Being a tourist in your own town — 10 unusual things to do in Cape Town

The Cape in a side car

There are a lot of things I've not done in Cape Town that the aver­age tour­ist has. Exploring Cape Town through the eyes of a tour­ist can be as good as going on hol­i­day else­where, a lot cheaper, and will earn you greenie points for sav­ing on car­bon emis­sions and for con­trib­ut­ing to the local economy.

So this year over the Festive Season, why not try to explore the city as a tour­ist. Here is my choice list of things we'd like to do – not all of them fall in the Top 10 Things to do in Cape Town, but then they've also got to appeal to those who have lived here a while ... Continued

Chart Farm Photographs

My hus­band and I did some­thing dif­fer­ent on Sunday – we vis­ited Chart Farm in Wynberg Park and picked our own roses!  I had been earlier in the year only to find that roses are sea­sonal and I was a few weeks to late but tak­ing my flower­ing Iceberg rose at home as an indic­a­tion that other roses might also be bloom­ing we made our way to the farm.  Located near Wynberg Park, Chart Farm and its farm style envir­on­ment is well worth a visit.

There are a wide vari­ety of roses and they are avail­able for pick-your-own (a bucket and secateurs are provided) or altern­at­ively you can pur­chase the blooms ready picked.  It is lovely though to wander the ter­races, admir­ing the gor­geous col­ours on dis­play and tak­ing in the views of the Constantia Valley.  The cost to pick your own is R4 per stem Monday to Saturday.  Sunday pick­ing is half price; R2 per stem.  Already picked roses are R5.50 per stem.

Being a farm, the farm stall offers fresh, sea­sonal farm pro­duce which include lem­ons, limes, grapes, veges and chest­nuts.  For the keen garden­ers com­post and mulch are avail­able to pur­chase per bag. If you need lar­ger quant­it­ies a bulk deliv­ery could be arranged.

The views are there to be enjoyed and what bet­ter way to do that than by stop­ping for tea at The Terrace Coffee Shop.  Home-made cakes as well as break­fast and lunch are served between 9am to 4.30pm (with last orders at 4.00pm) daily.

We really enjoyed our trip to Chart Farm and will def­in­itely go back again. Continued

CocoáFair – the Biscuit Mill acquires a taste for chocolate

CocoáFair

There is a little more to CocoáFair than simply chocol­ate. For many of us just the prom­ise of loc­ally made, artisan, organic chocol­ate is enough of an invit­a­tion to have us reach­ing for a taste...and believe me, hav­ing sampled, it is a mouth-watering experience.

But Thor soon explains, as I query the name, that yes, CocoáFair is def­in­itely about the fair­ness involved in the way the cocoa is traded, but the emphasis is also very much on the 'affair' with cocoa – not only the love of it, but the rela­tion­ship of cocoa with the people who grow it, and the people who turn it into chocolate.

And an affair there most def­in­itely is. On dis­play on shelves to my right and left are bars of organic chocol­ate, pralines, truffles, a bar­rel filled with incred­ibly reas­on­ably priced raw cacoa, organic sugar, and sliv­ers of chocol­ate — bagged, and tied up with a rib­bon. Continued

I ♥ Wynberg Because ...

I ♥ Wynberg

Hi, I’m Shaun Lawrence from Palm House Luxury Guest House in Wynberg.

Wynberg IS BEST KNOWN FOR being the old­est area in the south­ern sub­urbs with its beau­ti­ful Chelsea cot­tages giv­ing you English charm in the middle of Africa.  Chelsea Village dates back to the 1700’s and has glor­i­ous ‘Englishy’ archi­tec­ture … think cute cot­tages and thatch rooves.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Wynberg Park which is also known as Maynardville Park. The park is a much-loved out­door venue in Cape Town and is host to the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, fam­ous for its annual Shakespeare-in-the-Park.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS in and around the Chelsea Village.  Why not sit on the park bench in the ori­ginal vil­lage square?! Continued

I ♥ Rondebosch Because ...

I ♥ Rondebosch

Hi, I’m Vanessa Wium from Sandown Lodge in Rondebosch.

