Take a locale as remote as you can find on the planet, add a picturesque port dazzlingly set beneath a flat-top mountain, spoon in the rubbery relaxation of a sophisticated spa-like metropolis, and you have Cape Town, the new darling of adventurous vacationers.
Did we overlook the draw of whale-watching July through February—that’s the early-spring-to-summer season way south of the equator.
So appealing is this Second City of South Africa that American and other foreign business travelers, along with native Afrikaaners, are rushing to buy vacation homes around Cape Town, setting off a real-estate boom that could only happen in today’s global 
marketplace.
Cool escape hatch
For the initiated, the scene in this new “Down Under” is the ultimate in coolness, to the extent where Cape Town is replacing Sydney as the faraway escape hatch for long-distance fun and fooling-around.
Adding considerable panache to the Cape Town playbook are the nearby Winelands, which are as bacchanalian in their own dignified Dutch way as California’s Napa Valley. And if there’s a see-the-world tourist inside you, the ocean drive more than an hour south of Cape Town to the bottom of Africa—the veritable Cape of Good Hope with craggy rocks and crashing waves—is an experience you won’t want to miss, including the free-ranging baboons that sit on the hood of your parked car.
What a contrast to Jo’burg, the L.A.-sprawl city some 875 miles north with a business agenda but a blah personality. Cape Town, too, has a strong commercial pull for business travelers—and mostly as an importer and exporter, with a financial industry to pay the bills and keep the accounts. But if you think of Jo’burg as L. A. and Cape Town as San Francisco, you get the idea: The Cape’s setting is such a lovely distraction, just like the Bay and Golden Gate. After the corporate sobriety of Jo’burg, you can feel positively giddy at the sight of major yachts in Cape Town’s packed marinas and bistros bursting with tourists. It’s a truly carefree scene.
To get the vibes of Cape Town, just taxi to the beach-and-rocky coast along its perimeter and sit under a candy-striped umbrella in a rip tide of twenty-something patrons at an oceanside hotel, downing one Castle beer after another and cheering on the cricket players on the big TV screen. Squint into the early-evening sunlight to take in the watercolor-like panorama of the rolling seas and Table Mountain lording it over the “bowl” of the city in the far distance. It makes the world’s worries seem light-years away.
Getting there
The best and only nonstop service to Cape Town from the United States is aboard one of South African Airways’s comfortable, well-stocked 747-400s (800-722-9675) that make the 15-plus hours fly by with its exceptional South African wines, video-on-demand entertainment systems, and sleep-friendly seats in business class ($5,931 round-trip). Flights from JFK require a plane change in Jo’burg for an onward two-hour flight to Cape Town while those from Atlanta fly nonstop on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You can feed into those two gateways from other American cities on Delta, a code-share partner. You can put the 16,000 round-trip miles in your SkyMiles bank.
Getting to your hotel in town, a 14-mile trip from the modern and “malled” Cape Town International Airport, takes 20 to 30 minutes, double in the afternoon rush hour. The Magic Bus Shuttle costs about $13; a taxi, about $20. En route, don’t be surprised when you pass the cardboard-and-tin shacks of the notorious Cape Flats, as poverty-stricken today as they were pre-apartheid (before 1994)—a kind of billboard reminding visitors that parts of South Africa have yet to benefit from the country’s recent economic improvements.
Directions
Once you’re in Cape Town, figuring what’s where is a bit tricky. From the sparkling Victoria & Albert Waterfront, Table Mountain—the misty landmark you can’t miss seeing—is to the south (not the north as you might think). In front of you, as you look at the mountain, is the “bowl” or city center. If you want to head east to the “Garden Route,” a picturesque strip several hundred miles long, or northeast to the Winelands, you drive on roads that pass to the left of the mountain—or eastward. The city’s famed beaches at Bantry Bay and Camps Bay are to your right—or westward.
