Cape Town

Long before Europeans arrived, the Khoikhoi herded cattle and the San hunted along these shores. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company set up a supply station here to feed ships sailing to Asia, and the settlement grew into the 'Mother City' of South Africa. The British took control in 1806, and the city became a hub of empire and trade. In the twentieth century apartheid tore communities apart: District Six, a lively mixed neighbourhood, was declared 'whites only' in 1966 and bulldozed. Nelson Mandela spent eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison on Robben Island, visible from the waterfront, and gave his first speech as a free man from Cape Town's City Hall balcony in 1990. Today the city is one of the most diverse on the continent.

Capetonians live outdoors. Mornings start with a hike or a swim in a tidal pool, weekends with a braai, the South African barbecue. The food scene mixes Cape Malay spice, Afrikaans home cooking and fresh seafood; try a bobotie or a gatsby sandwich. The Bo-Kaap's brightly painted houses are home to a Muslim community with roots in enslaved people brought from Southeast Asia. Minibus taxis, markets and jazz bars give the city its rhythm, while the Winelands keep a slower, gentler pace.