Rondebosch IS BEST KNOWN FOR its his­tory as the place where the first Dutch set­tlers where given land to farm along the banks of the Liesbeek River, where Cecil John Rhodes rebuilt the Groote Schuur Estate which today is the home of the State President and where Simon Van de Stel, the first Governor of the Cape Colony lived. The his­toric beauty of the Cape Dutch style homes and build­ings and tree lined streets adds to its old world charm. Rondebosch is also home to South Africa’s top rated uni­ver­sity, the University of Cape Town as well as a num­ber of the country’s top private and gov­ern­ment schools includ­ing Bishops, Rondebosch Boys, SACS, Westerford and Rustenberg Girls schools.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Rhodes Memorial on the bot­tom slopes of Devils Peak while watch­ing the sun rise over Cape Town for spec­tac­u­lar views and his­toric nos­tal­gia. Continued

Bay Harbour Market — Photographs

I’m a big fan of a mar­ket so ima­gine my sheer joy when we walked into the Bay Harbour Market in Hout Bay!  It seemed to be a case of ‘the early bird catches the worm’ because on arriv­ing at around 9.30am we man­aged to walk around eas­ily, found a table to sit at and didn’t have to wait in to long a queue to order our deli­cious break­fast and per­fectly made creamy cappuccino.

I was so impressed with this mar­ket; it’s been open for about six weeks and in that short space of time has become very pop­u­lar.  There are over 100 stalls which have a healthy mix of food, art, cloth­ing, craft, décor and fash­ion.  I loved the beau­ti­ful cush­ions, nap­kins and aprons Melanie of Quiver Design had on show and the ceram­ics Noleen Read pro­duces are def­in­itely on my Christmas list.  The food all looked abso­lutely deli­cious and the only thing to do is to make the mar­ket a reg­u­lar week­end stop to try all the pro­duce offered.

The mar­ket is open 10am – 5pm on Saturdays, 10am – 4pm on Sundays and from September 9^th will also open from 4pm – 9pm on a Friday. There is ample, secure park­ing avail­able. Continued

Tea at Nellies

Tea at Nellies

I've got a con­fes­sion to make. I've lived in Cape Town for nigh on six years and up until yes­ter­day had still not had high tea at Nellies. This is a sac­ri­lege. Even my friends, who recently came to stay from Durban, man­aged to make a detour to the Mount Nelson Hotel some­thing of a pri­or­ity, where after they waxed lyr­ical for at least an hour.  Nothing like feel­ing you don't know your home city to get one motiv­ated. Nonetheless  it still took an irres­ist­ible spe­cial offer and an organ­ised man to get me there. Continued

Spring in the Western Cape in photographs

We were sent some really beau­ti­ful pho­to­graphs which were taken near Philadelphia in the Western Cape which got us all excited about Spring. It's a won­der­ful time of year — Join us in cel­eb­rat­ing the immin­ent arrival of Spring here in South Africa.

"I love this time of year and the rural fields are full of the new wheat and oats and the gush of bright yel­low can­ola. The farm anim­als and birds take pleas­ure in the warm days too. What a won­der this is …
Enjoy my part of the world"!" ~ Barbara Continued

Zip Zap zests up with added vooma by Adele Blank

Zip Zap Circus

I've never been to watch the Zip Zap Circus in Cape Town. I've known of its exist­ence, espe­cially since it moved into its 'tent' just behind Artscape. Who wouldn't. What a great space, all you see from the N1/N2 fly-over above Table Bay Boulevard is the dome to your left, the words Zip Zap emblazoned for all to view. It is a home and envi­able advert­ising space all in one.

And let me tell you there is some ser­i­ous cir­cus magic at work within the dome's peri­met­ers. On near­ing the cir­cus, the chil­dren (some of them a little older than the term 'child' will allow, but still young enough to be deemed youth) begin to weave their spell on vis­it­ors straight away. Continued

O’ways Teacafe in Claremont

O'Ways Teacafe

Tea houses haven’t exactly taken off in Cape Town. While we embrace cof­fee cul­ture with almost reli­gious zeal, we tend to sniff our noses at any­where that offers any­thing other than Ceylon and Rooibos (or per­haps Green Tea or Chamomile for the real dare­dev­ils.) The now defunct Tea Emporium in Cavendish Mall had dozens of vari­et­ies of tea, but its many Eastern-inspired teapots stood empty whilst den­iz­ens of the mall jostled for room in the cof­fee shops.