Where to stay
With Cape Town now the darling of trend-setting travelers who’ve just “discovered” it (even though it had been around for all the centuries since the Portuguese and other explorers sailed around the craggy Cape of Good Hope), there’s no lack of excellent accommodations in every price range. Many visitors choose to stay a 15-minute drive outside the city proper at Bantry Bay or Camps Bay to take advantage of the beautiful beaches and oceanside bistros that serve fresh seafood along with classic South African meats like impala. The main season with the highest room rates runs October through April.
The “bowl,” as the concave center of the city is called, looks as though it’s sliding off Table Mountain, and with all the comings and goings of foreign explorers, pirates, conquerors and shippers—British, French, Dutch, Indian as well as Portuguese. It has layers of history that enrich the old government buildings and gardens near the Mount Nelson (www.mountnelsonhotel.orient-express.com), the century-old, pink-stucco grand dame of Cape Town hotels. High tea where both “upstairs and downstairs” Brits stuff themselves with “savories” and other finger foods is the highlight of any visit. The veranda and garden are an authentic picture book scene out of the belle epoque. The casual Oasis, overlooking the garden and pool, and the formal Cape Colony Restaurant, are best bets for impressing business contacts. The management, Orient-Express Hotels, has spruced up rooms in the main building and annexes to accommodate executives and all the digital accessories they now need.
Amble around the Victoria & Albert section of the port, Cape Town’s Old Money segues into the New Money that has poured into the hotels, restaurants, yachts and shops that lure business travelers and vacationers alike. Celebrities like President Clinton have stayed at the Cape Grace Hotel (www.grace.co.za), a sibling of its “Grace” namesake in Jo’burg, which maintains its dignity amidst the clamor of port activities. You’re surrounded on three sides by water and on all sides by a snap-to staff. French doors in the guest rooms open onto mountain or harbor views.
At the jazzier Table Bay Hotel (www.suninternational.com), front rooms provide a wide-angle view of the ocean while its marble-and-teak, flower-filled lobby, action central, has huge windows that frame the ships, masts and anchors just outside. If you’re a shop-til-you-drop traveler, just take the escalator off the lobby that whisks you upstairs to the Victoria Mall—it’s so enormous and westernized that it makes you wonder whether you’re in Bloomfield Hills, Orlando or (could it be) Cape Town.
One of the joys of the city is to have plenty of face time with the ocean right where the Atlantic and Pacific meet. Arguably the most aristocratic place to spend a few days is Ellerman House (www.www.relaischateaux.com/ellelrman)—a member of the snooty global Relais & Chateaux chain. In 1962 Sir John Ellerman fell in love with a palatial villa fronting on Bantry Bay, a short drive from central Cape Town, and turned it into an elegant inn with nine rooms and two suites decorated in Edwardian style. The seafood cuisine, laced with vintage South African wines, is as good as the watery views seen from the terrace.
The Bay Hotel (www.thebay.co.za) rates membership in the distinguished club called “Small Luxury Hotels of the World” as much for its terrific location opposite Camps Bay’s palm-lined beachfront as for its spacious, split-level rooms.
If you savor the chic rural life of manicured lawns, thoroughbred horses and centuries of history, stay at the Kentucky bluegrass-style Steeneburger Resort and Spa. The rooms and suites in the meticulously antique-decorated stables and adjoining farmhouses are delightful. And once settled in, you can feel the expanse and freshness of the South Africa that so many visitors found irresistible.
The restaurant scene
In
Cape Town the views can count as much as the cuisine in some of the most enticing bistros. If you like watching the yachts and other harbor traffic buzz about, pick a place down by the Waterfront. Head for eateries along Atlantic seaboard (For instance, the restaurant row that lines the beachfront along Victoria Road in Camps Bay.) if you want to drink in ocean views and brilliant sunsets. But if your mission is simply to find an attractive restaurant or lively bistro, browse the two main dining areas in Heritage Square and along Kloof Street.
By now, the city is so cosmopolitan that menus reflect a lot of culinary influences, from Dutch, English, French and German, to Indian, Malaysian and Portuguese. Among standout candidates for dining enjoyment:
Sample dishes from Malawi mbatata balls (sweet potato and cheese), Ethiopian zambossa (spicy meat in pastry) and Botswana seswaa masala (lean lamb) at the popular and very good Africa Café on Heritage Square.
