My South African cousin describes Cape Town as a city where the mountain is always on your back. And it’s true – Table Mountain lies like a sleeping giant as your plane lands, and then looms above you as you travel around the sprawling city. I found its presence comforting, one constant in a new place. On a sunny day the steep slopes cut a stark line against azure skies; on grey days it’s masked in a tablecloth of cloud; on my final day, at sunset, wisps of cloud spun off it in trails of candy floss pink.
I was visiting South Africa with my 85-year-old grandmother. She grew up in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape before moving to England when she got married at 23; I also spent the first few years of my life in Johannesburg. But neither of us knew Cape Town that well – especially not some of its most famous hotels.
It’s hard to write a piece about Cape Town without acknowledging the reality for those who live in the city: during our nights spent in Airbnbs we witnessed load shedding (the energy crisis most South Africans have been living with for years) first hand as all power went down for hours. When this happens, in some places even the traffic lights turn off, and drivers must navigate the chaos of the roads and safety without them. As we drove from place to place, we saw areas of extreme poverty by the sides of the main roads: networks of crowded, thin metal roofs and children playing next to the motorways. Uber drivers tell stories of violence and racism that have outlived apartheid.
On our first day, we drove out via infamous Cape Town traffic jams, to Kalk Bay – which easily became my favourite stretch of the sprawling city. It feels strange to call Kalk Bay a seaside town, when all of Cape Town is coastal – but that’s exactly how it feels. Just along from a stretch of picture-perfect boats in bright reds and greens, tiny boutiques selling jewellery are dotted between antiquarian bookshops. You can buy huge bright Venus Ear and Conch shells from market stalls, or have fresh fish for lunch while watching waves crash over the tidal pools beside you.
At the restaurant Salt (facebook.com/saltkalkbay), my Gran and I ate some of the best seafood of our trip, but we were also told how brilliant their coffee and cakes are; and if you’re in the market for homeware, Casa Boho (casaboho.co.za) will tempt you to stretch your baggage limits.
That afternoon we walked right next to the sea all the way from Kalk Bay to Cape Town’s surfing capital Muizenberg, past the bright houses of St James, where my great grandfather spent his last years. Muizenberg is expansive – a vast stretch of blue sea into sky and white sand. This portion of the water around the city is said to be warmer than the freezing Atlantic waters around Camps Bay and the Cliftons, but I’m not sure there’s a huge difference – it all felt deceptively Antarctic.
Over a drink and a snack in a friendly pub called The Striped Horse (facebook.com/TheStripedHorse), I quizzed the bartender on the best places to watch sunset. Because of the mountain, some areas are vastly better vantage points to watch huge fiery skies over the sea. He pointed us in the direction of Cape Point Vineyards (cpv.co.za), in the hills above Noordhoek.
On Thursdays people bring picnic blankets and grab wine and food from their food market and watch the sun go down. It had one of the best views of anywhere in the city: a glass-like lake, huge hills and grasses that glowed completely gold for a few minutes in the late afternoon sun, Chapman’s Peak to your right and the stretching beach and sea on Kommetjie right ahead. We drank pink margaritas and vowed to return.
The next day we set out for a night at Babylonstoren (rates from R43,000 or £1,790 for a one bedroom cottage for two nights, babylonstoren.com), a wine estate between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek that is partnered with The Newt in Somerset. My already fairly high expectations were exceeded after five minutes.
A garden on a par with a National Trust property, with the backdrop of the Simonsberg mountains and vast blue skies, was set against traditional white Cape Dutch buildings that housed everything from an ice creamery to a coffee shop and bakery – all small enough to feel special. We had a liquid lunch – a tasting of ten wines (including the brilliantly named “Sprankel” which translates to sparkle), with accompaniments: salted macadamias, fresh cheeses, and biltong for meat eaters (R325 or around £13.50 per person).
That evening we ate at Babel, their farm-to-plate restaurant. We had fresh figs and homemade cheese, monkfish and lamb with crisped apple salads, tomato pesto and crispy sweet potato – and walked back to our cottage absolutely stuffed.
The cottages are hard to do justice – I would have happily lived in ours full time. They are equipped with everything you could possibly need, with huge comfortable bedrooms and a glass kitchen with light pouring in from outside. It was fully stocked with fresh fruit, nuts, wines and fresh coffee. Outside there are bikes to cycle around the grounds – in the afternoon I pedaled for a good 40 minutes through the vineyards, past a vast fishing lake and down avenues of tall trees – all on Babylonstoren’s land.
The next morning at breakfast, I looked up from my coffee and spotted Stormzy strolling over to get some fruit from the harvest table, joined by Maya Jama having a tea. Open-mouthed I had to whisper to Gran that our fellow guests were *very* famous.
