Exploring in and around Cape Town

Travel Guidebook of the Month

The Rough Guide to Cape Town and the Garden Route, by Tony Pinchuck and Barbara McCrea

Located on the temperate southern tip of Africa, Cape Town is often mentioned alongside places like Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Sydney as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  Situated on a mountainous promontory, the city's two seaboards offer sprawling views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Hottentots Holland Mountains.  In addition to its dramatic setting, Cape Town also makes a great destination for its food and wine, as well as its proximity to the cultural and wildlife attractions of southern Africa.

With the antipodean spring nearing full bloom, I contacted Tony Pinchuck, co-author of The Rough Guide to Cape Town and the Garden Route, for more insights on this classic world city.

One appeal of Cape Town is its proximity to the scenic "Garden Route" coastal plain.  What kinds of activities and attractions might one find here?

Tony Pinchuck: These are many and diverse. As its name suggests, the Garden Route is a self-contained route that you can rewardingly self-drive. It begins at Cape Town and traverses the Western Cape coast for about a thousand kilometers, culminating at the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth.  Along the way is a plethora of pretty coastal towns, national parks, forests and wetlands. Highlights include the forested Tsitsikamma National Park, where the heaving Storms River gushes out into the open ocean and the Addo Elephant National Park, close to Port Elizabeth, where you can see the Big Five — lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffalo. The Garden Route has also become a center for adventure activities, which include the world's highest bungee jump, abseiling, mountain-biking, hiking, horse riding and really thrilling canopy tours, in which you swing along cables through the treetops of the Tsitsikamma Forest.

If you have the time, the Garden Route can rewardingly be taken as a circular route heading out along the coast and returning along the so-called Mountain Route, which strikes inland through the mountains and gorges of the Karoo — an achingly beautiful semi-desert that occupies nearly two-thirds of the South African interior. There are a number of atmospheric small farming towns to stop at along the way.

Cape Town is also quite close to South Africa's wine region.  Given a day or two, what Winelands communities and vineyards are worth a visit? Are there any uniquely South African wines worth mentioning?

TP: South Africa has many wine regions, the oldest of which is the Constantia Wine Route, which — remarkably — is in the middle of Cape Town.  In fact, at 350 years old, these are the oldest New World wine estates.  So it's actually possible to sample some decent wines without even leaving the city. If you're short of time, these can be quite satisfying in their own right — beautiful old buildings and highly rated wines.

But, when people talk about the Cape Winelands, they usually mean the mountainous area just to the east of Cape Town, centered around the towns of Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franschhoek and Somerset West, which are each about an hour's drive from Cape Town and within close proximity of each other. Visiting the Winelands can be a terrific sensual experience  — tasting good-value wines in stupendous settings (there's usually a slatey mountain or two as a backdrop) with a number of wine estates centered around beautiful historic Cape Dutch homesteads, with their distinctive curvaceous gables. Throw into all of this the fact that all the towns have great hotels and B&Bs and that Franschhoek is the culinary capital of South Africa, and you'll be in for two days of sensory indulgence.

There are scores of excellent wineries, producing very drinkable wines, but if pressed to name a top three I would select these (not necessarily for the quality of their wines, but because they are rewarding places to visit in their own right): 

• Boschendal Estate (equidistant between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch), which is the best organized for tourists, with conducted tours, beautiful buildings, shops and restaurants, and a great picnic option on manicured lawns set around a small lake.
  
  
• Delaire in Stellenbosch, for the heady views from its tasting room across the Helshoogte Pass.
  
  
• Vergelegen in Somerset West, for its fabulous buildings, beautiful gardens, small museum, good wines and choice of restaurants.

As far as wines go, South Africa produces a range of reds and whites.  Its only unique wine is Pinotage, made from a hybrid of Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes.

Attractions notwithstanding, South Africa has long had a reputation for high crime rates.  Is crime an issue in Cape Town specifically, and — if so — what safety precautions might be order?

TP: Crime is undoubtedly a problem in all South Africa's cities. Having said that, the vast majority of visitors encounter no problems. In the Rough Guide to Cape Town and the Garden Route, we advise readers to be awake, but not paranoid — probably advice that would stand them in good stead anywhere. Among the specific tips we give are:

• Try not to look like a tourist.
  
  
• Dress down.
  
  
• Avoid carrying cameras openly in the city center.
  
  
• In the unlikely event of your being accosted, remain calm and cooperative and don't look your assailant in the face.

I noticed that the cover of your book features penguins, which perhaps not many people immediately associate with Africa.  Where can one find penguins in the Cape Town area, and what other nature areas do you suggest for first-time visitors to the region?

TP: Boulders Beach, on the southern section of the Cape Peninsula, is home to a protected colony of African Penguins, one of only two such mainland colonies in the world. Much of the Cape Peninsula is part of the Table Mountain National Park, which stretches from the heart of Cape Town to the tip of the peninsula at Cape Point.  Indeed, Cape Town is remarkable as a city that exists cheek-by-jowl with wilderness.  Although there are no predators in the national park, you will see baboons, antelope and zebras and numerous small mammals, such as the ubiquitous dassies, which resemble large guinea pigs, but are actually distant relatives of elephants.

One of the natural highlights of South Africa is the arrival Southern Right Whales around June — and they stay for about four or five months.  These marine mammals can be seen extremely close to the coast at a number of points in Cape Town along the False Bay seaboard, which is why South Africa is possibly the best place in the world for land-based whale-watching.

More information on The Rough Guide to Cape Town and the Garden Route ($17.99) can be found at RoughGuides.com.

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