Slip back decades to the Victorian era at The Cape Colony in the Mount Nelson Hotel (described earlier) where the posh English ambience is the setting for some surprising dishes such as Malay crusted kingklip (a local fish), seared duck breast with orange-and-ginger-scented noodles and smoked crocodile.
Try a cheese soufflé (a signature dish) as a starter at Rozenhof, on Kloof Street, where the kitchen’s offerings range from “modern Cape” to fairly traditional French.
With South Africa loaded with Indians, dine at Bhukara, on Church Street, considered Cape Town’s most stylish tandoori-and-curry restaurant.
Go for the crisp linefish with sweet-and-sour sauce at Quay West, in the Cape Grace hotel, where the views across the marina are as rewarding as the refined cuisine.
For chilling out in oceanside Camps Bay, awash with casual, modest-priced, but enjoyable bistros, check out one or another of the following: the huge and usually rowdy La Med, the sidewalk favorite Sandbar, reservations required in the summer at Blues, and Baraza furnished with sofas for sunset viewing.
Wining and dining
It’s a Hobson’s choice, but given limited time, I’d prefer the hour’s drive to the Winelands northeast of Cape Town.
In the bad old days when apartheid reigned and I was editing a top business magazine, I used to get a case of Stellenbosch cabernet sauvignon from a South African lobbyist at Christmas, which I dutifully returned with a polite no-thank-you. But I did have a tasting one time in a well-executed BYO at Toots Shor in New York, courtesy of the lobbyist, and found it first-rate. So I was thrilled to tour the Napa Valley-like Winelands on my first trip to South Africa and again this time. All it will take for the country’s fine wines to make a bigger name in United States and other export markets is to increase output and expand distribution channels.
Why shouldn’t South Africa make its mark in the precious world of oenophiles?
Centuries ago, some of the Hugenots who left France to escape persecution landed in the Cape area and brought winemaking skills with them—easily tested in the lovely vineyards around the charming town of Franschhoek whose half-mile-long main street is a showcase of alfresco bistros, African art galleries and wine shops.
If you have time to overnight in the Winelands, so much the better. It is not a place to savor when you’re in a rush. One of the standout boutique hotels is Le Quartier Francais (www.lequartier.co.za, e-mail: vicky@lqf.co.za), a cozy lodge with a half-dozen artfully decorated rooms with patios that boasts membership in the exclusive worldwide Relais & Chateaux group. Minding the kitchen is a Dutch woman with creative instincts and a winning smile who turned a hobby of cooking into a profession—and today she’s rated the best chef in South Africa. (Her breads are as seductive as her main courses, given heavily to fresh fish and vegetables from the Cape.)
You could easily spend a second night at the Spier resort (www.slh.com/spier, e-mail: spier@slh.com), with a forgettable lobby but African-styled, two-story villas accessible by shuttle carts, located in the outskirts of the town of Stellenbosch. What struck me when we drove through the vineyard-surrounded city, besides its own wineries, was its meticulous preservation of old Dutch architecture—an array of antique white buildings with the curlicue roofs found on Amsterdam merchant houses—and its youthful population, mostly attending the University of Stellenbosch.
At the nearby burnished Tonkershuig Restaurant, the feature is an enormous buffet of “Malay cooking influenced by Indian cuisine—hence the curries, rotis and samosas,” as the menu puts it, going on to say, “the baked puddings, tarts and biscuits show a strong Dutch influence while the delicious fruit preserves are mainly French Hugenots in origin.”
A sampling of what can fill your plate to overflowing: glazed beetroot and new farm potato salads, sweet and sour pickled Cape fish and BBQ chicken wings from the cold table, bobotie (minced meats), masala fish and chicken curry from the hot table. Old Cape brandy, crème caramel and bread-and-butter puddings for dessert, followed by camembert, brie, cheddar and other cheeses served with a fig and melon preserve. Not McDonald’s, for sure.
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