heme-en-Aarde valley brought us to the Hamilton Russell and Bouchard-Finlayson wineries, home of South Africa’s premier pinot noir wines. Our morning of wine tasting ended with a gourmet cheese platter at Sumaridge Winery – the best of South African made cheeses.
At lunch time we had the opportunity to wander around the quaint town of Hermanus which is famous for the country’s best land-based whale watching. At the end of the first wine tasting day we checked in to your guest house in the Huguenot town of Franschhoek – a lovely place in the valley.

Day 2: Stellenbosch
The next morning we started our day with a wine tasting at Plaisir de Merle, a showcase estate associated with wines of unsurpassed quality. At Vrede en Lust we enjoyed a vineyard tour and a wine tasting.
A picnic lunch at Cowlin Winery allowed us to experience both the old and new in the living Cape tradition before continuing on to L’Ormarins for another wine tasting. After a short drive through tour of the scenic town of Stellenbosch we checked in at Rusthuiz Guest House for the evening.

Day 3: Somerset West
On our third and unfortunately last day we drove to a Wine and Food Pairing specialist in Somerset West for a three-hour Wine and Food matching session. The session included a light lunch as part of the course. After lunch we went to Lourensford for a wine tasting and then to Vergelegen Estate for another tasting and a walk through the gardens. At the end of our Cape Wine Tasting Tour we’ve been transferred back to our Cape Town accommodation.

From Malaysian slaves, Dutch, English and French explorers to indigenous Khoisan people, the origins of Cape Town’s three million inhabitants are extremely diverse. Since Cape Town’s establishment as a halfway stopping point on the ‘Spice Route’ to India in the 1600’s, the centuries that followed saw an influx of explorers, settlers and colonists arriving in the ‘fairest Cape’ to live among the indigenous tribes already there.

Together with South Africa’s recent colourful and often painful history during the apartheid years, it’s small wonder that the city has emerged as a vibrant, edgy and eclectic place with a rich and textured cultural heritage. In Cape Town, the arts are alive and there’s a lot to see and do.

Theatre venues in Cape Town combine food or drink with jazz, cabaret, Shakespeare, musicals… whatever your taste, the city has the live performance venue to suit you.

Cape Town Theatres that I would suggest:

Artscape
Situated on the Foreshore, Artscape hosts major drama productions and is also home to the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. You can enjoy regular classical concerts, as well as ballet, opera and theatre.

The Baxter
The Baxter Theatre consists of three different venues and offers a wide range of performing arts, from kids’ shows to Zulu dance spectaculars.

Kalk Bay Theatre
With only 78 seats, The Kalk Bay Theatre is an intimate theatre and restaurant. A great place for a night of unique entertainment and dining

On Broadway
With its casual ambience, On Broadway offers unique and contemporary local theatre in a restaurant-style setting.

Theatre on the Bay
On the edge of the Atlantic Seaboard in Camps Bay, this theatre hosts conventional plays and one-person shows.

Cape Town also prides itself on being a happening art venue. Check the local press for details of upcoming exhibitions, as exhibition venues are often not only limited to the city’s major galleries.
However for a taste of South African art culture, try the following:

South African National Gallery
This world-class gallery has a collection of South African and international painting and sculpture.

Rust-en-Vreugd
This museum is a good place to learn about Cape Town’s colonial past. Housed in an 18th century townhouse with a large back garden, the range of contemporary paintings is wide.

District Six Museum
This is a fascinating window into the painful and colourful history of South Africa. The museum is homage to the now obsolete District Six, a settlement that was destroyed by the South African government during the apartheid years. Note that all township tours stop here first to explain the history of South Africa’s pass laws.

South African Jewish Museum
This modern gallery documents the history of the South African Jewish community, which today numbers around 90 000. Adjoining the museum is the Cape Town Holocaust Centre, where the history of anti-Semitism is set in a South African context and is likened to the local freedom struggle.