If you’ve ever asked a beach dweller how he feels about the big city, you know roughly the dynamic that exists between residents of Cape Town and the rest of the world: They are, they will tell you, very happy to have landed here, at the foot of a massive, hikable mountain, surrounded by some of the best surfing beaches in the world, in one of those impossible southern latitudes that’s never seen a real winter. The geography alone is enough to lure vacationers from neighboring countries, but it’s the young and hungry who have, very recently, given the city its global reach and a Brooklyn-grade revival, with loud, cheap bars, farm-sourced restaurants, and not an ounce of pretension. Those bars and restaurants—that final notch in Cape Town’s hacked-up bedpost of attractions—are why your next big trip should be of the kill-three-birds-with-one stone variety: a beach vacation, a foodie pilgrimage, and a few days in an ancient, meandering wine region to top it all off.
Before you even book the flight, get on your e-mail machine and lock down a table at The Pot Luck Club, the best new restaurant in the city, which spans the top floor of a converted factory in Woodstock, a neighborhood full of them. The menu’s pulled from an entire globe of cuisines and separated into groups like Salty, Umami, and Bitter, and yes, you should order from each of them. Woodstock itself is worth a stroll, especially the blocks between The Pot Luck Club’s home, in the Old Biscuit Mill, and the vibrant gray-and-yellow Woodstock Exchange. It’s like a mall dreamed up by your hungriest, most plugged-in friends: There’s a café, an artisanal leather maker, a hipster chocolate factory, and a place to buy your girlfriend some jewelry. Make sure you end up at Superette, whose pork-belly sandwich happens to be the city’s perfect lunch.
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A Guide to Nearby Beaches
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The High-Roller Hangout: Clifton Bay
From your clifftop perch at Ellerman House, the city’s most lu hotel, you can plan out which of Clifton’s four small rock-walled beaches will be your home base that day.
Beach-Bum Central: Camps Bay
You won’t be the first to lay your towel on the wide white sand, but sometimes that’s a good thing—no one’s ever joined a pickup volleyball game on an empty beach.
The (Seriously) Big Break: Big Bay
Cape Town basically juts out into the Atlantic, and it’s full of crazy-good surf breaks. This is where you end up if you follow the bearded dudes with boards strapped to the tops of their vintage Land Rovers.
—M.B.
If you set up camp at La Grenadine Petit Hotel, a family-owned hotel done up like a transported piece of the French countryside, you’ll be just east of the Tamboerskloof neighborhood and within walking distance of all sorts of gluttony. You can kill an entire night just hopping around the bars here, but our favorite combination is dinner at Hallelujah—a tiny storefront that serves up Asian-street-food-inspired tapas—and drinks afterward at The Power & the Glory, a raucous beer bar. Overwhelmed yet? Good. This is a place where the dining scene’s locked in youthful, excited overdrive. You will not want for late, loud nights. It’s a good thing Jason Bakery is just a ten-minute walk from your hotel; start every day fresh on its front patio with a cappuccino, a ciabatta sandwich, and the model-hot Capetonian girls who hang out there.
No one should ever visit Cape Town without drinking its famous fabled wine, and the best way to do so is to go straight to the source. Stellenbosch is to Cape Town what Napa is to San Francisco, except much closer and less filled with d-bags in Porsches and roving bachelorette parties. The pride of the region is Babylonstoren, maybe the best winery-farm-restaurant-hotel-garden in the world. You can sleep here, in the bright, white minimalist guest rooms, or simply come for lunch, which is prepared exclusively from fruits and vegetables grown on-site. Drink all the wine. When you make it back to town, find your favorite bottle at the Publik wine bar and keep the party going.
Like most big cities, Cape Town’s got a little dirt around the edges. There are shantytowns out near the airport, and bad blocks tucked in between the neighborhoods full of good ones. But don’t let that scare you into a tourist-size box. It’s a big city, full of pockets both gritty and Instagramable, and the best way to get a feel for it is to hop into a cab (there are plenty) and ask the driver to drop you off in a new hood. Tell him the Company’s Garden and you’ll end up at a 400-year-old park in the middle of the prettiest damn business district you’ve ever seen. Tell him Oranjezicht and you’ll land in a quaint residential area at the foot of Table Mountain, with street after street of classic Cape Dutch homes. Just don’t tell him De Waterkant. It’s where all the tourists congregate at overpriced generic hotels, and saying the name out loud reveals you as a chump.
Besides that? There are few wrong turns to take. Which is probably why the only thing Capetonians seem to whine about is the wind. It gets windy here sometimes, especially at night. You’ll hear locals bring it up again and again; it’s the half-serious complaint of people who know they’ve got it good.
EAT
Halleluja
11 Kloof Nek Rd Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 079 839 2505 // hallelujahhallelujah.co.za
The Pot Luck Club
375 Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7915, South Africa// +27 21 447 0804 // thepotluckclub.co.za
** The Power & The Glory**
13 B Kloof Nek Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 21 422 2108
Publik
81 Church St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa // publik.co.za
Superette
Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7915, South Africa// +27 21 802 5525 // superette.co.za
Jason Bakery
185 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 21 424 5644 // jasonbakery.com
The Woodlands Eatery
2 Deer Park Drive, Vredhoek, Cape Town // thewoodlandseatery.co.za
SHOP
Loading Bay
30 Hudson St, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 21 425 6320// loadingbay.co.za/
STAY
Ellerman House
180 Kloof Road, Bantry Bay, 8005, Cape Town, South Africa// +27 21 430 3200 // ellerman.co.za
La Grenadine Petit Hotel
15 Park Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 21 424 1358//lagrenadine.co.za
SEE
Babylonstorem
Klapmuts Simondium Road, Franschhoek, 7670, South Africa//// +27 21 863 3852//babylonstoren.com
Company’s Garden
19 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa// +27 21 426 1357// capetown.gov.za
Oranjezicht
Upper Orange St, Oranjezicht, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa// +27 83 628 3426//ozcf.co.za
Woodstock Exchange
66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa// +27 21 486 5999//woodstockexchange.co.za