Thankfully we now have a new tea house in the sub­urbs to chal­lenge the cof­fee olig­archy. O’ways Teacafe offers more than sixty-four exit­ing forms of nigiro teas and infu­sions sourced from all over the world.  The exotic names are enough to make you try them all; Chinese Gunpowder, Strawberries and Cream and even the more eso­teric flower­ing teas. Continued

Short & Sweet comes to Cape Town

Short & Sweet

Capetonians are in for a winter treat! Short & Sweet, London's only weekly short film even­ing comes to Cape Town for an exclus­ive five-week spe­cial. In asso­ci­ation with Highland Park Single Malt Whisky, Short & Sweet launches on Tuesday, 28 June at the Bay Harbour, Hout Bay (31 Harbour Road – oppos­ite Fish on the Rocks). Doors open at 18h00. Films screened from 19h30–21h30 includ­ing inter­val. Entrance costs R20.

Short & Sweet is ded­ic­ated to the exhib­i­tion of short film as a crit­ical art form in its own right. Each week you can expect to see a selec­tion of the finest short films, music videos and short anim­a­tions from around the globe: old films, new films, films from estab­lished dir­ect­ors to break­ing tal­ent. The intent is to inspire all who attend, expose the best tal­ent and ulti­mately cel­eb­rate film. Continued

Winner 2 Nights at a Hip Boutique Hotel in Cape Town

CONGRATULATIONS to Rob Crozier of New Zealand who has won a 2 night stay in the hub of Cape Town's café cul­ture (and just about 5 minutes from everything and every­where else!) at the Hippo Boutique Hotel. The prize includes 2 con­sec­ut­ive nights accom­mod­a­tion for 2 people in an exclus­ive indi­vidu­ally branded Suite, break­fast daily at Greens, 1 din­ner at Fat Cactus, 1 din­ner at Simply Asia, 1 bottle of wine on arrival and air­port trans­fers, if required (flights for own account).

Rob, your voucher is on its way. Please con­tact Hippo Boutique Hotel to redeem your voucher (valid until 15 December 2011). We’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay! Continued

Cape Town Top of the World

Cape Town came out tops in this year's Travellers Choice Destinations Awards by TripAdvisor. With a huge jump from 25^th last year, Cape Town finally takes its right­ful place as the favour­ite des­tin­a­tion in the world as chosen by mil­lions of trav­el­lers. Congrats to the "Mother City"!

Cape Town #1 on TripAdvisor
Travellers' Choice 2011 Best Destinations in the World Continued

Jesus Christ Superstar on at Artscape

On at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town and presen­ted by Pieter Torien is one of the world’s best music­als: Jesus Christ Superstar. The musical tells the story of the last days of Jesus Christ and high­lights the polit­ical and inter­per­sonal struggles between Judas Iscariot and Jesus.  The new pro­duc­tion is a spec­tac­u­lar, dram­at­ised ver­sion of the last seven days of the life of Jesus of Nazareth as seen through the eyes of Judas.  Jesus is played by Cito and Mary Magdalene is played by South African singing sen­sa­tion Nadine.  Continued

Starke Ayres in Rosebank — much more than a nursery

Starke Ayres

My hus­band is a closet nurs­ery fet­ish­ist. Now many of you might argue that he is simply a garden­ing freak. Granted. But there is some­thing a little insi­di­ous, do you not think, in spend­ing untold hours in a nurs­ery. A nurs­ery, for good­ness sake! Filled with plants, plants, and, well, plants. I don't get it.

Or at least I didn't until I vis­ited Starke Ayres in Rosebank recently, and real­ised that the mod­ern nurs­ery is the latest line of con­sumer des­tin­a­tions to have under­gone some­thing of a meta­morph­osis. Gone is the idea that a nurs­ery is simply a place to store plants, a plant ware­house, if you wish. Now the aver­age nurs­ery is an 'exper­i­ence' ... Continued