Luxury Vacations in Cape Town

It’s a heady sensation, standing in an eddying cloud atop Table Mountain with Cape Town cradled at its feet.

The city has fertile seams of natural beauty woven through it, from the fynbos-covered hills of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to the soul-melting sunsets of Llandudno Beach and the sweeping vistas at Cape Point. Down by the docks, the V&A Waterfront is home to the Zeitz MOCCA, a gigantic former grain silo housing the world’s largest collection of contemporary African art. Nearby, the narrow, cobbled streets of Bo-Kaap are lined with acid-green and lumo-pink houses, scented with cinnamon-spiced koeksister doughnuts. Food and wine are elevated to an art form here: the city is surrounded by some of the greatest vineyards in the world and the food scene runs the gamut from haute cuisine tasting menus at Camps Bay’s Salsify to fish and chips at Kalky’s in the cute fishing village of Kalk Bay, eaten on the harbor where the fishing boats bring home the catch of the day. History also plays a prominent role in this fascinating and complex city, most notably on UNESCO-listed Robben Island, site of the former maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held during apartheid, now an impressive museum.