Back in Cape Town, to shake off the Babylonstoren blues, we went for dinner at Between Us (betweenus.capetown) on Bree Street in the Central Business District. It was not only incredible for food – I had salmon on a bed of braised cannellini beans while Gran opted for a mushroom risotto, and we shared a sticky date cake with fresh ginger ice cream – but for people-watching. The clientele were arty and well-dressed in bold textiles and thick linens, and I itched to ask where they were all heading on to.
Next on our tour of Cape Town hotels was The Silo (rooms from R24,000 or £1,000, theroyalportfolio.com), which I can only describe as being like a luxury hotel perched on top of the Tate Modern. The Zeitz Mocca (zeitzmocaa.museum) is a contemporary African art gallery, and its location and architecture are the draw. We went to visit its Gaudi-like interior, marvelling at brilliant installations and the building itself. The windows are vast convex diamonds that look out over the V&A Waterfront to one side, and out to Lion’s Head and Seapoint on the other. We were lucky enough to stay in an eighth-floor premium suite with a huge sitting room and bathroom. While Gran painted the view, I took a long bath looking out over the city as the sun went down.
The next day we left Silo for somewhere completely different: Ellerman House (rooms from R16,000 or £670 per night ellerman.co.za) atop Bantry Bay. The boutique luxury hotel has one of the most expansive art collections I’ve seen, especially across just 13 rooms. There are over 1,000 pieces from South Africa, including rich, textured pieces from the likes of Maggie Laubser and Irma Stern. I’m half ashamed to admit that Gran went on a three-hour tour of these paintings while I lay by the pool and sampled their gin collection: amber fynbos and a blue flower varieties that I wish we had in England.
Ellerman House is homey and welcoming with huge living rooms and a library, even a pantry stocked with everything from fresh passion fruit cake to juices and homemade marshmallows to go in your hot chocolate – and the staff are incredibly warm. The pool area is the main draw – under the shelter of towering palm trees and with vast uninterrupted views of the glittering ocean.
I ran to watch the sunset that evening from the curve above Clifton First – a spot I highly recommend if you’re a sunset obsessive – where I looked out over the jagged edges of the Twelve Apostles mountain range and out to sea, as the sky turned yellow then orange then ink blue.
We followed the curve of the mountains the next day to stay at the 12 Apostles Hotel and Spa (from R10,000 or £417, 12apostleshotel.com). It’s the only hotel within this national park, and when locals around Cape Town heard that we were staying there, they would whisper that it should never have been built in an area of outstanding beauty. But that it was fantastic. It’s hard to compare 12 Apostles to an Ellerman House or The Silo because it sits at a much lower price point. While I wouldn’t rush back for dinner, their breakfasts were nothing short of extraordinary. They even serve oysters, which my grandmother thought was hilarious
Another 35 degree February day – which never gets old when you’re escaping the flat grey days in London – I journeyed out to Arthur’s Mini Super (arthursminisuper.co.za) in Seapoint to meet friends. Arthur’s is a Wes Anderson-style bar that wouldn’t look out of place in Dalston or Clapton (Perello olives and Torres crisps included). We drank Aperol Spritz, margaritas and palomas – exclaiming each time we saw £3.91 leave our accounts, “This would be 15 quid in London!”
Pauline’s (paulinescoffee.com) and The Stranger’s Club (thestrangersclub.co.za) are also worth visiting – the latter of which is a restaurant and concept store. It stocks the South African jewellery brand Pina, basically the Cape Town Ganni, conspicuous in the ears of just about every well-dressed girl in her 20s.
The final stop on our tour of Cape Town was the grand dame: the candy floss pink Mount Nelson a Belmond Hotel just off Kloof Street (from R26,500 or £1,105 for a garden cottage suite belmond.com). I didn’t know what to expect – I’d seen about 300 pictures of the palm tree avenue and the Malibu-like pool – but nothing prepares you for this level of streamlined elegance and service.
Our cottage, in a row of picture-perfect pink houses and matching pink street lights just across from the main building, could not have been nicer. Not only was it easily accessible for Gran, but it felt private and modern – with so much space that we sat and painted in water colours in our own private garden, the trailing roses and white latticed fence offering the perfect contrast to the pink building and mountain behind.
We also made sure to try the famous afternoon tea, overlooking the colourful mirrored installation by artist Daniel Buren as part of the hotel’s artistic series MITICO. Unlimited infusions selected by their tea sommelier are followed by sparkling rosé, perfectly-cut sandwiches, and endless cakes. The whole thing was executed perfectly, nothing was overdone or fussy, and I was so sad when it was over.
A massage at the One&Only (from R660 or £27.50 for 60 minutes, oneandonlyresorts.com) was the perfect send off before an 11-hour flight home. After a full 90 minutes of bliss in the late afternoon, I wandered back to pack up my things in that half-asleep half-awake state only a good massage can give. As we drove to the airport, I watched those pink clouds trail off the mountain and thought how we’d still barely scratched the surface of the city.
